Melanoma is a malignancy.  if it is melanoma this worries me (though I
am not a vet and instead am someone with 20 years of ferret experience)
since it was in two places.  There are other forms of skin growths which
ferrets get.  One type, mast cell tumor, is virtually always (an
exception did occur once and wound up in a pathology collection) benign
in ferrets.  In some other animals mast cell tumors tend to be malignant
so vets who don't know ferrets sometimes panic and people have even
destroyed ferrets who just had mast cell tumors (without cause) thinking
it was a kindness because they assumed they'd be really bad in ferrets
even though they aren't.
 
Insulinoma in ferrets ALMOST NEVER spreads to other organs and can be
rather slow growing in realtion to ferret life spans.  The pathology
done on the samples will tell if it is anything besides insulinoma.
 
Most adrenal growths are BENIGN and like with the others superfiscial
observation alone will NOT tell you what type of growth is there.  One
of the forms of malignancy that can arise can spread to other organs but
almost never does so.
 
Don't panic; wait for the pathology results to arrive from the biopsies.
Meanwhile, use good post-op care and read up on that since that can make
the difference between survival and death.  Do NOT give your ferret any
meds except those the vet okays for the ferret now, do not allow any
climbing (even ramps), do not use litter (going instead with paper while
the incision is open), etc.
 
You can learn about these things at these sites:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
and if you go to the FML Archives
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html
and search under "Golden Oldie" you will find a very helpful vet post
about what is not "cancer".
[Posted in FML issue 3927]