FERRET-SEARCH@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG
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Date: | Mon, 29 Mar 2004 16:55:58 -0500 |
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>From: Paulina <[log in to unmask]>
>
>My 3 year old female silver ferret, named June Bug, has grown something
>odd on the end of her tail. There is a large round skin growth (ball
>like and hard) on the very tip of her tail.
Hi Paulina,
This sounds just like a chordoma. My ferret Pan had one removed at the
end of January. While it is not immediately life-threatening, if it's
reached the point where the skin is splitting then it is painful for your
ferret. It is a cancerous growth, but generally they are not malignant
and removing the affected portion of the tail is curative. There's some
information here:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/chordoma.html
And a good picture of a chordoma surrounded by fur here:
http://www.ferrets-n-limbo.org/TitusvilleFeaturedFerret.html
You can see how the tail looks after surgery in the top photo--my
Pan's nearly grown his fur back and soon you'd never know he lost
any of his tail. It's a very straightforward procedure--Pan was on
an anti-inflamatory for a few days following the surgery, but otherwise
it was one of the easiest surgical recoveries I've seen.
This might be a coincidence, but before the surgery, Pan's appetite was
off and I was a bit worried about his weight and activity level. After
surgery, he has plumped right up into a busy sassy weasel. I can't say
whether the chordoma could have had an overall effect on him or not, but
I can't help but feel like the chordoma and his weight loss were
connected, even if only because the nagging pain might have interfered
with his appetite. So I would say that's another reason to get it taken
care of sooner rather than later. Just a gut feeling and it really
could just be coincidence, but you never know...
Regina
Regina Harrison [log in to unmask]
http://users.rcn.com/badriya/
blog: http://badriya-z.blogspot.com/
"Is that my business? Well, what is my business? Do I know? Did I ever
know? Let s not go into that. You re not human tonight, Marlowe. Maybe
I never was or ever will be... Maybe we all get like this in the cold
half-lit world where always the wrong thing happens and never the right."
--Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister
[Posted in FML issue 4467]
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