Thought I would relay this story.  A few years ago I had to put down a male
sable.."Jasper" that did his best to fight cancer of the spleen.  By the
time it was diagnosed the choice was chemo or prednisolone (sp?) , to which
we chose the latter.
 
To the present: with our annual check-up and shots, a new partner at our
vets did an initial diagnosis of a tumor in Holly's spleen and checked this
against Hannah's spleen.  Luckily we asked for a second opinion by the
senior vet at the clinic (who also had previous experience with Holly).
 
The point of all this: Holly has always been considered a fairly large,
solid female sable.  The second vet knew this and upon checking her felt she
has not changed and feels no cause for alarm but we will keep a closer eye
on her.  He felt that the first vet was accurate in feeling a "larger than
normal" spleen but that had always been the case with Holly.  Comparing this
ferret to our smaller siamese only made Holly's spleen seem extra large
(Hannah is a very small, skinny gal).
 
I'm certainly not trying to disuade anyone from believing their vet,
especially with the prevalence of this disease, but this is a case where
experience with a particular animal helped.  After losing one little guy to
this disease we were almost devastated when the first vet make his claim.
If any vets out there...or others with a similar experience, have any
comments I would be interested to hear them.
 
 
Thanks and enjoy your little friends!!
 
                                      Scott and the girls
 
[Posted in FML issue 0868]