To Jen Marie -
 
>I just got off the phone with Jen & She says that Tiki is hard from the
>penile sheath to the anus-- sort of a hard knot shaped like a finger.  He
>now has begun to squirm if the area is examined and the hard mass seems
>to have gotten larger.  He appears to have difficulty in going to the
>bathroom, & when he is successful, his bowel movements are thinne r &
>less than usual, although his appetite is normal and so is his behavior.
>He is also leaking fluid from his penis...  not as if to mark territory,
>but randomly, as he walks & plays, etc....
 
     Jen - first, I would make sure that you are not feeling the os penis
(ferrets, like several other mammals have bones within the penis).
Something else that I would be concerned about is a tumor of the penile
sheath.  Ferrets have numerous cysts and tumors fo the scent glands in this
area.  There is a fairly high rate of malignant skin tumors in this area
(higher than any other spot on the body), so I think that a biopsy is
definitely warranted in this case.
 
Best of luck,
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
Dept. of Vet Path, AFIP
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Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
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[Posted in FML issue 1291]