There's so often sad storied on the net, I thought I should post the great
news from this end!
 
I scheduled Fez to have a lump removed on Tuesday; the lump was internal
(required some poking and prodding to feel it), and was in his hind
quarters.  After the surgery Dr.  T said the lump had been pressed right up
against the rectum (and had actually pushed through the surrounding muscle
tissue), and was also pressed against some of the nerve fibers running
around the area.  He was really worried beforehand that Fez might lose some
bowel control, since there are so many nerves going through that area that
he would have to try and avoid.  Not to mention the fear of infection when
doing surgery near that area.  Plus, since the mass was pressing against the
rectum, he wasn't able tp remove it all - we were all pretty worried about
having part of it left in, since we didn't know whether it was malignant or
not.
 
But we got the path reports in today, and we're jumping for joy - the lump
wasn't cancerous at all.  The pathologist called it pyrogranulometis -
basically, it was some sort of chronic abcess - a lump of old white blood
cells, degenerated old tissue, and layers and layers of scar tissue.  The
vet said it was a pretty uncommon location for such a thing, and we're not
sure what set it off initially - there was no bacteria or fungus they could
find.  It's possible there had been some anal sack tissue left behind that
started it all (he's a MF), but if so they couldn't recognize it.  Dr.  T.
suggested that maybe Fez ate something fibrous and a fiber pushed through
the rectum and started it off, or he had a minor bruising injury that the
body overreacted to.  No way of knowing at this point.
 
But, all that really matters is that it isn't cancer (so the tissue left
behind shouldn't matter), he hasn't had any infection or other
post-surgerical problems, he's up and about, and he retained complete
control of his bodily functions!  (We'd have loved him regardless, but an
incontinent ferret would not be a very happy critter...).  So, we're all
dooking for joy here!  We even let Fez sniff some of his buddies today (we
let him walk about yesterday, but we're following him everywhere he goes to
make sure he doesn't overdo it....).
 
I have to highly recommend our vet (Carl Tomaschke, of Seneca Animal
Hospital) to anyone in the WNY area, for what must have been a pretty tricky
surgery.  Fez didn't even show any real bruising (Dr.  T thought he might,
given how he had to keep pushing nerve fibers out of the way), and was up
and alert (and HUNGRY!) that same afternoon.  The only problem Fez has shown
is that he's a little cold with all that fur shaved off....
 
-rochelle
[Posted in FML issue 1406]