Dear Lorie,
 
>Picked Smokey up this afternoon ... He was still very sleepy from his
>surgery this morning.... The Vet was not able to remove all of the tumor
>(or mass).  It seems the tumor was not encapsulated, but had grown to
>several things, his intestine, sphincter muscle were some parts.  the Vet
>thought it might have started glandular, maybe remnants of anal gland that
>was left.  All of this is still a guess until the histopathology comes back
>in about 10-14 days.
 
10-14 days - that's a long time.
 
At any rate - I think that you and the vet are right - in this location, it
usually is a tumor, and unfortunately, they are not usually good ones.  The
most common neoplasm I see next to the anus is a malignancy of the scent
glands that populate this area, known as an apocrine gland adenocarcinoma.
These neoplasms are highly aggressive, and often infiltrate the adjacent
tissues and metastasize to lymph nodes.  They tend to regrow quite quickly
after surgery.
 
Another possibility is lymphosarcoma, and that carries even a worse
prognosis.  Let's not forget squamous cell carcinoma, which I have seen in
the perivulvar skin of two females - although a malignancy, one that grows
much more slowly.
 
The fact that your vet had to take it out in pieces may affect the diagnosis,
if the tissue goes to a pathologist who doesn't do a lot of ferret work.
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it's always better to know what
you're up against.....
 
With fingers crossed for luck,
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
Dept. of Veterinary Pathology               [log in to unmask]
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
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[Posted in FML issue 1710]