To Elton and Nancy Sanders:
 
>My six year old silver has three lumps, one on her jaw, the second on her
>neck and the thrid on under her front leg.  All three are on the same side.
>The vet(s) took x-rays, nothing inside was abmormal.  The lumps show no
>bacteria nor solid matter.
 
I don't think that you can tell what is inside a lump from an X-ray....I
would suggest wither removing the lumps and send them off to a pathologist
for microscopic examinatin, or sticking a small needle inside them,
aspirating a bit fo the material, and sending that off to a pathologist.  I
don't think that an X-ray is sufficient in the case of lumps.
 
I am concerned about the jaw lump.  The most common lump on the ferret jaw
in my experience is a squamous cell carcinoma - a malignant tumor that if
removed early, can be cured.  If left to grow - they often infiltrate the
jaw and quickly progress beyond a surgical cure.
 
Of course, if all three lumps are of the same origin, then I would have to
consider lymphosarcoma, as lymph nodes are present in all three of these
sites.
 
The take-home message is - don't let your vet talk you out of biopsying
these tumors - three tumors is three too many to ignore....
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
Dept. of Veterinary Pathology               [log in to unmask]
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1679]