Just experienced something that I want to share with you all.  Last Saturday
we adopted 2 more ferrets - Nicky and Scotty.  I was concerned from the
start about Nicky, a 5 year old neutered male, because he was very thin and
his fur was dull and thin as well.  In his lower abdomen I felt a fairly
hard mass.  Despite all this, he was lively and active and did not seem to
be in any distress.  My vet suspected a tumor and today he performed
exploratory surgery.  He found nothing within the abdominal cavity, but the
stomach contained a big, hard mass.  I sat through the surgery, and when my
vet opened the stomach, we were both shocked to see a huge mass of hardened
hair - a furball that measured 3 inches long and slightly more than 1 inch
wide.  Poor Nicky had been suffering from malnutrition simply because his
stomach was so full of hair that he had no room to put much food.  He did
not have a history of vomitting nor diarrhea nor constipation.  Miraculously
everything had been functioning properly to this point, he was just not
eating enough.
 
Joanie Williams at Ferret Haven
[Posted in FML issue 1711]