I have two questions:
 
1. I have a very old (the vet thinks 7 or 8 years) ferret with multiple
problems.  His heart is enlarged, his spleen is large and oddly shaped (it
seems to make a 90 degree turn in there), a number of lumps which are
probably tumors (as seen on an x-ray).  He probably has insulinoma or
something like that.  He also has two huge mast cell tumors that we can't
remove, since he can't be anesthetized.  Most of the time, they're no
problem, but from time to time they break open (I don't know if they do this
on their own, if he scraped it or what) and ooze blood and generally look
really disgusting.  Is there anything I can do to make them less of a bother
(they seem to be itchy) and either stop bleeding or ensure that they won't
get infected?
 
2. I have a 4 year old MF female of my own that gets a recurring sore on
her side.  It ranges from a slight bumpiness to the skin and a slightly
darker pink color than the rest of the skin, to a deep black/red sore,
surrounded by a deep red circle around it.  It comes and goes.  I thought
it might have been the beginning of a mast cell tumor, but it's not raised,
particularly, just a little bumpy.  The vet thought it was from an allergy
and prescribed Baytril.  After taking the antibiotic, the redness went away
and it all faded down to the slightly bumpy, slightly pinker skin.  Now that
she's off the Baytril, it's come back to that awful-looking sore (it looks
like the surrounding skin gets infected).  I started her back on Baytril,
and it shrunk immediately.  Does anyone have a suggestion of what to do to
(a) stop it from occurring again (b) stop it from itching (assuming it *is*
an allergy and not some weird variant of a mast cell tumor) (c) keep it from
getting so sore and red?  Do mast cell tumors start like this?  What she has
doesn't look *anything* like what the old guy has.
 
--Barb--
[Posted in FML issue 2391]