First, I want to again thank the many, many people who emailed good wishes
and/or personal experiences they had with abdominal lumps in their ferrets.
I tried to respond to everyone personally, but if I wasn't able to thank
you personally, I hope you will accept a group-thanks!
 
Max went to see Dr. Weiss in his new location this evening, where I am sad
to report that it does not look like an enlarged spleen after all.  In
fact, Dr. Weiss doesn't know WHAT this is.  He seemed quite surprised at
the location and size of this.  After much consideration, we have decided
to go forward with exploratory surgery at Dr. Weiss' recommendation.
Unfortunately, there is a very high possibility that we're looking at
lymphoma/lymphosarcoma.  We hope to get him into surgery this week.
 
After doing much research on all of the possibilities, I am not surprised
by Dr. Weiss' analysis.  Max has been a bit more lethargic lately and has
definitely begun to lose weight.  So my new request from little Max for all
you ferret experts/lovers out there is this: Does ANYONE have a YUMMY duck
soup recipe?  We have been syringe-feeding him our own recipe based on
Deborah Jeans' Practical Guide to Ferret Care, but it is like pulling teeth
to get him to take it!!  Honestly, we go through more towels cleaning off
the food that didn't quite make it than I care to think about.  I hate to
put him through such unpleasantness, especially since he has to go through
another surgery.  So instead of going through WWF Smackdown 2000 again, we
would LOVE to find a recipe that he will just lap up on his own!!
 
As always, feel free to respond privately.
 
Many, many, many thanks in advance.  I was positively overwhelmed by the
amount of email I received from well-wishers for our little trooper.
 
Best-
Tamara & Jeff & the Three Mustelidteers (Ginger, Max,
and Moonshine)
[Posted in FML issue 3003]