Just want to throw this out to see if anyone has any brilliant thoughts on
this to share.  Obviously, this ferret will be going to the vet but it
is such an unusual case, I thought I would see if anyone has any ideas.
Ferret is a 2.5 year old MF male.  Been fed cat food, kept in small, dirty
cage.  He is thin but not dangerously so.
 
The real issue is his tail..  he is missing about the last 2 inches of his
tail... and at the end is a "ball" of tissue (?)... It almost looks and
feels like a pocket of infection but it's not.  We suspect it may be some
form of cancer, possibly melanoma... the reason being how he lost the tip
of his tail.
 
According to the owner, about 1.5 years ago, his kids put the ferret in the
microwave oven and turned it on.  He doesn't know for sure how long it was
in there... but long enough for the end of his tail to burn off.  According
to him, it healed normally... and this knot has grown in over the past
year.
 
Our thoughts here include:
The sun rays which cause melanoma are magnified by how much in a microwave
oven?
 
If it is cancerous... is amputating more of his tail an option to prevent
it from spreading?
 
Since a microwave oven cooks from the inside... and this damage was done to
his tail... what about his internal organs?
 
He will be going to the vet in the next couple of days... but since this is
obviously an unusual case..  I thought I would see if anyone out there has
any experience in such a thing, any knowledge or theories to pass on etc?
[Posted in FML issue 3062]