>From:    Paulina <[log in to unmask]>
>
>My 3 year old female silver ferret, named June Bug, has grown something
>odd on the end of her tail.  There is a large round skin growth (ball
>like and hard) on the very tip of her tail.
 
Hi Paulina,
 
This sounds just like a chordoma.  My ferret Pan had one removed at the
end of January.  While it is not immediately life-threatening, if it's
reached the point where the skin is splitting then it is painful for your
ferret.  It is a cancerous growth, but generally they are not malignant
and removing the affected portion of the tail is curative.  There's some
information here:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/chordoma.html
 
And a good picture of a chordoma surrounded by fur here:
http://www.ferrets-n-limbo.org/TitusvilleFeaturedFerret.html
 
You can see how the tail looks after surgery in the top photo--my
Pan's nearly grown his fur back and soon you'd never know he lost
any of his tail.  It's a very straightforward procedure--Pan was on
an anti-inflamatory for a few days following the surgery, but otherwise
it was one of the easiest surgical recoveries I've seen.
 
This might be a coincidence, but before the surgery, Pan's appetite was
off and I was a bit worried about his weight and activity level.  After
surgery, he has plumped right up into a busy sassy weasel.  I can't say
whether the chordoma could have had an overall effect on him or not, but
I can't help but feel like the chordoma and his weight loss were
connected, even if only because the nagging pain might have interfered
with his appetite.  So I would say that's another reason to get it taken
care of sooner rather than later.  Just a gut feeling and it really
could just be coincidence, but you never know...
 
Regina
 
Regina Harrison  [log in to unmask]
http://users.rcn.com/badriya/
blog: http://badriya-z.blogspot.com/
 
"Is that my business?  Well, what is my business?  Do I know?  Did I ever
know?  Let s not go into that.  You re not human tonight, Marlowe.  Maybe
I never was or ever will be... Maybe we all get like this in the cold
half-lit world where always the wrong thing happens and never the right."
--Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister
[Posted in FML issue 4467]