Thomas wrote:
>Hey FML'ers,
>Major Burns has recently developed a bump on his nose...
Well, yesterday, I noticed the bump has overnight grown larger, so that now
he looks like a little rhinocerous. Today, the vet aspirated a little
clear fluid from it, not much. No pus, and since its been a little time in
forming, I'm leaning not toward an insect bite either...
>Do any of you have any experience with this phenomenon in ferrets? ...
Hi Tuck
First of all, I am not a vet - only a shelter, so I can't tell you for sure
if the two types of masses that I have seen are similar to Major Burns -
but I can relate our experiences..
We had one little fellow come into the shelter with a bump on his lip - it
was hard, and seemed to be growing. Surgery to remove the growth was
performed and a biopsy of the removed mass and surrounding tissue was
performed. He was lucky - it was benign and something called a peripheral
nerve sheath tumor. Dr. Williams said that the location of the growth was
unusual - these are normally located around the eyes, not on the lip.
Rascal made a full recovery.
The second ferret, female this time came into the shelter with a cagemate.
A couple days after being here, I noticed what looked like a bump on her
face, halfway between the nose and eyes. These two girls played roughly
with each other, and it did look like someone had gotten a little rough, so
I put a topical cream on it and watched. Within 2 days, the tiny bump had
grown to a significant size. We decided to do surgery. Again, we did a
biopsy on the mass and tissue. What the results were was startling to us:
Squamous cell carcinoma. Squamous Cell Carcinomas are fast growing cancers
and usually have a poor outlook, long term. Unusual location again - from
what I understood, these are mostly in/around the mouth. Dr. Williams said
that the recovery should be complete, without recurrance, because the
entire tumor and "roots" were removed. To date, Katie and Rascal are doing
well (Rascal's surgery was 12/98, Katie's was 4/99).
Its also possible that this is a mast cell tumor or some kind of cyst - but
if it were me, I would have the vets surgically remove it - you never know.
For us, the costs of surgery were between $100 and $200 US dollars - but to
make the fuzzy more comfortable and to ease my worries about the shelter
ferrets, its always worth it for me.
Hope Major Burns does well, and if your vet would like to contact mine
about how they performed the surgery on Rascal and Katie, please feel
free to email me privately.
Lisa, Head Ferret
The Ferret Haven "By-the-Sea"
URL: http: www.kozykingdom.com/ferrethaven
Want to help The Ferret Haven By-the-Sea? Register at iGive.com
by cutting and pasting this link:
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[Posted in FML issue 2750]
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