I have had a few ferrets (personal and rescue) that have had chordomas
and I have always had them removed.
 
Like Charlie, the chordomas never seemed to bother the ferrets...until
one day....
 
It was the morning Mr. Murphy was going to the vet to have his chordoma
removed and he had walked on to a little side table beside the couch.
When I walked in the room he jumped down to see me but as he did his
chordoma caught between the VERY small (1-1.5 cm) space between the top
ledge of the table and the wall.  I am so thankful that I was there... I
*think* he was more scared than in pain since he was screaming for the
matter of seconds that he was hanging by his tail but fine once I helped
him.  Needless to say that table is not so close to the wall now...
 
Of all of the ferrets I have cared for after chordoma surgery I have only
seen one who was in obvious discomfort.  His tail had gotten infected
under the bandages.  This cleared up quite fast with vigilant daily
cleanings and the infected bit fell off since it had become necrotic.
The remainder of the post-op chordoma ferrets healed up quite quickly.
All of the ferrets manage fine with a shorter tail and I must say it
looks extremely cute when they run through tubes and wag their stubby
tails!!
 
In my opinion, as long as Charlie is a good surgical candidate then a
surgery now could not only prevent a future potential injury but may also
prevent a more difficult surgery later.  Because several vertebrae have
to be amputated above the chordoma, if this chordoma continues to grow
and Charlie requires an amputation in the future the surgery may require
more caudal vertebrae to be removed.  (I am not a vet yet, so vets if I'm
wrong please let FMLers know!!)
 
Unfortunately, we can not explain to animals that if we put them through
surgery and a bit of discomfort now it may save them some more discomfort
later...I wish we could.
 
Shelby Kimura
www.ferrets.ca
[Posted in FML issue 3891]