Hello all!  Just a couple of questions for the vets.
 
First question: We have a sweet albino female, McKenzie, in our shelter who
we are guessing is about 3-4 years old.  She came to us in heat, and has
since been spayed.  However, she has what appears to be a scabby mole on the
back of her neck.  One of our vets said that the back of the neck is the
hardest area to do surgery on, and he wanted us to put neosporin on the mole
to see if that would make it go down.  However, it has not.  My question is,
is there any chance that the mole could be cancerous?  Should we let our vet
perform surgery to remove it, or should we ask him to do a biopsy first?  Is
there any danger to the ferret having an operation on the back of her neck?
 
Second question: We have a playful sable male, Timone, about 2 yrs old in
our shelter who was stepped on before he came to us.  He has no bladder
control, and cannot use his back legs, they just drag around behind him.  He
came to our shelter about a month after the incident, so another one of our
vets told us surgery was out of the question.  She also did not think that
steroids would help any, which several other vets concurred with.  She told
us to do physical therapy with him, and see if he would recover that way.
After doing this for a month with no improvement, I conversed with another
shelter and vet, and decided to go ahead and start him on steroids.
However, just as I was getting ready to start him on the steroids, I noticed
large patches of hair gone basically overnight.  He was missing a large
patch on his back around his right shoulder, and several small patches
around the rest of his body.  I was thinking maybe adrenal disease, but the
hair started growing back almost immediately.  The vet thought maybe it
might be a type of skin mite, and gave us Ivermectin to give him if we saw
any more patches appear.  No more patches have appeared within the last week
though.  Should he have exploratory surgery to check for adrenal disease?
Should we just go ahead and start him on the steroids?  Or should we just
wait and see?  He is such a sweetheart, but it breaks my heart because he
will play mr.  tough guy with some of the other ferrets, and try to start a
fight, and they will finish it.  So there are very few ferrets that he can
be let out with, and none that will actually play with him.
 
You can either reply to the fml, or e-mail me directly at [log in to unmask]
Thanx!
 
Dooks and kisses to all,
Shelley Knudsen
Legion of Superferrets of NE Ferret Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 1774]