To Anne Charbonnea - Lets calm down again.....  First, Victor.  I see a
lot of mesenteric steatitis and granulomatous inflammation - at first I
thought it might be due to Vitamin E, but it's extremely common in ferrets -
I'm not sure what causes it outside of abdominal surgery - had Victor every
been operated on before?  Occaisonally little outgowths fo mesenteric fat
will twist on themselves, shut off the blood supply and die off, but the body
generally either walls it off or takes care of it somehow.  Anyway - I don't
hink hit has anything to do with Vitamin E anymore.
 
    Now for Adele.  All that I see is a mild lymphocytosis.  This is NOT
indicative of lymphosarcoma - it is more commonly seen with chronic
Helicobacter infection in the stomach.  There is no reason to start any
chemotherapy unless a surgical biopsy of a lymph node or another organ
comes back with a diagnosis of lymphosarcoma.  Even the vets who initially
started the story about doing chemo after you see elevated lymphocytes in
the blood have realized that it's just too hasty.  If there are enlarged
lymph nodes, that's one thing.  But one increased value on a lymphocyte
count is just not enough evidence to diagnose lymphosarcoma.  I would hold
off for more evidence than just lymphocytosis.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM  [log in to unmask]  OR  [log in to unmask]
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Department of Veterinary Pathology
[log in to unmask]               Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]             Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
(202) 782-2600/2602
[Posted in FML issue 1193]