Dear Ulrike:
 
>I'd been asking at the vets for over 2 weeks whether Igor's lab results
>had come back and then last Friday I was finally told that the vets
>hadn't sent anything off!  I was really upset about that, I thought
>they'd automatically send tissue samples off...
>
>When Louise had done the post mortem, she phoned me and said that the
>pancreas was one big tumour (size of a big walnut or small satsuma) and
>parts of it had calcified and there were also tumours on the liver.  She
>was 95% certain that the primary tumour was the pancreas.
>
>My question is: should the vets have sent tissue samples off when I asked
>for a full post mortem?  Or do you have to tell the vets to send samples
>off if you want it doing?  Are there different kinds of tumours that can
>happen in the pancreas?  I mean stemming from different cells?  Or was it
>okay for my vets to just have a look inside and not do anything else?
 
When you ask for an autopsy, it is usually a given that tissues are sent
off to a pthologist, who is the expert in determining the cause of death
and the origin of any neoplasms that may be found.  There are a number of
possibilities for a tumor in the pancreas - could it be from the exocrine
pancreas - the digestive part, which is usually very malignant, or could
it be an insulinoma, from the endocrine (hormonal) part of the pancreas.
There is a large parapancreatic lymph node, which could be replaced by
lymphoma (which I think is most likely as a result of the description
here, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.  (That's why the microscopic
examination is so important - we'll never know which one it was.)
 
No, when you ask for an autopsy, you should get the answers - that's what
you are paying for.  Not a non-answer like "some tumor on the pancreas,
or maybe the liver".  The liver in older ferrets commonly has small
accumulations of fat within it that may be interpreted as metastatic
tumors - is that what happened here, or was there true metastasis?
 
Igor had significant symptoms and we had discussed him for some time on
the FML.  It would have been nice to know what happened to him.  I would
suggest in future dealings, be very explicit about getting a microscopic
exam by a pathologist.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3281]