Happy Holidays to all...I wanted to let anyone else on the list who may be
experiencing the same problem as a bone tumor on the skull...or who may
experience it in the future, that there is a possiblity that something
*CAN* be done.
 
Obviously it would depend greatly on the position of the tumor, etc., but
surgury can be done.
 
Tempest had a large bone tumor that appeared suddenly (I think it had
taken time to develop, but was hiding underneath the thick muscle until it
suddenly popped through) and was growing.  My new vet never questioned my
judgement, (my previous vet did), and there was never any question in her
mind that surgury should be done.  She didn't want to take the chance of
just sawing it off at the stem and having it be malignant and not having
gotten malignant cells beneath.  Tempest was having no other problems at
the time, but if it kept growing, even if it wasn't malignant, things would
get bad.
 
I did research, she did research.  My ferrets were the first ferrets she'd
really had experience with.  Neither of us found any information on this
kind of problem, we were told that nothing could be done, and nothing
should be tried...just keep Tempest comfortable as long as possible.
Neither of us felt that was good enough.  She went back to her old books
about skull and brain surgury on other animals and devised a plan.  She was
absolutely honest about it with me at all stages, including the risk of at
the very least serious brain injury since she hadn't done anything like
this before and she was going to remove part of the skull.  I had full
control at any point to say no.
 
A sad, but fortunate thing happened.  Rocky died from complecations after
adrenal/insulinoma surgury.  I told her to go ahead and practice for
Tempest's surgury on him.  She was very grateful...and told me after she
had practiced, and before Tempest's surgury that it had saved Tempest's
life as well.
 
The surgury went very well, Tempest suffered *no* ill effects (other than
being somewhat stressed and annoyed at the bandage...I on the other hand
suffered much more :-P) and today is his same old self (okay, he was his
same old self within a few days actually).
 
The tumor was benign, thankfully.
 
So while the surgury may not work for all types/locations of skull
problems, there is not only a vet out there with the guts to do something
about bone tumors on the skull...but has done one successful surgury.
The practice was the vital part to it.  We got some good pictures of the
proceedure as well, and she is in the process of writing it up.  But both
she and I would be happy to talk to people that need help with the problem
(including after-care tips!)
 
Happy Holidays from Tempest, me and the other critters, and my deep thanks
to Rocky for his contribution, not only to Tempest's life, but hopefully to
others as well.
 
Sue
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[Posted in FML issue 2909]