something a lot of FHL and FML members have encountered in ferrets and
had removed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21826161

>Lab Anim Res. 2011 Mar;27(1):53-7. Epub 2011 Mar 25.
>
>Chordoma in the tail of a ferret.
>
>Cho ES, Kim JY, Ryu SY, Jung JY, Park BK, Son HY.
>
>Source
>College of Veterinary Medicine & Graduate School of New Drug Discovery
>and Development, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of
>Korea.
>
>Abstract
>A chordoma is an uncommon tumor that originates from the remnants
>of the notochord and most commonly involves the cranial and caudal
>regions of the axial skeleton. Chordoma has been described in
>laboratory animals such as dogs, rats, minks, and ferrets. This report
>describes a case of a chordoma in the tail of a ferret. Grossly, a
>grayish-white, expansile, subcutaneous soft-tissue mass was observed
>in the tail. Histopathologically, the mass was a loosely placed,
>nodular, unencapsulated neoplasm within the dermis. In the mass,
>tumor lobules were intermingled with fibrous tissues. Fibrous tissues
>contained abundant extracellular basophilic material that was
>consistent with mucin. The tumor was composed of a close pack of
>adipocyte-like vacuolated cells (physaliferous cells). The cells were
>centrally or eccentrically located round nuclei and eosinophilic
>cytoplasm with large vacuoles. Immunohistologically, neoplastic cells
>were positive for vimentin and S-100 protein. Based on histopathologic
>findings and special staining characteristics, this case was diagnosed
>as chordoma.
>
>PMID: 21826161 [PubMed - in process]

info on them:
http://www.afip.org/consultation/vetpath/ferrets/chordoma.html

Pet food incident tracking:

<http://www.animalpharmnews.com/productsectors/feedadditives/US-unveils-new-pet-food-incident-tracking-system-319372?autnRef=/contentstore/animalpharmnews/codex/fdfa7a35-bcdd-11e0-ae40-ed65f51b1d22.xml>
[Login required for above but information is also available at the
links Sukie gives below. BIG]

See:
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/ucm266207.htm

<http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForFederalStateandLocalOfficials/Meetings/UCM179210.pdf>

<http://www.ahi.org/archives/2011/08/the-partnership-for-food-protection-fda-establish-petnet-via-feedstuffs/>

Pet Net is NOT a great name choice, though it sounds good, since it
looks like it is already used by at least two other things.

http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=19471
Immiticide (melarsomine dihydrochloride) shortage becomes an outage.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html

"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 7150]