I took Squirt to the vet last night for a newly-discovered lump on her tail.
I figured it was probably a mast cell tumor.  The vet did a needle aspirate
and looked at the cells right there; she told me there were no mast cells in
the sample.  She said it looked like a fibrous tumor... and that the end of
my poor baby's tail must come off!  As of tomorrow (Friday) she will be a
stump-tail.
 
But the fact that she's losing the end of her tail is insignificant next to
the vet's statement that it's a 50-50 shot as to whether or not this thing
is cancerous.  She also couldn't tell me how invasive it would be if it does
turn out to be cancerous -- she said with fibrocarcinomas it's just too
variable to give a definite answer before looking at the pathology report.
Now I really am upset.
 
Can someone give me more info on fibromas vs fibrocarcinomas?  We will
probably have to wait about a week for the pathology report to come back.  I
had never heard of such a tumor in ferrets -- only mast cell tumors.  I am
relatively in the dark here and not happy. :(:(:(
 
-Tasha
The development of our cerebral cortex has been the greatest achievement of
the evolutionary processes.  Big deal.
                                        -- Fox Mulder, FBI
[Posted in FML issue 2117]