Dr. Williams wrote about Lizz' Fang: >What are we looking at as a tumor here? I wasn't there to see, so this is >just an educated guess - my first choice is a metastatic adrenal tumor - >rare, but they do happen - and when they do, they generally extend into >the liver. A lesser possibility is lymphoma - the fact that he is still >with us lessens the possibility. What I am about to write may have no relevance to this particular situation whatsoever (and I apologize for my profoundly layman's language), but I thought I'd point out that in my experience with Cully, we saw that lymphoma can cause what appear to be other types of cancers. When Cully had surgery for his adrenal, his abdominal cavity was full of lumps. Some were biopsied and were indeed lymphoma (soon after he presented the typical enlarged lymph nodes in armpits and neck as well). Examination of the removed adrenal gland showed that it was not typical adrenal cancer, but rather an invasion by the lymphoma. His pancreas was also biopsied b/c of a low blood sugar reading, and again, rather than regular islet cell tumors, the pathologist found lymphoma again. (he had a mast cell tumor removed at the same time, though that happily was benign) Cully actually lived a year, almost to the day, after that surgery; we had him on gradually increasing doses of prednisone because of the increased insulin production, but also to help retard the lymphoma's spread. We believe he finally succumbed to the lymphoma when it invaded his bone marrow, because of his extremely low white blood cell counts at the end of his life. The vet felt that the cause of death was self-evident enough that an autopsy wasn't really warranted. Again, this probably doesn't have any direct relevance to Fang's situation, but Cully's case illustrates that one cancer can act like another. Also, I would argue in favor of continuing prednisone too-- based on my experience of one, I credit the medicine with helping to prolong my ferret's life and also importantly preserve his quality of life. Regina (still sad, all these months later) Regina Harrison [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083 http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/8096 ...shadow, you're just a gallow that I hang my body from... [Posted in FML issue 3298]