Melanoma is a malignancy. if it is melanoma this worries me (though I am not a vet and instead am someone with 20 years of ferret experience) since it was in two places. There are other forms of skin growths which ferrets get. One type, mast cell tumor, is virtually always (an exception did occur once and wound up in a pathology collection) benign in ferrets. In some other animals mast cell tumors tend to be malignant so vets who don't know ferrets sometimes panic and people have even destroyed ferrets who just had mast cell tumors (without cause) thinking it was a kindness because they assumed they'd be really bad in ferrets even though they aren't. Insulinoma in ferrets ALMOST NEVER spreads to other organs and can be rather slow growing in realtion to ferret life spans. The pathology done on the samples will tell if it is anything besides insulinoma. Most adrenal growths are BENIGN and like with the others superfiscial observation alone will NOT tell you what type of growth is there. One of the forms of malignancy that can arise can spread to other organs but almost never does so. Don't panic; wait for the pathology results to arrive from the biopsies. Meanwhile, use good post-op care and read up on that since that can make the difference between survival and death. Do NOT give your ferret any meds except those the vet okays for the ferret now, do not allow any climbing (even ramps), do not use litter (going instead with paper while the incision is open), etc. You can learn about these things at these sites: http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth and if you go to the FML Archives http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html and search under "Golden Oldie" you will find a very helpful vet post about what is not "cancer". [Posted in FML issue 3927]