I have learned over and over again that we have never "seen it all", no matter how many years experience we have. I have had two rare experiences with my ferrets over the last month. The first was a mesenteric (intestines) torsion, about a month ago. We have all heard of abdominal torsions in dogs (and cattle), but intestinal torsions are not so common. My vet had never seen either type in a ferret before. It happened so quickly and we have no idea what could have caused it. The ferret became very lethargic, so I called my vet clinic to have the overnight tech pull his records to see what his BG had been a few days prior. The notes said it was 70 but that it was not a reliable reading. So, I ran him to my vet clinic to get a quick BG check. Little did I know what was about to happen. We got there and his BG was 107. In the meantime, one of the other vets came in for an emergency, and we watched as the ferret continued to go downhill and was becoming more and more in pain. His temp was dropping also. Dr. M, called my primary ferret vet at home. He said that he had never seen a torsion in a ferret but that was the only thing it could possibly be. He recommended immediate emergency surgery. I was in the back hospital area the entire time, so was sitting just outside the surgery. Within a couple of minutes after starting, she came to get me. His intestines had twisted in three different places and were already black/dead. It was very ugly looking. There was no saving him so we euthanized immediately. A quick trip to get a BG check turned into a major drama, but I realized it all happened exactly as it should have. Had I not taken him in when I did, he would have been in excruciating pain and I likely would have been making a trip in the middle of the night. Don't fight your instincts. The second was a chyle leak and was just this past week. Circumstances led us to do an exploratory on one of my ferrets. It all started out because he had a nasty growth near the tip of his tail (not a chordoma or a MCT). My vet had planned to do a quickie removal the week before, but on examination decided there was a whole bunch wrong so we rescheduled to do an exploratory. This was mostly because his BG was 40 (it has never been higher than that in all the months I have had him, despite regular feedings and medications), and a mass that had been felt a few months prior had increased in size. A surgery was attempted in May but he "died" on the table within about two minutes, before the incision was made, so he was revived and the surgery was cancelled. This time, my vet felt we had to try again because in addition to the tail growth and the abdominal mass, he was feeling squishy. So, the surgery was done, using a mask this time instead of intubation. He removed his left adrenal, two large pancratic tumors, took a biopsy from the mass in the abdomen (unable to remove), and removed the growth from his tail. The right adrenal needed removing also but there was no time as his temp dropped dangerously low. The weird thing that was found was a chyle leak, again something my vet had never seen in a ferret. My vet described it as looking like milk with blood in it. Chyle is normal and is composed of lymph and emulsified fats, or free fatty acids. It is formed in the small intestines during digestion. What's not normal is for it to be leaking into the abdominal cavity. First on the list of causes is lymphoma. So now we have a mass + chyle leak = likely lymphoma. All that was there was removed. We will check again in two weeks to see if any more has leaked. If it has reoccurred, cytology will likely be done, as well as pathology on the biopsy. If we are pretty certain it is lymphoma, I will probably just go to supportive care. Unfortunately, he is not recovering very quickly. After five days, he is still very weak and can only take a step or two at the time. I have increased his pred again (after beginning to wean him off) to see if that will help any. If it's lymphoma, likely we will see some improvement with the pred. So, never think you've seen it all and always go with your gut. Katharine Florida [Posted in FML 6889]