Hello everyone. I brought in my 3 year old ferret Loki (4 in October) to the vet 11 days ago for occasional hind-end weakness and urinary problems. He is also thin in the chest and large in the belly. I should have noticed sooner but the change was gradual and I see him every day, and his behavior was otherwise normal. I didn't notice till it was rather pronounced. The vet's first thought on examining him was lymphoma. He had an enlarged spleen and several enlarged lymph nodes and at least three palpable abdominal masses. He went in for surgery the following day to remove a node from his neck for testing. The results just got back this past Friday, confirmed as immunoblastic polymorphous lymphoma. I will be bringing him back tomorrow for a recheck and to discuss treatment options. The surgery appears to have been hard on Loki, he was weak for several days with reduced appetite and lost weight. I finally found some treats he likes that are fairly good in general make-up (35% protein, 6% fat). I give him several of those throughout the day and they have perked him up and stopped his weight loss, but haven't reversed it. Over the weekend he also started trying to go potty quite often with little result, sometimes trying once every minute or so for several goes before squeezing out just a little pee or poop. And his energy and weight dropped a little more. I started force feeding him Medi-cal Recovery Formula early this morning and his energy is already better. I wanted advice on how to proceed. I know there are a number of chemo protocols and wanted recommendations on what people think is the best course. I'm also concerned about how hard chemo will be on him in his weakened state, and wondered whether some protocals would be easier on him, and whether we should try to build up his weight and strength first. I am concerned about waiting though as he seems to require greater and greater measures to keep him even stable let alone make any improvement, indicating the disease may be progressing too quickly to wait long. A transcript of Loki's report is here: http://www2.cs.uregina.ca/~rosloot/ferrets/loki.html Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Loki is the sweetest boy, so loving and affectionate. Also, if people could please reply to me directly or at least Cc me as well as sending replies to the List; that way I will see them as quickly as possible. Thanks in advance for any help. -- John, Caregiver to Loki, Kody and Abby With loving memories of Buddy, Cassie, Sammy, Buster, Pandora, Tommy and Jasper [Posted in FML 7524]