[Moderator's note: Post was reformatted, but otherwise unchanged. BIG] To Anonymous Poster and Tavvi: Well, I see three things in your post to talk about, the tail tumor, the high lymphocyte count, and the blood in the urine. First the tail tumor (for everyone who isn't familiar with this relative ly common ferret neoplasm. Most of the tumors (95%) coming off of the tail of the ferret are called chordomas. They appear as swellings onthe end of the tail, and look like little clubs (was Ankylosaurus the dinosaur which had a club on the end of it's tail?). The tumors arise from remnants of a primitive type of tissue which develops into the spinal cord during development of the ferret fetus, known as notochord. The tumors are invariably benign, when developing on the end of the tail, although I have seen a few develop in the neck vertebrae, which resulted in motor impairment and eventual euthanasia of the two animals which had them. The good part about the tail chordomas is that all you have to do is take off the end of the tail, and the ferrets go on, as good as new. High lymphocyte counts: Now there is no one thing that can cause a high lymphocyte count in a ferret, and they are very common. The most common cause of elevated lymphocyte counts in any animal is a chronic smouldering infection, and we all know that ferrets as they get older 3+ all have Helicobacter infections of the stomach that can do this. Although some vets have claimed that a high lymphocyte count is seen in animals with early lymphosarcoma, I think that you have to be very careful with this interpretation - a lot of these animals with lymphosarcoma also have Helicobacter infection, so that will throw your analysis off from the start. Blood in the urine - this may indicate either an infection in the urinary tract, or the presence of small stones or sand-like material in the urine (and if there is an infection which has been going on for a while, this may contribute to the high lymphocyte count (remember the "chronic smouldering infection"? I would suggest a 10-14 day course of Amoxicillin (very well tolerated by ferrets) to be on the safe side here - urinary tract infections can rapidly get serious in female ferrets. Then a repeat urinalysis, actually two spaced a few days apart. If there is no more sign of blood, then we can quit. If the blood is still there, then we go with a chemistry panel, taking a good look at the kidney function, another CBC, and consider some X-rays of the abdomen to look for stones. But let's try the antibiotics and a few more urinalyses first. BTW - when we look at lymphocyte counts, it also helps to know how old the patient is - older patients are more likely to have Helicobacter infections than younger ones. Bruce Williams [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1083]