We brought one of our ferrets, Falstaff, into the vet because things "just weren't quite right". He had had a loose stool a few days ago, but by the time we figured out which ferret it was, he was getting better, so we assumed it was just a bug (I'd had one a few days earlier, so it seemed logical). But he seemed to be eating less than we'd have liked, and his hind legs were occaisonally slipping on the linoleum, so . . . He's got a minor case of insulinoma, which I suspected (minor, as there have been no seizures, spaciness, drooling, pawing at mouth, etc.). But more worrisome was a mass in his abdomen that the vet palpated. She had said his spleen was enlarged, so put him under iso to do an aspirate - and while under, felt this other mass (it wasn't noticeable, even to her, until he was under - which means we also don't know how long its been there. It's been 5-6 months since his last routine vet visit, though). The lump is not part of his spleen, its not his adrenal, and its not on his pancreas. It's quite sizeable, and the vet was afraid of doing a biopsy for fear of it rupturing. Obviously, we'll need to have exploratory done, but we're wondering if anyone has any suggestions about what we're facing. His sire had lymphoma at age 3-4 (diagnosed after being bred, obviously), so that's my first guess. However, no other lymph nodes are enlarged, so there aren't other symptoms supporting that. At the moment, we're waiting on the spleen aspirate, and a blood panel, and we may want to increase his blood glucose levels before we actually do surgery, so we're in temporary limbo. In the meantime, however, has anyone seen something else that would present like this? -------------------------------------------------------- Rochelle Newman [log in to unmask] Assistant Professor (319) 335-2417 (office) Department of Psychology (319) 335-1979 (lab) University of Iowa (319) 335-0191 (fax) 11 Seashore Hall E Iowa City, IA 52242-1407 http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/Newman.html -------------------------------------------------------- [Posted in FML issue 2412]