My Paddington is seven, and has two mast cell tumours. One is on his hip, and dates from about two years ago. At the time it first appeared, the vet and I agreed that it appeared benign, but decided to remove it anyway, "just to be on the safe side". Prior to the surgery, though, we wanted to perform a blood panel on Paddington - and he got so upset by this procedure (the blood drawing) that the vet and I changed our minds. We decided that the stress of the blood panel and surgery outweighed the risk of the (slim) possibility that the tumour might be a health hazard ... and we left it there. Paddington has another mast cell tumour which appeared on his neck this past month. I took him to the vet Tuesday, and the verdict was the same. From what the vet tells me, the risk from mast cell tumours is rather low in ferrets ... and Paddington obviously does not react well to medical procedures. So, unless something major changes, we're leaving this one in place, too. It's rather small (grain of rice size), and the vet declared it to be very superficial. If worst comes to worst and the tumour does change radically, I think I'll opt for a "punch biopsy" before a full removal. The vet explained this to me as being a less invasive option, and hopefully, it wouldn't get Paddington as stressed as other medical procedures. I keep checking the "bump", though, and it looks the same .. so so far, so good! :-> - Ela Ela Heyn Harborside Mail Stop 3024 201-860-3336 [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2743]