From:
Matt Staroscik
Date: 2002-05-24 09:17:00 UTC
Subject: Tail tumor answers
At 04:01 PM 5/24/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>I have a ferret that has a tumour on the very tip of her tail, it has
>not grown any bigger, though its pretty awefull.
>The vet said to remove it could cause more problems than its worth
>and as its not grown or got infected to leave it be and to only have
>it removed if it becomes troublesom, infected or bigger. Has any one
>experienced this type of tumour on the tail and what was the outcome?
We just dealt with this last week.
http://washingtonferret.org/pics/misc/tail_tip_tumor.jpg
http://washingtonferret.org/pics/misc/tail_tip_bandage.jpg
Our ferret Eris had grown the tumor about a year ago. (I believe it was
called a "chordoma.") Our vet counseled us to leave it be unless it started
growing bigger or causing her discomfort. Recently it did start to grow
slowly, so we had it removed, a decision the surgeon was all for.
The procedure took only 6 minutes of anasthesia and cost about $100. The
surgeon removed about 1.5 cm of tail, or 2.5 of the bones. (sorry, I don't
know the technical term!)
We elected not to get a biopsy done. The surgeon did not think it was
malignant, and further if it was there would really be nothing we could do.
Eris bounced back from the surgery immediately, and she gets her bandage
off tomorrow. Stitches come out in another week. She has shown no interest
in chewing on her tail, and aside from a couple of days of tenderness she
has shown no discomfort from the procedure.
Hope this helps!
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Matt Staroscik * KF6IYW * mstar@s... * http://wrongcrowd.com
"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."
-- Leon Trotsky