From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2004-02-08 20:59:30 UTC
Subject: Pertwee necropsy report
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-Id: <20040208155930.0a76cd21@nyssa>
Hi, everyone,
Here are the contents of Pertwee's necropsy report:
History:
According to the history provided the ferret submitted died yesterday. The ferret went into cardiac arrest five hours after recovering from anesthesia for a skin mass removal and teeth cleaning. The ferret was apparently moving around and alert after anesthesia.
Gross Necropsy:
The approximately 750gm ferret is in good to thin body condition and 5% dehydrated. There is approximately 100ml of blood free in the abdominal cavity. There is a 9x9cm diameter multinodular mass located and attached to the right river love. On cut sections there are large zones of necrosis within the neoplastic tissue.
Histopathology findings:
Sections of the ferret liver are examined. In the liver there are multinodular masses within the parenchyma that are invasive and caused marked compression of the adjacent normal hepatic parenchyma. The mass of neoplastic epithelial cells is arranged in thick cords (up to four cells thick) and occasional sheets of polygonal cells that have a high nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio and show moderate to abundant pleomorphism and anisokeryosis. The round to oval nuclei have marginated chromatin and large prominent nucleoli. The cytoplasm is eosinophilic and lightly granular with occasional small clear vacuoles. There are 1-2 mitotic figures in each high power field. Large zones of coagulative necrosis are associated with the edges of the neoplastic infiltrates.
Morphological diagnosis: Liver; hepatocellular carcinoma
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Plain English: Pertwee died of liver cancer. There was nothing we could have done to prevent it.
All the best,
Caity and the super seven