From:
redgiraffe10@yahoo.com
Date: 2004-04-14 17:48:53 UTC
Subject: Cystic Lymph Nodes...anyone familar?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <3595755.1081964933546.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Hello Everyone,
I am actually reposting this message becuase I haven't gotten any responses and thought I would try again. To introduce myself quickly, my name is Nicole and I am the proud owner of 3 ferrets: Murphy, Malcolm, and Molly. I am a second year student in veterinary school and I was referred to this web site from a fellow student and ferret owner.
Here is my situation. Molly, my only female ferret, has been a little "off" to me lately. I adopted her from the humane society last summer, so we have no idea of her age, (my best guess is that she is around 2). She has no tattoos of any kind, so I don't know which farm she even came from. So, as far as her being off, she was vomiting on and off for about a week, and her appetite waxed and waned. She is a pretty plump little girl, and she has definately lost some weight. I took her in to the hospital at school, and one fo the veterinarians palpated a mass (approximately 4-5cm) round and movable in her cranial abdomen. We ran bloodwork and did an ultrasound. Her bloodwork came back normal, but there were some abnormalities on ultrasound. There were 3 large cystic structures in her abdomen, and all of her abdominal lymph nodes were prominent. We anaesthetized her and took aspirates of the largest cyst-like structure and something that we knew was a lymph node (for comparison).
The results came back inconclusive. The cyst appreared to be a cystic lymh node, with 90% of the cells being small lymphocytes. The clinical pathologist wasn't sure what to make of it, and we are at a standstill as what to do next. For now, Molly seems better, playing and eating better, but I would like to know why those lymph nodes are cystic and what that means.
If anyone has any information at all or any questions, please don't hestitate to ask. I sorry about the length of this message, I wanted to be sure I included everything!
Thank you!
End of ferrethealth Digest
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