From:
mjanke@miamiferret.org
Date: 2005-01-15 12:39:34 UTC
Subject: RE: Please give me your advice re: lymphoma
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <782093.1105792774150.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> If there are some lymphocytes in blood,
> is it really lymphoma??
Absolutely not! This is not a proper diagnosis of lymphoma. You might want to read this article from Dr. Williams...
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/PDF/Lymphoma_Ferrets.pdf
Note that this is a PDF and contains some pretty graphic necropsy photos. If you want to skip learning all about lymphoma, which is probably not what's going here, I'll boil the article down to a couple important statement within it:
"A common misconception, and often tragic misconception among veterinarians is that elevated levels of lymphocytes in the blood is a hallmark of lymphoma in the ferret."
Dr. Williams goes on to say, "chronic inflammation of the GI tract ... is a far more common cause of this finding than lymphoma."
Doesn't that sound exactly like what's going on in yours? You need a second opinion, or perhaps print out Dr. Williams article on lymphoma and give it to your vet.
I wonder if you might be dealing with a massive hairball or some other foreign body that is a constant irritant to the stomach.
mike
End of ferrethealth Digest
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