From:
"Bruce Williams, DVM"
Date: 2007-02-08 11:20:49 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: URGENT: Mystery lump...need help identifying
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "rocknroll_songbird"
<rocknroll_songbird@...> wrote:
>
> My Summer, who is around 6-7 years old has a medium-sized lump on
> her side. I'm not really familiar with the internal ferret anatomy
> and was hoping if I posted a few pics of her somebody could tell me
> what organ is near the lump, and what we could possibly be dealing
> with.
>
> I'm not sure how long it's been there, she recently had some stomach
> problems including ulcers so we hadn't been doing our usual checking
> for lumps and bumps because it seemed to upset her if we touched her
> tummy too much. The ulcers are better and now she's got a lump.
>
> Besides that, Summer has never had a health problem and is very
> active and has a great appetite.
>
> I know Summer needs to see a vet, but recently we've been losing
> trust in our vet as she doesn't seem to know very much about
> ferrets, (the diagnoses usually include "probably"s and "maybe"s).
> If anybody has tips on finding a "good" vet it would be greatly
> appreciated. We live in Nebraska and it's hard to find a clinic that
> sees ferrets, let alone knows anything about them. We're never sure
> if we can be sure.
>
> The photos are in the album "Summer: Mystery Lump".
> Thank you.
> ~Emily and the five
>
Dear Emily:
If the mass is a hard lump that you can feel through the wall, it is
most likely the tail of an enlarged spleen. Often, if the hair is
sparse, you can actually see a dark mass corresponding to the hard
lump through the abdominal skin. This is a common problem in
ferrets, often as a result of GI inflammation (and as you relate,
your ferret has had reent GI issues.). Enlarged spleens most often
cause no problems, but occasionally it will result in a ill thrift,
as it displaces other organs, and rarely, less than 3% of cases, the
enlargement may be due not to inflammatory disease, but to a tumor,
such as lymphosarcoma.
However, as the pictures only show a region, and not a discernable
lump to the Internet viewer, I have to recommend a trip the the vet
to check it out.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
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