From:
ferretgm
Date: 2008-01-31 17:12:55 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Black skin tumor?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Has anyone ever heard of a ferret getting a black skin tumor? Ripper has a black oval-shaped blob between the cuticle and first knuckle on one of his front toes. It has been there for at least a couple of months without changing size - I assumed it was dirt or a scab, and kept an eye on it. Since he's been at the vet so much, i thought they would tell me if it looked like anything else, but it is a hard spot to see because of the angle and the way the hair grows there.
But last night, it swelled up, and I thought it looked like a tick. So I clipped the fur back and tried to get a tweezers down to where I thought its head would be, so I could get it off. The problem was that I couldn't find any separation between the black blob and the skin - there was no place to grab, really. The area where the black blob narrows down (where the head would be if there was one, but I can't see if there is or not) did bleed when I was trying to get a grip with the tweezers. And then when I tried to grip a little bit further back, it seemed like the top surface cracked and oozed blood, so I got afraid that I'd be trying to rip off his skin, and quit trying. I didn't think ticks were so fragile! *G*
I can't take him to the vet until at least tomorrow and maybe not until Saturday, but I *will* take him. I just wondered whether I needed to be worried about a tumor instead of a tick. I've never heard of a small, shiny, oval/round skin tumor, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. *G*
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