Ron Hines DVM PhD 4/23/06

As your ferret ages, you are likely to notice assorted lumps and scabs in or under the skin. When you have more than one ferret and scabs are present around the neck, it is often the result of the pets rough housing. When this is not the cause, these scabs may indicate an ear infection and overgrown toenails. Boredom also increases grooming and scratching which can lead to irritated areas. Also, with aging, the skin does not heal as quickly as it once did.

Cysts:
Cysts arise when natural glandular secretions become trapped within a skin gland. This is often a sebaceous gland that normally produces skin oils. It can also be one of the many musk glands that surround the ferret’s rear end. Even descented ferrets have lots of these glands. They are the reason descented ferrets still have a musky odor. When the duct of a gland becomes occluded, normally liquid secretions harden and become firm waxy material trapped in the gland. Cysts are always oval in shape and move with the skin. With time they develop a fibrous capsule. They usually get no larger than a pea. Cysts may rupture, drain, and then reform. They have the same color as the surrounding skin, which helps distinguish them from abscesses. Squeezing them causes no pain.
Sterile abscesses resulting from vaccinations can easily be confused with cysts. Such abscesses are usually elongated and slightly below the skin rather than in it. Unless they are located in a sensitive spot, cysts do not need to be removed. However, your veterinarian may suggest it be removed or biopsied (sample of tissue sent to a pathologist) because some early tumors mimic cysts so much that only a pathologist can differentiate them. In general, tumors are more flattened than cysts.

Abscesses:
An abscess is an infection or area of inflamed tissue that the body has walled off to keep it from spreading. All abscesses begin as ill-defined areas of inflammation which is hot to the touch and painful. The body rushes defender white blood cells to this area giving it distinct boundaries. As these defender cells break down they form the pus one associates with an abscess. Blood vessels dilate in the area of an abscess giving it additional heat. Irritated nerve endings in the abscess area are responsible for the pain. Many abscesses begin as bacterial infections of the skin produced by a bite or penetration of a sharp object. Once a discrete abscess has formed, it almost never results in bacterial blood poisoning or septicemia. Others occur due to the presence of a foreign substance such as a thorn. Abscesses often disappear without giving antibiotics when the capsule holding the pus is opened and cleansed of dead tissue and debris. Abscesses of the gums of ferrets are usually associated with an infected tooth. The two teeth most commonly affected in older ferrets are the fangs (canine teeth) and upper molars. Tooth abscesses often involve the bone of the jaw and face in addition to the skin. Molar tooth abscesses almost always form a drain point just below the proximal eye. If your ferret receives a deep contaminated puncture wound, such as being bitten by another pet, it is wise to put the pet on a three day course of ammoxicillin (10mg/lb twice a day) or cephalexin (15mg/lb twice a day) to prevent abscess formation. Putting your pet on medication to prevent a possible abscess or infection is called prophylactic medication.

Other Skin Lumps:
I have seen a single case of a parasitic worm living under the skin of a ferret living in Texas. This parasite was identified by the USDA as normally occurring in badgers. Ferrets living in out of door hutches are susceptible to infection with subcutaneous parasitic fly larva called Cuterebra or Wolfs. The bot or fly larva should be removed by a veterinarian and not squeezed out by the owner. These parasitic infections are also quite rare.

The bodies of ferrets as well as all other mammals have lymph nodes placed at strategic points on the body just under the skin. These lymph nodes enlarge (lymphadenopathy) in response to infections as well as lymphatic tumors. Ferrets are more susceptible to tumors of these glands called lymphosarcomas. The tumor itself is made up of millions upon millions of cancerous lymphocytes – one of the white blood cells. Common locations for these to form are at the anterior point of the shoulder (prescapular L.N.) under the chin (submaxillary L.N.), in the groin (inguinal L.N.) and to the rear of the knee (popliteal L.N.). The nodes are rooted in deeper tissues so they do not move freely. They are firm and painless and often more than one node is enlarged.

Skin Cancers:
These tumors are rather common in old ferrets. There are many many kinds, each with their own name, depending on the type of cell that became cancerous. Some common ones are fibromas and fibrosarcomas (tumors of the connective tissue), adenomas and adenocarcinomas (tumors of skin glands), mast cell tumors, hemangiomas (tumors of blood vessels), basal cell tumors. Many of these tumors can be successfully removed surgically. The earlier they are removed the better. When they are excised (removed), a ring of the surrounding skin and subcutaneous tissue equal to one or two diameters of the tumor should be removed to increase the likelihood that the tumor will not regrow. This can be difficult or impossible on limbs, the head, or adjacent to eyes or the mouth. Luckily, ferrets have a lot of extra skin over their bodies, which helps me close these incisions. Once removed, a sample of the tumor can be sent to a pathologist. The pathologist’s report will give you clues as to whether the tumor is likely to have spread to other areas of the body.

Diagnosis:
Abscesses can often be diagnosed by visual examination. Sometimes material from the swelling is stained and examined microscopically in the veterinarian’s office. Some veterinarians will take a biopsy (small snippet or core samples of the mass) of skin tumors and have them analyzed before surgically removing tumors from ferrets. I prefer to treat tumors that allow radical excision by doing so and then sending a portion or the whole mass to the pathologist. The only time I do a presurgical biopsy is when there is not enough surrounding tissue to widely excise the mass. I also like to take an x-ray of the ferrets lungs and palpate its lymph nodes carefully to determine if the tumor has already metastasized (spread). In older ferrets, blood chemistry values help determine if a ferret will be at a high surgical risk during anesthesia. When excising these tumors I like to give the ferret a minimal dose of general anesthetic and then do a local pain block pain sensation at the incision site with a combination of xylocaine (Novocaine) and epinephrine. This gives the ferret relief of pain during recovering without the dangers of aspirin and other pain-relieving drugs. If you are still concerned about postoperative pain you can give ferrets 0.05ml of 1.5mg/ml meloxicam (Metacam, Mobic) suspension once on the first postoperative day.

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