Loki, Castrated Male, 3 years

HISTORY
Lymph node submitted.
Ferret has been intermittantly weak on hind end and urinary incontinent. Otherwise eating and behaving normally. On exam - thin, multiple lymph node enlargement, enlarged spleen and at least three palpable abdominal masses present. Left cervical lymph node submitted for histopathology.

FINAL DIAGNOSIS
1. Left cervical lymph node: lymphoma
COMMENTS: I agree with your clinical diagnosis of lymphosarcoma. The appearance of the node and the compilation of physical findings are all significant (I had once a very similar necropsy case). According to my source, a second edition of "Biology and disease of ferret" by J.G. Fox the histomorphology is consistent with immunoblastic polymorphous lymphoma.

GROSS NECROPSY: Received ff tissues from a ferret
HISTOPATHOLOGY:
Left cervical lymph node: The node appears enlarged. There is no discernable medullary area as the node is brimming with two types of round cells. There are large cells with well demarcated borders, ample amphophylic cytoplasm and large nucleus containing faintly stippled chromatin and indiscreet nucleoli. The second population is that of small dark lymphocytes with compact chromatin and thin rim of cytoplasm. There is marked to extreme nuclear atypia within the large cell population. The mitoses are fairly rare 1 or 2 per HPF but most of them are bizarre. The second population stays fairly uniform.