RESEARCH, RESOURCES, REFERENCES, AND CLINICIAN EDUCATION

Guidelines for the Assessment and Management of Pain in Rodents and Rabbits (July 2006).

This paper presents an overview of current concepts of pain and provides recommendations for the assessment, prevention and treatment of pain in rodents and rabbits. Also provided are guidelines for developing pain management protocols, tables describing the potential physiologic effects of some analgesic classes and examples of efficacious analgesic strategies. Click here to view the paper in PDF format.

Retrospective Study of Rabbits with Thymomas

The College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana, is looking for cases to include in its study regarding treatment options and prognosis for rabbits with thymomas. There are no definitive studies in this area and the goal is to evaluate response to the three main treatment modalities – surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Criteria for inclusion in this study are a diagnosis of thymoma based either on cytology or histopathology AND some type of treatment for the mass, surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. Radiographic documentation of a cranial mediastinal mass and animals that were not treated cannot be included in the study. We are, however, interested in those that have been diagnosed with thymic lymphoma or mediastinal lymphoma as we have found these are often really thymomas. We have a pathologist that will review all samples and do cytokeratin stains to determine if they are lymphoma or thymoma.

Please contact me or Dr. Kathy Andres (kathyvet@hotmail.com or 510-483-8500) if you have a patient we might be able to include in the study. The more patients we include, the more valuable the conclusions will be.

R. Avery Bennett, DVM, MS, DACVS
Professor, Small Animal Surgery
Department of Clinical Medicine
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Illinois
1008 W. Hazelwood Dr.
Urbana, IL 61802

bennetta@uiuc.edu
217-333-5300
FAX 244-1475

Chordomas in Ferrets

Chordomas are a common musculoskeletal tumor of the ferret. Most appear at the distal end of the tail, and surgical excision is curative. A brief description is available at: http://www.afip.org/ferrets/chordoma.cfml

What many people may not know is that chordomas are seen in humans as well, but have a serious impact on human health. Tumors are slow growing, highly invasive and do not respond well to chemotherapy following surgery. Many appear in sites not surgically accessible, for example the base of the skull.

Physician Simone Summer, MD is currently investigating these tumors in humans and is studying genetic markers in ferrets and potential therpeutic strategies with possible benefit for both species. She is requesting practitioners send case material to her at:

Simone Sommer, MD, MPH
1-336-324-6167
allwayswel@aol.com