Instead of Prednisone a number of ferrets do better on Prednisolone which
skips the liver processing step.  Diazoxide can be used along with it.
 
Age in and of itself is not a reason to not do surgery; it's more a
matter of general health.
 
Here are some resources:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
(a really knock-out piece of work; easy to read yet it includes the
answers to pretty much any question insulinoma raises in most families)
http://www.miamiferret.org
and
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
and
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
(three places to usually get the answers to any questions remaining)
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
(with a critical references list that help with a wide range of medical
problems)
 
The connection between carbohydrates and insulinoma is hypothetical, but
it is a strong hypothesis based on physiological data which gives it a
better chance of panning out under targeted study.  Of course, hypotheses
sometimes do pan out and sometimes don't so it pays to know what is and
what isn't already proven to avoid investing too much emotionally in
ideas in case they don't hold up.  That doesn't mean that careful trials
of ideas in your family can't make sense; just that you want to avoid the
sort of pain which has happened to those who treated hypotheses as if
they were proven and then found out that the concept they had trusted
didn't work.  There have been a lot of folks here expressing that sort of
pain many times over through the years.
 
Heartworm prevention info:
http://fhl.sonicweasel.org
(esp posts from AFERRETVET)
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/heartworm.htm
 
-- Sukie
(Fun read on diabetes and possible diet links in humans, also some of
the truly serious medical problems which appear to be increasing with
low carb diets in humans (suspected increases in circulatory problems
not mentioned in article but have read of that elsewhere):
http://webcenter.health.webmd.netscape.com/content/article/93/102513.htm )
[Posted in FML issue 4632]