Sukie said, quoting Dr. Bruce Williams, that surgery can be curative
if caught early enough. How do you know if it's early? If a blood test
shows slightly low BG but the ferret has no symptoms?

How do you know if a slow down is because of age or insulinoma?
Everyone slows down with age. As Rocky got older, each year, he didn't
want to play as much, especially in the evening. I assumed that was
because of age. Was it the beginnings of insulinoma? It was around age
4. It's hard to tell with a single free-roam ferret because a caged
ferret would be more likely to look forward to getting out and moving
around. Rocky would often play in the middle of the night with plastic
bags I leave on the floor for him, jumped in and out of the bathtub to
eat and drink, and would run into a different room to use a newspaper.
I didn't notice a real difference in the quality of his play (in
hindsight) and his leg slipping slightly until he was a little over
6--in March. The vet I was seeing at the time didn't take any blood
test until I brought him in saying I suspected insulinoma.

**FYI regarding commercial vs. compounded meds, I asked Dr. Jerry
Murray, who said that Pediapred (prednisolone) was better than
compounded prednisolone, but that a good compounding pharmacy can
produce effective diazoxide.

Wishing better health for all our precious furkids,
Shron & Rocky

[Posted in FML 5766]