>Meep, my male ferret who is almost 3, seems to have a problem.  He seems
>to be urinating more than usual, and also running from litter box to
>litter box.  In addition to this yesterday he just didn't act like he
>"felt" well.  I plan to take him to the vet, but our vet does not have
>a lot of experience with ferrets and is always willing to listen to
>suggestions so I thought I would ask people on the FML what the
>possibilities are here?  I know that excessive urination in humans can
>mean diabetes so I checked the FAQ on insulinoma, but didn't find this
>listed as a symptom.
 
Is Meep actually urinating at those times, and if so is there much?  Yes,
they can get diabetes, but it is rare.  If there is profuse urination one
possibility that needs to be checked is kidney disease.  If there is very
little then adrenal disease with prostate inflammation is the most common
cause in male ferrets.  You can find a lot more info on this at
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list
 
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
 
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
 
http://www.trifl.org/medical.html
 
http://www.ferretcentral.org
 
with the Ferret Health List and Miami Ferret being about the best in
relation to prostate disease, and by searching under the name "Champ" to
get detailed information on treating kidney disease in the Ferret health
List.  There is also a lot of diabetes info there.
 
Straining to urinate with little urine getting out is very dangerous and
can endanger the kidneys so much be treated very, very promptly if extreme.
 
Bill wrote:
>[And don't forget the FML's archives!  BIG]
 
Opps!  So true!  Go to
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html for those!
[Posted in FML issue 3476]