Just a little banana as a treat now or then is not only *not* a bad
thing, but it is a good taste for them to acquire.  That is because
heart problems are not particularly unusual in these guys, creating
a need for diuretics, and some other problems can also cause that
medication grouping to be required.  Diuretics can dump potassium
levels.  Banana is a gentle and safe way to replenish potassium.
 
Drooling always calls for checking the blood glucose among other
things, even if checked recently.
 
There is currently some new debate (and much disagreement) among vets
about the use of melatonin when insulinoma may be present.  This is
because melatonin is involved in two conflicting actions in the pancreas,
so some may be helped by it while other ferrets may have blood glucose
reduced by it and thus falter.  Nothing definite is known on that score
yet so caution is appropriate, perhaps with oral tried if both diseases
may be present to first see how an individual responds.  Just know that
for some ferrets melatonin MIGHT reduce blood glucose (and might have
the opposite effect for others) so if there is insulinoma present it
could be prudent to not use the implant until it is known how the
individual reacts to adding outside sources of melatonin.
 
One related possibility may be that providing enough complete darkness
may have protective results for the pancreas just as it does for the
adrenal glands -- about 14 hours of it for each 24 period which results
in the ferrets' bodies producing what for most should be enough melatonin
by the pineal gland though the amount the body produces reduces with
age -- but like the starch/sugar reduction hypothesis for pancreatic
health it is still hypothetical rather than proven.
 
It is already known to have protective effects for the adrenal glands.
There has been extensive work over the last decade or so on that in many
studies and with each part of the adrenal connection having independent
confirmation.
 
Currently, there are further studies going on to see if some of the
same meds used to treat adrenals may be used for temporary medicinal
sterilization instead of operations (deslorelin/Suprelorin), and if
the meds may work long term to prevent rather than just delay onset of
adrenal disease (deslorelin/ Suprelorin, and I think that one or more
Lupron Depot and melatonin studies might still be on-going) but one catch
is that the category of med that Lupron Depot and deslorelin fall into
can become less effective over time in humans so they need to find out
if that also happens in ferrets, among other info sought.
 
Anyway, there are people here who were first taught by old ferret keepers
in Europe and were told to be sure to provide a lot of time with access
to dark nesting boxes or the ferrets would get ill, and that might be
true for more than one disease.  That old wisdom is already known to be
true for adrenal health and it *might* be true for pancreatic health in
ferrets as well.
 
Of course, melatonin is not at all as effective as Lupron Depot (but is
better than nothing usually) when an adrenal growth is present, and the
combo of those two is a good one usually.  Surgery is typically best for
an adrenal growth.
 
There is a lot on these common medical problems in the Miamiferret site
(with the best by vets like Dr. Kemmerer and Dr. Murray, or by Mike
Janke), the AFIP site, and the FHL Archives, but the debate on melatonin
when insulinoma is present (and a related one exists on when diabetes is
present) is new so it is not there (or pretty much anywhere while it is
still in such early stages of info on the ways in which the pancreas
uses melatonin).  Addies for all of those are in my signature.
 
Melatonin is a very ancient natural hormone but was very understudied
until this last decade, with most info on it being very, very new.  No
one knows how to weigh many of its functions, and it wasn't even known
till recently that it is so very important for a wide range of functions,
well beyond bodily clocks (BTW, the adrenals turn out to have a bodily
clock in recent studies, but much more needs to known about that.), and
well beyond its antioxidant properties.  One surprise about melatonin --
I think last year -- turned out to be that it is important to marrow
health.
 
The old hormones play many functions.  The estrogens, for instance, serve
us all well over 100 ways that have been found so far including for some
mental functions.  Just in 2005 or 2004 one of the estrogens (estradiol)
was found to play a function in pancreatic health.  The more recent
androgens (male hormones which are related to the estrogens and the body
turns the two back and forth into each other depending on what is needed
since both genders use both types (just in different proportions)) are
already known to provide dozens of functions in the body.  So, it is
only logical that a hormone as ancient as melatonin will have a lot more
to uncover about it.
 
Although we all know that hormones like the estrogens and androgens are
made by the reproductive system they are also made by other organ
systems.  The adrenals can produce both.  Fat turns out to be a very
active endocrine organ and is a producer of estrogens (which the body can
use as estrogens or change to androgens to use that way) which may be one
reason why those last pounds of fat are harder to pretty well impossible
to lose for many of us as we age -- there may be a call for its products.
It also may be one reason that it plays a bad role in some diseases.
 
-- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my
   private posts)
Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love
them:
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
AFIP Ferret Pathology
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
Miamiferrets
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
International Ferret Congress Critical References
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5379]