>My friend Nicole, fellow vet tech, found out that 5 grams of the oral
>suspension (more or less a 60 day supply) would be $525 or $575!!!
 
April, either there is some dosing confusion (I don't have time to check
on that.) or you just asked in the wrong places.  The last time we had to
give diazoxide was about 2 or 3 years ago to a large female who was on
maximum dosing of Diazoxide.  (Aim was to to keep her Pred dose as low
as we could because she had insulinoma and Complete A/V Heart Node Block
at the same time.)  We do NOT get a cost break from Bellevidiere (Here
in NJ -- and BTW they SHIP.) and her's diazoxide was running us about
$60 a month if memory serves.  It might actually have been lower because
I might be thinking of that plus another of her compounded meds.
 
The list of compounding pharmacies which help ferrets is at
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth/ReferenceShelf/
comp_pharm.html
 
The last time we spent in the hundreds for Diazoxide was way back when
there was only Proglycem and even that was just released, and that was
for a bottle which lasted for absolutely ages.  Before then, when it was
experimental we actually got teaching hospital waste from when a full
bottle was not used for a human hospital patient because it was literally
the only way to get it since only hospitals -- and not many of those --
had it.  Our vet at that time made arrangements with the right hospital
authorities for us to get the dregs.  This would be around 18 or more
years ago.  Then when it became available it only was available in the
one bottle size.  Then it was $300+ in the dollars of those years, but
like I said, it lasted for ages.
 
Nowadays it is far more affordable; you just need to check the dosing
and call the toll free numbers of some of the compounding pharmacies.
You'll find it.
 
Research on ECE is on-going by Dr. Matti Kiupel of Michigan State, but
it is far from being an easy problem; I heard privately that something
new looked promising but don't know if that panned out.  The latest
info publicly released (unless there is something new i wasn't copied
on, which is always possible) is a few years old:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/ECE/ECE.html
 
Chordoma is what you are thinking of with the tail lump:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/chordoma.html
 
The AFIP site is one of the sites I keep right up on my bookmarks bar
for easy access, along with the FHL, the FML Archives, the FHL Archives,
and some other places I go daily like the IFC which has a VERY useful
set of links in the Crit. Refs.  (Select from menu on your right on the
site.) which ever single FML member should bookmark.  The sites I
mentioned above are actually often useful for me on a DAILY basis, so
I don't recommend them lightly.
[Posted in FML issue 4590]