Dr. Williams: Thank you so much, as always! Very, very interesting that you've never confirmed a glucagonoma in a ferret... I sure do hope my girl pulls through this and we can get her stabilized. The most aggravating thing is the weaning away from the meds; it just feels so *weird* to give pred to a ferret with a blood sugar of 390 (Thurs morning's reading)! I know it has to be done gradually, but it's a bit frightening. She is showing trace amounts of ketones in her urine now, and the sugar in her urine is at the highest end of the scale. If her ketones become higher and more dangerous, is it ever safe to give insulin while pred is also on the menu? Judith: Thanks so much for your incredibly thoughtful post about your Queen Bean. Very helpful! I passed along your tip about the the pork insulin to my vet. I looked at the bottle of urine test strips, and they are indeed Keto-Diastix, the same ones you use. Yay, I guessed on them but thought they looked good. So far the urine dipping has been pretty easy; I just walk up to her while she's peeing and slip a strip right into the urine stream and she doesn't seem to mind (she's blind so I have an unfair advantage). I'm not at all squicked by the idea of probably needing to give her insulin shots - I'm used to giving SQ fluids with much bigger needles than those little fine insulin ones. YES, my vet is awesome... Dr. Powers is one of my most favorite people of all time; I'm amazed she doesn't try to slip out the back door when I come to the clinic, because my ferrets seem to have a real knack for getting weirdo things that require her to spend a lot of time doing research. She is a true gem. Your Sabine sounds a lot like my Sonic - she is a real mama's girl and loves to be cuddled and pampered. :-) It's so nice to have this resource! Best wishes to all, -Pam S. [Posted in FML issue 3260]