Hi Sue, It may be that Abigail has more than one thing affecting her, but it sounds very much like insulinoma to me and what we started out with our Daisy. The head bobbing, the wobbly, slidy legs, lethargy, and slobbering are all signs that Daisy is heading into what I call a crash. At that stage you want to treat her ASAP to back the decline in blood sugar. What we always gave her at that point was Ferretvite (which has a fair amount of sugar in it), then made sure after she was a little more like her normal self that she was given food. The Nutrical is going to help you stop the blood sugar crashes when they happen, but you need to increase the protein in her body immediately after - the Nutrical is only treating the symptom, not the problem. Daisy has had one BAD crash, just on the edge of a coma and I used the Karo syrup instead of the Ferretvite as it was easier to rub up on her gums and is more pure sugar so it would get into her blood system quicker. June 2002, Daisy's blood sugar was also borderline early on and our vet started her on Prednisone. It would help stabilize her for awhile, then she would start to worsen, and he increased the Pred, and this happened about 3 times. The Pred is fairly reasonably priced - we just crushed the pills and mixed it in Ferretone at first (cheaper than having it mixed at the pharmacy). Gradually though she did get to where the Pred wasn't enough and our vet added diazoxide as an additional medicine (I think it is also called Progylcem or something like that). That has to be formulated at a pharmacy because it isn't available in pill form, I guess it is because it is normally an injectible. We started that about early October 2002. I forget which, but one of the meds is to slow the cancer (I think the Pred) and one is to stimulate the ferret's body into being able to utilize the glucose in their body better. After a time that too seemed to loose its control on the insulinoma, but the vet said that was all that could be done and she started to deteriorate fairly rapidly, but hadn't gone into a coma. We were very definitely trying to figure out at what point the quality of her life would get bad enough that we should put her to sleep and I was sure she wouldn't live much longer. That was about early-November 2002. Now, I will make the suggestion that should have been made to me at the start, and which someone on the FML told me to do. Bob Church's Chicken Gravy, or if you are time-pressed like me, use Gerber Baby Food Chicken and Chicken Gravy. Daisy, whose weight all her life was about 1lb 10 oz, had dropped weight to about 1lb. 5oz. and was getting thinner almost as you watched. We started her on twice-a-day, now up to three-a-day supplemental feeding of the chicken baby food. It has amazed me! It took this poor little girl and made her feel better, more energetic and mostly eliminated the blood sugar crashes. She now weighs over 2 lbs. as she is a little piggy with it. We still keep her Totally Ferret available at all times. Since she started on the baby food in November, she has only had a handful of episodes, though they do seem to be starting to come back mildly again now. The baby food chicken (or Chicken Gravy, which probably is cheaper in the long run) really has given her some additional, good quality life. I suggest you start that as soon as possible. The girl who made the suggestion to me told me her one ferret has been alive almost 4 years after being diagnosed as a young ferret. I don't know what our future time left will hold, but for the time being she is doing pretty well. She does sleep a lot more than she did before this all started, but she seems content and comfortable. We chose not to do surgery for Daisy (she has had surgery three other times). We have a very ferret knowledgeable vet and he felt in her case it just wasn't the right choice. It does help insulinoma early on from what I understand, but has a fairly high rate of return at a later date. That is a personal choice for you to make though. I wish you good results Sue! Keep after the vet. The medicines will help, but the sooner they are started the more successful long term they will be. Karla and Daisy [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 4088]