Back in November I wrote about my ferret Pepper who had developed diabetes. We were having a hard time regulating her on insulin and getting her ketones under control. It has been a very gradual recovery, but it looks like we finally have her regulated on two shots a day and she is returning to her normal bouncy, pouncy self. One of the big things that helped was discovering a typo on her vials of insulin. It turns out that her insulin was five times more diluted than we had thought! So when we were giving her six shots a day thinking that we were pumping six units of insulin into her, we were actually giving her closer to one unit per day. After that we switched over to a vet who has successfully treated a few diabetic ferrets. She put Pepper on one unit of undiluted Humulin-NPH every twelve hours, and the ketones cleared up soon after that. Pepper still seems to have very high glucose levels (we test her urine whenever we get the chance), so we're not worried that we're overdosing on the insulin. Pepper has had a long series of "firsts" in regaining her usual energy and personality: first time going through a tube, first time standing up on her hind legs, first time pouncing on Zoe (the tiny one), first time pouncing on Ginger (her big, crazy sister), first time war-dancing, and so on. Just the other day she jumped onto the coffee table for the first time, and although I have no actual proof I'm pretty sure she got onto the kitchen counter and stole the dish sponge. She went through a long period of pickiness about how she would eat and drink; she would only eat kibble if it was spilled into a little pile on the living room carpet, and she would only drink out of the shower or bathtub. Thank goodness she's becoming much more normal about both of those. Giving her shots has become very routine. We bribe her with a little plate of linatone, and she licks away while we inject her. I think that the rubber stopper on her old vials was too thick and was blunting the needle tips, because we used to have horrible problems with bending needles (poor Pepper). The stopper on her new bottle of Humulin is pretty thin, and when we give the injections the needle slides in smoothly and painlessly. It's so nice having our wonderful happy little three-year-old back. Thank you again to everyone who wrote to me back in November with suggestions and support. Hugs to all the furkids out there. Julie [Posted in FML issue 4389]