Yes, 40 for glucose level indicates insulinoma & yes, green poops after introducing new fuzzies into the household is probably ECE. At age 5 whether or not to do surgery is a matter of how active the fuzzy normally is, really. With a glucose of 40 and you haven't noticed any stumbling, nausea/vomiting, hind quarter weakness, and just a gradual increase of longer sleep periods, I'd guess (& I'm not a vet.. just a fuzzy mom with years of experience with insulinoma ferrets). I'd guess your fuzzy has had insulinoma for quite some time. months. maybe a year. He has acquired it slowly and has gradually adjusted to the low glucose state. Ferrets that have a rapidly developing case of insulinoma and get down to 40 will more commonly exhibit dramatic symptoms, inability to walk and seizures. The ECE is a separate illness. It's an inflammation of the intestinal tract that can actually strip away the lining of the intestinal tract and interfere with the intestine's ability to digest food adequately. green poop is simply food that went through the digestive system without being completely digested. It causes stomach upset, loss of appetite, lack of interest in eating or drinking, dehydration. It hits older ferrets (4yrs+) harder than it does youngsters (it is often never even noticed in ferrets less than 1 yr as more that a couple of days of greenish, runny poops.) My recommendation for now is to delay surgery for at least 3 months, due simply to the recent ECE. You don't want to add an additional shock to his system until his digestive tract has had some time to recover. Since this ferret has probably had insulinoma for awhile, it might not be to his advantage to have it now. My preference for insulinoma surgery is to catch the condition early, and do a pancreotomy (remove the section of the pancreas containing the visible tumors). Of course, this isn't always possible. sometimes the tumors are distributed throughout the pancreas and all that can be done is remove the visible tumors. Insulinoma is not considered 'curable' because some tumors can be microscopic in size so the vet can't see them to remove them. He can remove the visible ones, but there is no way to tell how many are still there to grow. When a ferret is a good surgical candidate ( healthy, active - as in bouncy, wardancing while playing ) I opt for the surgery, pretty much without regard to the ferret's actual age. We have had ferrets that lived for up to 4 quality years after their first insulinoma diagnosis. The longer survivals being those who were diagnosed early, had pancreotomy surgery, and were eventually placed on pred after the insulimona's eventual recurrence. In these cases, also, were those who had adrenal surgeries at a later date with additional insulinoma tumors removed during the adrenal surgery. So, bottom line. for now. just give the pred, and keep him eating. Suggestions: http://www.ferrets1st.com/articles/duck_soup_and_additives.htm Debi Christy Ferrets First Foster Home www.ferrets1st.com [Posted in FML issue 5113]