Holly, he needs Prednisolone and possibly Diazoxide while you decide on your approach. Ferrets vary quite a bit with insulinoma and their responses, to the disease, to meds, to sugery. A CBC with Chemistry Panel makes sense. If too much is off there may be something else such as lymphoma or carcinoma based in the pancreas instead of insulinoma. We have encountered each in our family. Lymphoma is better to wind up with than carcinoma, and insulinoma is typically better than either. Read resources like: http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/insulinoma.htm (summary) http://www.afip.org/ferrets/PDF/insulinoma.pdf (a lot of useful detail) Notice that dosing ranges differ among texts: http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/prednisone.htm but _Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents, clinical medicine and surgery, 2nd ed._ is more conservative on the upper portion of the scale for these meds than _Essentials of Ferrets, a Guide for Practitioners, 2nd ed._ . I posted the dosing ranges from those texts to the FML within the last two or three weeks so if you don't have back FMLs you may want to use the SEND FERRET nnnn feature mentioned in the FML header to get them. Maybe whomever I posted them for will repost them to help you? Also, read in the FML and FHL Archives. (Addy for one in the header of each day's FML, and addy for the other in my signature lines.) (At that age the chances are high that the liver is partly compromised. Using Prednisolone instead of Prednisone will skip a liver processing step that normally would take Prednisone to Prednisolone; for some ferrets this markedly improves the effect of the meds.) Tammy, begin with these: http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/melatonin.htm http://www.melatek.net/pages/1/index.htm in http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG16863 the second study might actually fill in the final blank which would take the darkness/melatonin aspect from being hypothetical to being fully proven for the LH component. *****BIG NEWS IF SO*****. Dr. Murray is seeking a copy of the article to study it. The Turkish expert involved in the study is considered to possibly be the most knowledgeable person on the planet in relation to LH, I have been informed by experts in the field. There appear to also be FSH aspects (and Dr. Murray points out that FSH's caused increase of one of the estrogens (off-hand I forget which one, so check for that detail) points to FSH also being a contributor to adrenal growths): http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG16865 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG15993 (which also makes me think about some recently mentioned observations (Chris, Steph, and a study) about how estrogen toxicosis does not as often occur with first heat as as at older ages or until after a year of age with an ovarian fragment as per a study mentioned) -- got to rattle some endocrinology questions around in my head to come up with better questions now.) http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG7879 wavelengths: http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG16834 There are many more resources out there answering a huge range of questions on this. -- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my private posts) Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love them: Ferret Health List http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ AFIP Ferret Pathology http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html Miamiferrets http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ International Ferret Congress Critical References http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 5201]