Megan Wisdom wrote: >My baby has just been diagnosed with insulinoma and I want to do a glucose >test myself [...] , but I'm not sure how to go about getting the drop of >blood. At the vet's (ours, anyway), they trim a toenail a tiny bit too short. It bleeds plenty for the test and closes up quickly (use styptic powder if it doesn't). >Also, the person who mentioned that her ferret's glucose was 110 and was >told that was hypoglycemic: I was told that 90-120 was normal, not low. If the ferret has been fasted for 4-6 hours beforehand, the normal range is around 85-125 mg/dl; if she hasn't been fasted, it can be up to 207 mg/dl or so depending on how recently she's eaten. Non-fasted glucose levels aren't very easy to interpret, since you don't know whether the ferret's just finished a snack or just woken up from a 3-hour nap. Becca Simpson asked: >Has anyone out there (ie; ferret, ferret owner, vet, breeder, shelter, >lurker =) noticed any inherent health problems with Marshall Farms ferrets? The problem is, hardly anyone sees enough ferrets to have a statistical sample. Very big shelters and very busy vets might possibly be able to judge, and I think there is/was a survey being done, but individual owners can only give you hearsay. With that in mind, I'll just mention that Dr. Williams has said: | Sure, Marshall Farms ferrets develop tumors. So do ALL ferrets. | We don't know why ferrets develop most tumors - we know | that they are most likely to develop them between the ages of 4 | and 6, but not why. ... To my knowledge - there are no inherent | "defects" with Marshall Farms ferrets. -- - Pam Greene Ferret Central <http://www.optics.rochester.edu:8080/users/pgreene/> or send INDEX FERRET in email to <[log in to unmask]> [Posted in FML issue 1635]