In response to the person who wrote that their 18 month old ferret had been diagnosed with diabetes because of an elevated blood glucose reading. We had a similar situation with our 9 1/2 year old. We were 99.9% sure that Tabu had insulinomas. She has had the symtoms for about 6 months. When we had her at the vet for other reasons, the vet drew blood and tested for sugar. Her blood glucose was very elevated, and our vet was also concerned about diabetes. She sent us home with several urine testers to see if there was blood in Tabu's urine. These are very easy to use. Basically, it reminds me of a pregnancy test. You stick the tip of this paper in the ferret's urine and watch to see what color it turns. We had Tabu urinate on some tile so that it was easy to make sure that we got the tester saturated. We did this 3 times on different days and at different times. This test showed us that she did not have sugar in her urine. Our vet said that if it was diabetes, we would see elevated sugar levels in the blood as well as sugar in the urine. I then posted a question to Dr. Susan Brown, the AOL ferret vet, about diabetes. According to Dr. Brown, there is no concensus among vets that ferrets can get diabetes; if they can, it is very rare. She also said that if a ferret has insulinomas that their blood sugar can range all over the place - from very high to very low. Some of this depends on when you did the blood glucose in relation to when the ferret last ate. I read somewhere that a blood sugar of 207 in a non-fasted ferret can be considered normal. Anyway, you didn't mention what the blood glucose reading was, and you also didn't say whether or not the blood was drawn after a 4-6 hour fast. You might re-post with a little more information. You might also read the ferret FAQ on insulinoma and share that with your vet. Another comment on insulinoma and food. I have seen several posts in FML lately that mention giving ferrets with insulinoma Nutrical for additional nutritional value. We were using Nutrical until I read some information from one of the vets on one of the ferret boards that said this is really not a good idea. Nutrical contains several syrups which are sugary, and this can actually cause more problems with the insulinomas. There are several other ways to get the additional fat and protein into a ferret with insulinoma that actually help balance the sugar highs and lows that the insulinomas produce such as baby food, heavy whipping cream, eggs, liver, etc. We have used these a lot as supplements so that we can keep the dose of Prednisone as low as possible. Hope this helps. "It's just another day in paradise!" [Posted in FML issue 1873]