I adopted a pair of 6 year old ferrets last summer - Fozzy & Faylene. Fozzy is a champagne hob and Faylene a sable jill. Both marshall's ferrets. They'd been rehomed a couple times and lived for several years with the folks I got them from. They were raised in a time when it was thought O.K. to feed ferrets cheap kibble and cat foods.

I am a huge proponent of natural prey/raw diets but a lifetime of eating hi carbs and grain based kibbles took its toll.

I thought I was going to lose Fozzy a few weeks back when his breathing became so shallow and erratic it was as if he was gasping his last breathes. He laid sprawled on my chest a pathetic flattened bedraggled limp whisper of himself. A pool of saliva dampening my T-shirt. I thought at first it was his heart giving out.

He eventually rallied a bit and the next few days regained some strength and was eating and behaving normally. Only to go through another episode, and then begin staggering.

A trip to the vet's revealed a blood glucose of 39.6! Our last follow up BG test showed he was now excessively HIGH with a BG of 465! SO he is now on 12 hour doses of Prednisolone (5mg/5ml at 40ml per dose). I'll be scheduling another BG test to see if he has levelled out.

So far outwardly he is more normal and even played in a tunnel with me today! Because the younger Bugsy keeps trying to drag Fozzy off to stash him somewhere, I have to put Fozzy in a "hospital cage" when I am not home. Because I don't want him to feel segregated that means Faylene has to stay with him. She does NOT like being shut in the cage, but is adjusting and tolerating it.

When I adopted them last summer, they were totally thrilled with being able to have free roam 24/7. I know they used to be caged all the time with occassional out times, so this may be a bit confusing to them, or reminding them of being shut in all the time.

So far they only get shut in for 9 hours when I work my night shift. I get them out as soon as I get home and as long as I am here - Bugsy(like a clever little brat) will leave Fozzy alone. But if he is up and I say, go to put clothes in the wash- I'll come back and catch Bugsy dragging poor Fozzy off by his ear!

I realized when I adopted the F&F team that they were already on borrowed time. My hope has been to offer them a bit more time by giving them a better, higher protein diet. Faylene enjoys the meaty program,and Fozzy will readily dispatch a mouse and gnaw on it - but only occassionally will he actually EAT it - or just parts of it. He is too entrenched in the kibble.

Seeing what he is going through has redoubled my resolve to get the entire business switched to all natural/whole prey. In the meantime I am offering them several types of the highest quality/ highest protein/ low carb foods I can get:

Totally ferret Turkey,Venison,Lamb

Totally ferret Baby Food

Innova Evo Ferret Food

I am phasing out the:

Shepherd Greene Adult (too much corn)

Eight in One Ultimate Soft Moist (Too much corn as well as glucose)

Please folks, make every effort to offer your ferrets the diet that mother nature intended them to eat! And realize that the catch phrase on ferret foods being "nutritionally complete" is an out and out LIE! There are NO KNOWN scientifically based studies or facts to PROVE what is nutritionally required by ferrets! However they hale from a line of small predatory carnivores that eat rodents, small birds, eggs, insects, reptiles and amphibians- NO corn, veggies,fruits or sugars!

I can't begin to describe the ache in my gut every time I have to severely scruff my beloved Fozzy and force him to take this medicine twice a day when it could have been totally avoided - had his system not had to try and digest years and years of foreign substances!

Insulinoma is NON curable! The symptoms can ONLY be managed via meds, and even surgery isn't a cure. Fozzy may get 2 more weeks - he may get two more years - but he's NEVER going to get better. For now he is holding his own.

Regards, Kim

Josie made me do it! I had to build this just for her! www.vanityferret.com []