As you know, my ferret Nymphadora was recently diagnosed with insulinoma which I am now managing medically. She's about 5.5 years old. What I need to know is:

How long can I expect her to live from now? I think the disease is already fairly advanced...when I got her to the vet her sugar was 22mg...

I'm assuming this will eventually kill her - how will she die? I've been having this suspicion that she will eventually start having seizures and they will increase in frequency and intensity until she passes...is that necessarily the case? If so, will it get to the point where I will have to seriously consider putting her down? I don't want her to have to go through life having frequent grand mal seizures if they can't be medically prevented.

This is all so depressing. Today she really started acting like herself again, jumping around and being happy...but I know the medication is only managing the symptoms, for now. Which I still appreciate greatly.

I don't think I'll really consider surgery, since I have a feeling the disease is already fairly advanced, and she's pretty old and very tiny. If it were my other ferrets, who are younger and larger, it would be a different story, but I think in Nymphadora's case the risk is very high and the potential benefits are relatively low. I'm basically just hoping to hit a sweet spot for extending her life and maintaining her quality of life during that time.

I'm basically just hoping to hit a sweet spot for extending her life and maintaining her quality of life during that time.

That is best we can do when they have insulinoma.  You and your little one will have good days and bad days.
Spend as much time with your little one.  When it's time....your little one will let you know.


Until then make her as comfortable as you can.


I hate insulinoma....it's not a easy road to go down.


Hugs!

How long you have with her depends on a number of factors.  Our little Sadie was with us for over 4 years after diagnosis.
(1)  food.  What is she eating?  Is it low in carbs?  Foods high in carbs cause BG fluctuations which are hard on the system.
(2)  other health factors such as lymphoma, flu, etc
(3)  Are you using Prednisone, or Prednisolone?  Prednisolone is easier on the liver.
(4)  Will you add proglycim as well as prednisolone?
(5)  do you want to give her meds twice or three times per day?

None of ours have died of seizures.  In fact, we have had to put them down ourselves once it became apparent that they were ready to go.  Our vet had actually said it is rare for a ferret to die from insulinoma, it's more along the lines of complications related to it.  We finally put Sadie down when the lymphoma got too bad.  But it can be more along the lines of the pred compromising the immune system.  Or liver failure due to the pred....

I've had the same experience as Snapper13.  I think the longest we've had one live after diagnosis was a year and a half. I've never sen a full seizure after starting pred, but one or two mild, spaced out ones.  We've had 5 cases.  The first one died in an accident.

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

Thank you for all your responses!

To answer snapper's q's:
1. Right now their only kibble is wysong epigen 90 ferret. Also a sort of soup made from chicken or turkey baby food and some Carnivore Care the vet gave me. I've been giving her that twice a day, when I give her her pred and her antibiotic (vet gave it to me because she had also been having diarrhea when I brought her in). I'm trying to get into proper soup though - I'm actually boiling some chicken right now for that. No treats except meats or oily supplements (ferretone, olive oil, etc.) Yeah, I only just started soup. It had always been intimidating so I just got into it out of necessity. The good news is she took to it really well and I have been making extra to give to Nito (new ones still only get tastes, don't want to change too much too fast with them).
2. She hasn't been diagnosed with any other chronic issues at this point. And has never had any acute issues since I've had her.
3. Right now she's on prednisone, but I'm going to ask for prednisolone at our followup appointment. 
4. She's not taking proglycim right now. I will ask the vet about it. I've only read a little about it at the moment. I've also heard it's expensive...
5. I think I could manage three times a day right now, but I'm not sure what the future holds...right now I'm only doing it twice. I guess that's another thing to ask the vet about.

She's doing really, really well right now though. It's awesome. And she takes her medicine really well...probably because it's always followed with soup. She's so sweet. I love how she walks around wiping her face on everything after eating the soup, lol. 

What dosage is she on?  We like (?) to start low and see how it goes.  That decreases the exposure to pred longer, and it leaves the option of increasing the dose if it's not enough.
Later, when you get near max dose, you can divide it into 3 doses per day instead of 3.

The only cooked meat any of my ferrets have ever eaten was baby food.  Not even cooked eggs.  They just never give it 2 sniffs.

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

My soup was a hit! Yay! I feel like a real ferret owner now.

She's only on 0.7mL, twice a day. Last time she was at the vet she only weighted 1 lb 7 oz though. Less than when I brought her home from the shelter. And she had always been such a little piglet. Tomorrow I'm going to weigh her to see how a week of extra high-calorie meals has treated her. I'm going to schedule a followup appointment for around the end of the month to see about switching to prednisolone and adjusting for weight increases. I just finished her nasty metronidazole so I think she's happy about that.