Insulinoma-surgery or medication

Question
I have a 4 year old female with Insulimnoma.  She is currently on prednisone and doing fine. She's been on medication for about 6 months.  She has not had any other medical problems.  Should I consider surgery over medication?  How serious is the surgery?
I also have a 6 year old female, she's already had one adrenal gland removed (2 years ago) and is currently on the melatonin implant as the other started to go a couple months ago (the implant worked great, her hair grew back!).  In the last couple days she has stopped using one back leg and is having difficulty getting around.  My vet took an xray and it looked fine.  She has a history of pancreatic tumors (they were removed when her adrenal gland was removed), she was recently put on prednisone as well, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good.  Could this be her kidneys? If so what can I do to make her quality of life better?  She is still eating and drinking and wandering around as best she can, her stool looks normal as well.

Thank you!
Cherie

Answer
Cherie,
If your other little ferret did well with the surgery then I think you 4 year old would have a good chance with it.  Sometimes the surgery works really well and sometimes it doesn't give them that much longer of a lifespan.  
Yes, kidney failure causes hind leg weakness and there is not much that can be done for that.  Age really does ferrets in and being 6 is pretty old although I have one that is 10.  Just keep you little 6 year old comfortable and make sure she gets lots of fluid.  They love heated up baby food (chicken) too if you want to give that to her.  I had an albino female that couldn't use her hindlegs at all but still ate drank and got out to play.  She'd run around on her front legs.  She lived a quite a while that way.

I hope I've been of help to you and good luck with both of your ferrets.
Mary