From:
swamp
Date: 2001-03-17 11:09:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Re: Pet Store Ferrets
At 02:22 PM 3/17/2001 +0000, Bruce wrote:
>Anecdotally, six to eight months appears to be the conventional
>wisdom on the shedding period of this disease - coronaviruses are
>like that - they can be transmitted for a long period of time.
My gang went thru ECE (or should I say ECE went thru them) after being
introduced to a pet store kit 18 months ago. I took another 5 y/o in 2
weeks ago and was a little worried about her. She was purchased in a Las
Vegas pet store as a kit and had been an only ferret up until she met my
gang. She'd also had *no* vaccinations and little to no exposure to other
animals. She's been sharing the cage, including the water bottle, with my
guys for a week now and she's still asymptomatic. I didn't do anything to
sanitize other than bathing them and changing the bedding, so...
It could be the newcomer had been exposed in the past, but unlikely given
her isolated life. It could be she's naturally resistant, but that's
unlikely also. More likely is that my guys got something other than ECE,
but whatever it was it sure "quacked" like ECE. Most likely is my guys are
no longer contagious, ~16 months after the last one had finally been weaned
back onto kibble.
Also anecdotally,
Rob