Message Number: YG2674 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Tawny
Date: 2001-04-17 23:07:00 UTC
Subject: Re: symptoms, but no diagnosis

I'm not a vet, but what your talking about sounds like ECE. I
brought a little girl home to my two older ferrets, not knowing what
ECE was. Foxy, the new ferret, had unformed stool and pooped quite a
bit, but I did not think anything of it because pet stores often feed
ferrets bad food, and the little ones normally had unhealthy stool
for a few days. I noticed that her stool was green, though not dark,
and it had a strange mucus look to it. Two days later, my other two
ferrets began exhibiting the same symptoms, only worse. They lost
weight, became lethargic, went to the bathroom a lot, and had the
same form of stool. Foxy only had the bad stool. I treated them for
ECE just be giving them pedialyte and a little pepto once in a
while. After about 6 months the symptoms cleared up. I later talked
to my vet about it, and asked if I had done the right thing, since
one ferret never quite got over all of it. He informed that there
was no formal test for ECE, that it was mostly guess work. He said
it sounded fine, but that one might have a little intestinal damage.
She has since cleared up however. I do know ECE is very contagious,
so they should all be exhibiting signs if it is ECE. I don't know if
this is any help, but I try where I can.