From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-07-10 16:27:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Watery stools
>I could have sworn I sent this already, but I don't see it posted.
>Maybe I didn't hit the Send button.
>Okay, here it goes again. The ferret we are refering to was recently
>acquired along with her sister from a woman in NJ. They are approx.
>2 year old MF female ferrets. I consider them to be small but I am
>used to having 4 to 5 pound males to snuggle with. The ferrets are
>very calm and sweet. They were in their own cage until approximately
>3 weeks ago when we bought a PV male ferret about 12 weeks old from a
>local pet store. He became a cagemate with the two girls. She was
>fine up until 2 days ago when I noticed the loose stools. She is
>eating and drinking, no changes in food, and has not gotten out to
>drink anything dangerous. There are no medical problems that I am
>aware of. I have not taken her to the vet yet, I wanted to ask the
>list for ideas and suggestions first.
When we got ECE it was right after bringing home two PVs ourselves
(one with a mobility handicap) over 4 years ago. We did make a vet
stop on the way home so exposure could have been there or where we
got them. We really do not know where exposure occurred. Pet stores
have the added problem of there possibly having been a distributor
stop in between (one more place for exposure), and then the risk of
handling by people who may have ECE at home and don't know enough to
not handle any ferrets for at least 8 months after ECE shows up. We
didn't go near any other ferrets for a year after it same to our
household to avoid infecting any other ferrets.
Right now, dollars to donuts, you have good chance of having brought home ECE.
Please, read the info at the sites I listed in my other post.