From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2003-05-16 04:48:10 UTC
Subject: RE: ECE
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <1696877.1053060490077.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
If it is ECE knowing that it can be carried on clothing is important to protect your other ones.
I suspect that it would pay to get in touch with the show organizers and ask if anyone else's ferrets have been reported with similar symptoms, and if so to have your veterinarians converse together; in that case i would expect that the show representatives would want to have their own veterinary experts join in the conversation no matter what the cause turns out to be. If someone has brought it into the UK and to ferrets there from the U.S or Canada (for instance on clothing) then that would be a sorry state, indeed. If it has happened then people will have to get used to the sorts of precautions that became necessary here. It's highly contagious and shows were a major route for spreading it during its early years among pet ferrets.
I would not automatically assume that it is this illness, but it may also be foolhardy to automatically assume it is not if there winds up being more similarities. Having your other ferrets not come down with it is on the plus side for it not being ECE so that is good news in more ways than one, but I would think that your vet and the show organizers would be interested in finding out if anyone has run into something similar.
There are many causes of diarrhea in ferrets and some of the other ones also are contagious.