The Kind Dr. Williams wrote:
>One additional comment - a difference of opinion on the veracity of the
>diagnosis of a syndrome called "IBD" in ferrets does not mean that I am
>at opposite ends of the spectrum with a practitioner on his/her practice
>of ferret medicine.  Dr. Charlie Weiss and I, for example, are good
>friends and have been for years.  We commonly argue about the legitimacy
>of the diagnosis of IBD, yet this does not diminish my high regard for him
 
I have been following this discusion with great interest.  I trust both my
personal and the shelter ferrets to Dr. Weiss, and travel an hour to do
that.  I too feel that more research must be done.  I also think you might
not be to far off on your assumption that IBD is coronavirus related.  I've
had the unforunate experience of having two family's who adopted from me
have ferrets come down with IBD shortly after adopting.
 
The History - I did an unknown breeder rescue back in early summer.  I
haven't had any active ECE for a couple years, but since my own personal
ones were around then, not sure if it's dead or not.  Two of these rescued
ferrets and a couple other shelter ferrets and two of my personal ferrets
came down with diarrhea, brown, not green, they were nauseated, wouldn't
eat, lost weight etc.  The breeder ferrets bounced back quicker, but kept
relapsing.  The shelter ferrets didn't do too bad.  My own personal ones
seemed to take it the worst.  I took in stool samples and nothing was
found.
 
One family adopted one of the males.  She has had two ferrets diagnosed
with IBD.  Another family adopted a shelter ferret that had not been sick,
but was there at the time this was going on.  She now has three diagnosed
with IBD, the latest just recently.  So it seems to be spreading some.
None of mine have had continuing problems so I haven't had them tested.
Both parties also use Dr. Weiss.  The medication does seem to be helping
them all.
 
I don't know if I'm just being paranoid, but something seems fishy about
the timing and the multiple ferrets in a HH getting IBD.
 
Faith
[Posted in FML issue 3289]