Dear Laurel:
 
>Help, I have three ferrets extremely ill with diarrhea. I know this has
>nothing to do with the adrenal/insulinoma context of this list but I saw
>someone else on here saying about their ferret Barry having bad diarrhea.
>I almost lost my smallest girl and none of them are out of the woods yet.
>They are on clavamox and flagyl.  Is there something new and deadly going
>around?  My vet was very vague and said it wasn't ECE but had no idea what
>it was.  I recently introduced a new ferret into the group after he was
>pronounced healthy and I thought it was stress at first but now all but
>one of my older ferrets are ill.  Any ideas?
 
Once again (I find myself saying this all of the time) - why is it not
ECE - ferret coronavirus, the agent of ECE is by far the most common cause
of outbreaks of diarrhea in households - not one ferret, but multiple.
There aren't a lot of diseases that cause that presentation.
 
Have there been any new introductions, visitors, or even a visit to the
pet shop within 2-3 days of the outbreak?  What is the characteristics of
the diarrhea?  Are you force feeding them, and have you switched them to
a bland diet?
 
If you have no idea what something is, it is generally not a good idea to
say what it's not.  At this point, I don't think ECE can yet be ruled
out....
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
(Cross-posted from the FAIML for good reason....)
[Posted in FML issue 3293]