I think there was some comparison going on btwn those illnesses in humans
and ferrets.  Certainly, there are both similarities and differences.  No
one who has experienced a serious lower GI tract illness, whether
personally or as an observer, would ever take them at all lightly.  Many
human GI tract disease variants, like Crohns, are ultimately fatal for a
great many people, and they cause severe and incapacitating pain -- truly
horrible which is why doing things to that region has for millennia been
an often repeated mode of torture everywhere -- not to mention also often
causing constant infection and inflammation.  Anyway, there are
similarities and differences among ferrets and humans.  For example, I
know that gall bladder disease in humans can cause inflammation of the
liver and pancreas secondarily, while in ferrets there are stomach
problems (even chronic moving blockages) which can do so.
 
I can understand where the "fad" comment came from since a lot of people
(non-vets) are calling anything GI "IBD" now just as there have been
waves in the past of folks calling anything GI "ECE".  Both are real
diagnoses when applied by ferret-knowledgeable vets, but the "diagnoses"
that ferret people come out with and sometimes insist on can be well off
the mark.  I'm not talking about people who read about a ferret and say,
"Test for such-and-such because it sounds like that." because those are
just saying, "Hey, this may be possible.".  I'm talking about the people
who "diagnose" without any background and stick to that like glue even if
the evidence goes against it since that has sometime led to failure to
provide need vet care.  There is a "flavor of the week" aspect that vets
and physicians talk about where things recently seen are more usually
thought of, but jumping on diagnosis fads is most common among non-vets,
as we have all likely seen.  I don't think that being aware of this
stumbling block amounts to not taking something seriously.
 
For me it was clear what you meant by "connected"; your vet had read
pieces by experts like Doctors Bruce Williams and Matti Kiupel who are
studying ECE and the causative coronavirus in great detail, including its
apparent ability to lead to later IBD.  IBD may well later be broken into
multiple other groups once more is known.
 
Sounded to me like the original post had been skimmed before reply rather
than read carefully so it was missed that the vet was the one making the
statements and diagnosis, rather than the second poster not taking a
lower GI tract problem seriously.
 
Once more: I'm not a vet.
 
>How many people don't have necropsy's done to find out what killed a
>ferret?
 
Too many.  WAY too many.
 
When it was hard to find ferret-knowledgeable vets we have all of them
necropsied and the vets would bring in other associated vets to learn
from.  Now that more vets know ferrets more we ask, same as we do with
post pathology samples.  Sometimes now it's not needed or desired, but at
times it really is, and provides an important learning vehicle to save
later lives.
 
In addition, necropsies with pathology (and sometimes toxicology) should
ALWAYS be done when an unexpected death occurs in case there is anything
going on which may endanger the rest so that it can be caught early and
have targeted treatment.
 
Necopsies save lives; sounds weird but they do.
[Posted in FML issue 3886]