ECE causes the infected ferrets to continue to shed virus for up to 8
months afterward. As you will see some remain ill afterward, and some
who have had a particularly rough time of if never have their small
intestines re-attain normal health, or can have kidney damage if too
dehydrated for too long, etc. See:

http://www.afip.org/consultation/vetpath/ferrets/ECE/ECE.html

(There is a necropsy picture but if those bother you cover that part of
your screen because the info in the article is important.)

The expert advice there is as good now as it was 10 years ago. And be
warned that there is also bad advice out there.

I have Dr. William's standing permission to copy and carry sections of
his articles on his website so here is how this article ends:

>There are a lot of unproven claims about ECE circulating on the
>Internet. This tends to cloud the diagnostic and treatment picture,
>and ultimately are damaging to ferrets and their owners. Some of the
>unfounded rumors that I have heard include:
>
>1. ECE is a form of influenza (it is not - ECE has no respiratory or
>systemic effects). Influenza is a type of paramyxovirus, not a
>coronavirus.
>2. ECE is airborne (no, but as it extremely contagious and can easily
>be transmitted by owners between cages via dirty hands, clothing, or
>shoes.).
>3. ECE is a primary liver disease (no, the liver is only affected due
>to mobilization of fat due to not eating)
>4. Infected animals shed the ECE virus forever. (We don't know
>precisely how long the virus is shed - best estimates are
>approximately 6-8 months for healthy animals. That does not mean that
>they have cleared all the virus, only that they are not spreading the
>disease.)
>5. Ferrets commonly break with the disease again after exposure to a
>clinically ill animal. (This is also not likely; a far more likely
>explanation is that following infection, a damaged intestine such as
>those shown in the pictures above is more susceptible to recurrent
>bouts of malabsorptive diarrhea following stress or a dietary change.
>It is likely that immunity, if not lifelong, is certainly
>long-lasting. The presence of young animals with no clinical symptoms
>in a facility undergoing an outbreak of ECE is likely proof of this.)
>6. There is a new variant of ECE causing oral ulcers (self-inflicted
>oral ulcers are common in ECE, due to nausea.. Cases of the "new
>disease" that I have seen are due to lethal infections of coccidia.)
>
>This is just a sampling of the misinformation available on the Net.
>There are also a rash of unproven treatments available including a
>wide variety of antibiotics including Flagyl and cephalexin, as well
>as homeopathic treatments and "special ECE diets". Be careful as to
>what you read, and make sure your information comes from a well-
>regarded source.

Since then a new form of ECE has arisen. That mutation is called
"Systemic ECE" formally, but in the common parlance is often referred
to as "FIP-like coronavirus". It is a mutation of ECE and multiple
genetic studies illustrate that very well. This is a much more serious
illness, though enteric ECE can be serious enough. It is NOT FIP, but
it BEHAVES like FIP coronavirus behaves, so it is an ECE variant which
acts like FIP. To learn more about the pathology for each of those go
to:

http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
click open
Ferret Diseases
to reach
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Diseases/
(and notice how many ferret health topics have their pathology covered
with info to help all!
Then click open
Gastrointestinal Pathology
to reach the pdf:
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Diseases/Gastrointestinal.pdf

The section on ECE begins a bit more than 1/3 of the way down when you
scroll.

IMPORTANT:
The researchers of the Ferret Health section of MSU are currently
looking for specimens of either ferret coronavirus samples from enteric
cases (ECE) and systemic cases (FIP-like ECE disease). They are trying
to sequence as many samples as possible. If you have any ferret ECE
cases, they want fresh feces. If you have any FIP-like cases, they
want fresh tissue from biopsy or necropsy.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6660]