I'll try harder. (The glare of a monitor still bothers my eye a bit so
I am on in short bursts and having to sleep with breaks due to needing
post-surg eye Pred drops in the middle of my sleep cycle. Tonight I
finally can sleep without the time up in the middle for drops because
today is my last day of those.)

I have not been online much, but it sounds like elsewhere someone may
have reviled a shelter for getting ECE. I hope that I understand right
what is going on though I don't like it.

**IF** my impression is correct I dislike that for two reasons:

Firstly, I don't like people kicking others when they are down. Caring
for dozens of sick ferrets at the same time classifies as being down
in my book.

Secondly, anyone who would blame a shelter when it gets ECE probably
knows far too little about the disease. That lack of knowledge is
downright SCARY. For that reason I am adding this note so that the
info and links included can be carried elsewhere to save ferret lives:

THIS FML POST MAY BE CARRIED TO OTHER FORA AS LONG AS IT IS UNALTERED,
COMPLETE, AND PROPER CREDIT IS GIVEN TO THE FML AND THE AUTHOR (Sukie
Crandall). I will carry it to the FHL myself.

Offhand, i can think of three ways a shelter can be exposed without
warning:

1. It can come in on shoes and even on some clothing with visitors or
volunteers.

2. Kits can have asymptomatic infections and infect others.

3. For as long as eight months after symptoms have ended the infected
ferrets can shed the virus and spread it.

Yes, it also can come in with symptomatic ferrets, or with ones who
have been infected but just have not broken with the illness yet, too.

Sadly, the AFIP site is offline so many newbies have never read about
ECE.

I will include some ways to read newer resources on ECE below but to
get the older writings (very clear on care info) by Dr. Bruce Williams
you can use http://archive.org/

You will need to enter
http://www.afip.org/ferrets

but today I can not get it to work so can not take you through the
steps.

Ah, GOOD! I had the info here:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL14295

so these should work for you directly but give the pages time to load:
<http://web.archive.org/web/20000816025122/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/ECE/ECE.html>

<http://web.archive.org/web/20000818082024/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/babyfood.html>

The GI tract pathology section no longer exists but this overlaps with
some of the data from then:
<http://web.archive.org/web/20000818082141/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/Clin_Path/ClinPath.html>

and you can get to other articles from Dr. William's AFIP website using
this URL but again give time to load:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000816025117/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/

The identifying tests for ECE (also called Ferret Enteric Coronavirus)
and for the mutant of ECE which is Ferret Systemic Coronavirus (also
sometimes called FIP-like coronavirus because it acts like dry FIP does
in cats even though it is not FIP) are done ONLY by the Ferret Health
Advancement lab at Michigan State. They are genetic tests. If I recall
right the tests for ECE can involve just feces, but the one for the
systemic disease needs tissue.

http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/

A number of other locations can do a GENERAL test that just says that
some type of coronavirus is present. Some vets like to do the general
test first to be sure that there is a coronavirus, and some just then
say that it is ECE/FEC if the symptoms are right, or FSC/FIP-like if
the symptoms match those.

Here are some CURRENT URLs with correct info on these two coronavirus
diseases:

http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Publications.php

http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Presentations/

http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Diseases/Gastrointestinal.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21862468

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/8/11-0115_article.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20682435

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3234644/?tool=pubmed

(Notice above that they MISTAKENLY call it FIP rather than FIP-like
even though there is the world of difference since it is NOT FIP.
This is why the specific GENETIC viral IDs are so essential!)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20079778

http://vet.sagepub.com/content/45/2/236.long

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18263918

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18067916

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16617048

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16499943

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10953717

It is thought that ECE originally came to fur farm ferrets from fur
farm mink and here is info on a new mutant of the mink disease:

http://vir.sgmjournals.org/content/92/6/1369.long

Sorry, but I think that I missed including the link to one of the two
genetic tests on the systemic and enteric versions.

[Posted in FML 7453]