To Jennifer Sherriff:
 
>My question is, Vester had been exposed to ECE before I got a hold of him
>and I realized that in doing so he would expose the other three to ECE as
>well.  As it turns out only Symon has come down with a dose of ECE thus far
>and that was about two weeks after Vester came into the fold.  Shoester and
>Sebastian haven't shown any symptoms.
 
Chances are they have been infected (ECE moves to fast too have skipped
these two - especially if they run together and share food and litter
boxes).
 
>Can I hope that they won't ever?  I've been reading a lot about ECE to be
>prepared and I think I read somewhere there is a possible 4 month gestation
>time.  Does this mean that if I don't see the "greenies" in the next two
>months I can forget about them?
 
The gestation time (or really the prepatent period) is only 2-3 days.
However, infected animals can shed virus for 4 months or loner, so are a
danger to animals who have not been infected.
 
I wouldn't totally forget about ECE, especially if you have friends with
naive ferrets.  But I think if you haven't seen signs by now, you should be
in the clear....
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
Dept. of Veterinary Pathology               [log in to unmask]
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
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[Posted in FML issue 1502]