Hi everyone,
 
Well, the lab results are in.  Boomer and Buster showed "heavy growth" of E.
coli and Snookie a "heavy growth" of pseudomonas.  We are treating with a
10mg/ml suspension of enrofloxacin for the next 10 days.
 
It's nice to finally know what my guys have.  Boomer has lost more than 1/2
pound but has been slowly gaining weight recently.  I'm still at a loss as
to how they got it.  I hate not having answers!!  :-) It occured to me that
at about the same time the diarrhea showed up, the guys had been eating from
a bowl in which I had put a couple sample packs of a different kind of food.
I wonder if the food had been contaminated.  My vet says that E.  coli
occurs naturally in the intestines (just which part of the digestive tract,
I can't remember) and that stress, either good or bad, can cause a "growth
spurt" of the bacteria and can lead to the infection of the other ferrets
via fecal/oral transmission.  I will visit the pet store where I got the
sample packs and see if any other animals have gotten sick.
 
As usual, if any of you have any questions/comments/suggestions, please
contact me.
 
-Mark Zmyewski
 Huntsville, Alabama
[Posted in FML issue 1743]