To Jeane Stadtmiller:
 
>Everyone mentions vomiting.  I was an original  "participant" (if you
>will) of the Greenies...NEVER had vomiting.
 
     I had not heard of vomiting in the early reports of ECE.  However,
when we transferred the disease to naive, healthy ferrets, vomiting was seen
as th first sign in 80% of the animals.  Once the animals broke with the
diarrhea, vomiting was not seen again.
 
     Believe it or not, vomit is very difficult to tell from the very
liquid stools that these animals break with (although you don't have the
high content of mucus and the bright green color.  I was able to pick up on
it, because we kept a close watch on the ferrets and ha them in cages with
white plastic bottoms.  If they vomit into litter or bedding, you are very
hard pressed to tell it from diarrhea.
 
     I didn't expect it either, but it's a very transitory early sign.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
Dept. of Vet Path, AFIP
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Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
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[Posted in FML issue 1264]