Dick Bossart wrote:
>The "birdseed" stools only mean that there are pieces of undigested
>food from rapid passage through the gut.  It's semi-diarrhea.  It does
>not mean ECE. ...
 
Dick, why do you eliminate ECE as a possibility?  In 93 when my guys first
contracted ECE, after the initial period of green slime and every variation
of green that exists on the earth, all their stools became grainy-looking
with that "birdseed" appearance.  Many others I've spoken with also had
ferrets who went through "birdseed stool" after ECE.
 
Yes, you're correction in that these are undigested food particles, but with
ECE, the intestinal lining which absorbs food can be destroyed causing food
to pass on thru (sorry, meant to say "correct" rather than "correction"),
resulting in the birdseed appearance.
 
While there may be other causes for stool to have a birdseed appearance,
ECE is also a possibility.
 
Debbie Riccio
WNYFLFA
Rochester, NY
[Posted in FML issue 1548]