>Can Coccidia stay dormant in a ferret for a long period of time,
>and come back to life at a later time?
 
Dear X:
 
No, that's really not how it works with the coccidia that cause
gastrointestinal disease.  These coccidia are adapted to complete their
life cycle in the intestine in a period of days - they don't have
extra-intestinal forms which could persist for a long time without
finishing their life cycle.
 
There are some coccidia, though, that do live in ferret tissues for a very
long time, such as toxoplasmosis, but they never complete their life cycle
in the ferret.  They are ingested, migrate through the tissues of the
body, usually hole up in cysts in the brain, and remain there until the
animal is eaten by another predator, at which time they can infect the
predator.  However, it is only if that predator is a cat that these
organisms will ever complete their life cycle and be passed in the feces
as infective eggs.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3691]