I have been reading all the opinions on ECE and would like to add my
comments.  Please pardon the spelling errors, I can't seem to find the spell
checker in AOL.  I know I can do it, but give me some time to figure it out.
 
First - It is possible that the breeder that Rudy the ferretloper referred to
forgot to mention ECE to the new owner.  You forget, here in the
Washington/Baltimore metro area ECE has been around since early 1993.
Everyone (and I mean everyone) in the ferret community has had it and has
been living with it for over 2 years.  It just becomes part of your life and
if you haven't had an outbreak in over a year you don't worry about it.
 
Second - If you expose either yourself or your ferrets to any other living
creature you expose yourself to disease.  This is true for the flu,
chickenpox, measles, common colds, canine distemper, rabies, etc.  The older
you or your ferret is, the harder any disease hits you.  The only sure way to
make sure you never catch anything is to not have contact with the world.  I
don't know about you, but I am not willing to go to that extreme.  I am a
breeder and do not want to inbreed so I have to have contact with other
breeders.  The reason I breed is to provide heathly, well tempered babies to
other people.  They have to enter the world sometime.
 
Third - Yes, ECE is highly contagious, but it also fairly easy to treat.  In
early 1993 there was a high mortality rate since nobody knew what we were
dealing with.  However, like cholera, what killed the ferret was a secondary
problem or dehydration.  I would bet (Dr. Williams please verify), that the
mortality is now much less than 5% which is where it was last year.  If you
treat the dehydration and let the disease run it's course in a younger
healthy ferret, the ferret lives.
 
My conclusions:  Expose yourself and your ferrets while they are young and
healthly.  Build the immunity in the ferret.  Don't wait and accidentally get
it when your babies are old and sick.  If you have old and sick ferrets, by
all means let them live like hermits.  But don't ever take them anywhere,
don't let anyone touch them, don't let anyone in your house, and don't get a
new baby until all your existing babies pass over the rainbow bridge.  If you
come into contact with other ferrets or ferret owners, decontaminate yourself
and your clothes in an area your babies are not allowed in.  Becuase as near
as I can figure, that is the only way to be sure you don't bring it home.
 
Kathleen Cheeseman
1/2 of Dancing Bottom Ferrets
Woodbridge, VA
[Posted in FML issue 1247]