Hi all,
 
I suppose the title is some kind of an eyecatcher, hey?  Well, it sure was
intended that way.
 
A few months I posted about the first outbreak of ECE here in Belgium that
started after some people begun to import US ferrets.Well, it seems it's
surely here and it's here to stay.  Since last tuesday 2 of our 3 ferrets
are exhibiting the full scale of symptoms connected to the disease.
 
We were at a frolic on sunday (organized by the importers.  Duh?  stupid
us!!) with our youngest, Kahless, and let him play with the other ferrets
in the ferret playground.  Monday night Kahless showed the first green
slimy thready stinking stools alternated with bird-seed-like ones.  The 2
others kicked in tuesday morning.  Same "shit".  :o< A visit to the vet
took our doubts away.  He was the one who tested some ferrets at the first
outbreak through elimination (stress, coccidia,...) We were send home with
some medication to start a supporting therapy to keep the animals as
comfortable as can be.  Some Immodium to counteract the diarrhoea-phases,
Phosphalugel to sooth the irritated gut, Synulox (an Amoxicilline-based
antibiotic) to fight secundary infections and some Prednisone as a general
anti-inflammatory.  After re-reading all the ECE-stuff on FerretCentral I
added a Belgian replacement for Pedyalite to keep the electrolytes to their
normal level.  Result so far?  The young one Kahless (7months) is just as
described in the ECE articles: he has the strange stools but otherwise a
pain in the butt as usual.  Not to big a problem to him.  Our albino
Odo(2y) showed the symptoms only one day.  A poop-check after every of his
bathroomvisits shows nothing wrong.  So he's off the meds.  But the
problemchild seems to be our Neelix(2y).  With him we're already at the
stadium of forcefeeding.  Whenever the poor little thing just even smells
food, he crawls away.  He's acting as if the food is going to attack him,
so nauseated he is.  After 3 days of meds it seems that the meds are
finally starting to help him a bit.  From time to time he eats some mushed
food on his own and his stools are getting a little bit firmer from time to
time.  The first 2 days you could use him to spray-paint a wall
brightgreen.
 
I used a messenger to give the news to the people who import the ferrets,
my own contacts with them aren't already to great due to voicing my remarks
on their policy.  So they can at least pass the message to the other
clubmembers.
 
The messenger is having her own ferret-frolic this weekend so she really
freaked out and asked me what to to.  I told her there wasn't really much
she could do.  Cancel her thing and/or try to inform the attending people
as good as possible on what to look out for.  Knowing in what a pitiful
state the medical information on ferrets is here in Belgium I hold my heart
and pray.  She asked me to come over and have me inform her members.  No
way, I don't want to go spreading around this disease and be kept
responsible for this.  And since I don't have an astronauts' suite to keep
me sterile....
 
With all those problems a question popped up: is it possible to pass ECE
to, let's say, a dog or a cat?  Might be a stupid question and it might
already been answered but we just wonna play it safe.
 
Sometime ago talks started on the new Zupreem food and someone reacted that
the name rang a bell.  Correct, ask Bob.  I remember Bob writing about it
in some grey past.  ( I must have descended of the elephants, my mind sure
works in the same way anyhow)
 
bye for now, time for another forcefeed session
 
Stef
 
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ferretpower.yucom.be  (Sorry folks, only in Dutch and in very
embryonical stage.)
[Posted in FML issue 2871]