>I have 5 ferrets.  One of them has a bacterial infection in her
>intestines.  She has been on amoxicillin, flagyl and pepto-bismol for 7
>days now and is showing no signs of improvement.  Now, it looks as if 2
>of my others are showing signs of the same thing.  When the one went to
>the vet, she was vomiting and had yellowish, mucuosy diarrhea.  The
>others aren't vomiting, but they have diarrhea, but it's not mucousy or
>yellow.
>
>Do you possible have any suggestions?
>
>I would greatly appreciate anything you could tell me.  I love my ferrets
>like family members, and it would kill me to see anything happen to them.
>And the vets here, aren't really informed on ferret medicine....
 
Dear X:
 
The fact that you have multiple animals now affected with diarrhea suggest
more than a simple bacterial enteritis.
 
There are a couple of conditions that can affect mulitple animals in a
household.  The first that I would think of in this case is ECE, or ferret
coronavirus.  Please check http://www.afip.org/ferrets for more current
info on this disease, and direct your vet to the following article:
 
Williams BH, Kiupel M, West KH, Raymond JT, Grant CK, Glickman LT:
Coronavirus-associated epizootic catarrhal enteritis in ferrets.
J Am Vet Med Assoc.  2000 Aug 15;217(4):526-30.  The diarrhea associated
with coronavirus infection is often mucousy, but may vary in color (it has
most often been characterized as green, but can be any color.)  A history
of a recent introduction of a ferret into a household within 72 hours of
the first animal getting sick, or a trip to a ferret show or pet store is
often associated with this disease.
 
Coccidiosis, an intestinal parasite, may also cause diarrhea in multiple
animals, and a fecal test on the affected animals would be advisable in
this case.
 
These are not the only causes of diarrhea in ferrets, but the first two
that should be considered when multiple animals are affected.
 
Amoxicillin, flagyl, and Pepto-Bismol is commonly used to treat
Helicobacter, a bacterial infection of the stomach of older ferrets, but
would not be my first choice in this particular scenario.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3736]