Having watched all the ECE related mail over the last month or so I am
wondering about a situation we have had. The symptoms seem very similar.
 
About 1.5 years ago we had a 15 month old sable and a 12 month old white. Both
Marshall Farms originally. The white one came down with diarrhea which in two
days became very liquid and nothing seemed to work for a couple of weeks. This
stuff was always very liquid, came out in a jet (although not as strong as
described by others), was intially a yellowish color and turned a bright green
within an hour. Some vomiting but not a lot. A couple of two or three day
hospitalizations were needed along the way. (Injected medication and fluids
would get her on a road to recovery then she would relapse on returning home
when amoxy was the medication.) Eventually she stabilized after putting her on
prednisone. Weight loss was from 1.8lb to about 1.2lb and it took six months
before she _started_ to put any significant weight back on. (She is now a very
healthy 2 lbs.) By now we had become experts in accurate measurement of ferret
food intake and weight tracking!
 
About 9 months after the onset of the previous case we adopted another sable
from Dick Bossart.  She was fine but both the others developed a diahreah
which was very loose but not like the original case and full recovery was
within a month and a half.  (They probably just got stressed after being
dragged around by the throat every day by Dick's little angel!) If the
original case was ECE (which we still don't know) it did not get transmitted
to the original sable or to the new adoptee.
 
Three months later still we acquired a two year old male.  He came down with
diarrhea within a day or two of playing with the others.  The same very
liquid stuff coming out in a jet of yellow that turned bright green in an
hour.  Again nothing seemed to really be effective.  Chloro...  and pepto
bismol eventually seemed to slow it up but we went into a period that lasted
three months where he would have a normal stool and eat well for a day or so,
then relapse to diarrhea and stop eating for a couple of days.  This lasted a
good three months with the period getting longer till the cycle time was
about 7 days.  The diarrhea got gradually less extreme as time progressed.
There was no significant weight regain for about six months and only recently
has he put on about a quarter of a pound.  (He originally lost a little over
one half pound.)
 
I do not know that these two cases were ECE although the symptoms seem very
similar. Two other ferrets were unaffected (maybe they were carriers or
previously exposed). Prednisone was the only thing that worked with one of
them. The cycling in and out of recovery was apparent in the other. At
this point I'm hoping it was ECE so that the risk of getting it again is
reduced!
[Posted in FML issue 1261]