To Lindley Gardner:
 
>I'm not a vet, but the "grainy" looking stool you speak of smacks of ECE.
 
    While ECE now has to be added to our list of agents that cause poorly
formed stools, I doubt we have to put it at the top of the list with a new
addition to the household.  Now, I'm not familiar with ECE in Arkansas
(doesn't men much - I don't know of every case, and ECE has been seen in
Texas.
 
    But we also need to remember that there has been a sudden food change,
and a change in environment, both of which may have adverse effects on the
transit time of food in a ferret's intestine - so-called "stress diarrhea".
What I didn't see in the original post was the length of time that Idgie
has been living in your house.
 
    Debbie has it right - "seedy" looking stools means that the food is not
being totally digested - this is a non-specific sign that we see with
decreased transit time, ECE (where the intestine itself has a decreased
absorptive area, pancreatitis, etc.  But remember that it can be caused by
a number of conditions, not just ECE.
 
    I would certainly investigate the possibility of ECE by contacting the
person you got Idgie from and see if she might have been exposed.  But the
fact that your other ferret has not shown any signs (this disease is shed
for a LONG time), sort of goes against the ECE theory.
 
Bruce H. Williams, DVM         Dept. of Veterinary Pathology
Chief Pathologist, AccuPath    Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]         Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
                               [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1246]