To:    Michelle Alverson
 
Your comment:
>Also- we are ECE contagious, basically considered to be forever.  Yet, if
>anyone studied any of our babies, they would never know this.  My question
>is to the shelters.  I was reading all the posts about incubation and I
>was wondering what you do about ECE.  A big shelter down here (in Miami)
>just shut down due to ECE- so if you are not yet contaminated -- how do
>you keep from being??"
 
it is not easy, but there are two options.
 
After being contaminated in 1993 by ECE, and tired of losing ferrets
because they came to the shelter in weak condition or exhausting myself
trying to feed double digit ferrets three times a day on duck soup and
working full time, I set up an ECE free part of my house.  It was easier
to wash myself and change smock and shoes than medicate ferrets.
 
How do you know if a ferret is ECE free?  Well, first off, no ferret came
into the house until I asked about exposure possibility.  If they had no
idea, I'd rather put the ferret into the ECE area and take care of one
sick ferret than contaminate my ECE free area.  How would the ferret be
contaminated?  Has this ferret been exposed to other ferrets?  Have you
ever seen stools with strange colors or smells?  Where did this ferret
originally come from?
 
How do you keep an area ECE free?  Brand new cages that never had a ferret
test them out.  Duplicating supplies for everything so NOTHING was
transferred between areas.  Litter boxes, food bowls, water bottles that
never get moved from cage to cage.  Constant monitoring, keeping cages
separated so ferrets could not touch or sneeze on each other, and constant
washing of my hands and changing of smocks (huge laundry bills and lots of
bleach and Novasan).  Sadly, I had to eliminate "run time" in the ECE free
area -- ferrets could not get out and play because there was no way I could
sanitize between outings.
 
People who adopted ECE free ferrets had to have no other ferrets or if they
could assure me the ferrets they had were ECE free, the ferrets still did
not come into the area.  They had to sign a release that if the new adoptee
got ECE, it was at their risk.  They had 30 days to find out if the ferrets
were compatible, and in that amount of time, we'd know if anyone had ECE
because it would contaminate the other in that period.
 
I got really tired of trying to keep the areas separate, so I stopped
taking in ferrets altogether and started a referral and placement service.
I keep lists of people who want to surrender ferrets, and match them to
people who want to adopt ferrets.  I don't have constant vet bills, sick
ferrets, and I have more time to play with my own ferrets.  I'm not burned
out.  I prescreen people wanting ferrets, and only refer those to people
surrendering ferrets who sound like good homes.  It works for me.  Of
course, as has been pointed out before, there is a full service shelter in
my area here to support those people who "have to get rid of the ferret
NOW."
 
Pam Troutman
Shelters That Adopt & Rescue Ferrets (STAR*)
[Posted in FML issue 3036]