In the middle of July my husband & I temporarily relocated to northern New
Mexico from Las Cruces (southern New Mexico).  At the time there were no
known local cases of ECE.  Regardless, having read the FML for several years
and having studied the FML medical FAQ's we felt the need to be ECE aware
and be cautious.
 
Shortly after the move to the northern part of the state, I returned to Las
Cruces for a doctor appt. for myself & took advantage of the time to look
for materialss to construct a cage & in the process found an adult
malnourished cinnamon ferret who was being kept in a shoebox full of foam
rubber bedding.  She was obviously stressed (paws held over her ears) from
also being placed in the immediate vicinity of many screeching birds!  I
paid her ransom I drove directly to our local vet, where she was examined
and vaccinated for distemper & rabies.  The vet shook her head and was not
optimistic about the ferret's health - evidently she heard a serious
arrythmia in Jazzy's (I named her Jasmine...whoever left her in the store
where I found her left absolutely no information or history concerning the
fuzzling!) heart and noted that her tail was sparsely furred, a possible
indication of adrenal disease.  Her fur was in poor condition but otherwise
she looked like she was okay.  For the hot 5 1/2 hour trip north, the vet
gave me ice packs & I improvised an evaporative cooler with a wet towel.  My
husband graciously let the new fosterling & I in the door when we arrived
(much to my relief!) :}
 
Shortly afterwards we realized that it was going to be impossible to isolate
her from our 4 other ferrets & we were not being successful in our efforts
to find her a home with caring folks who would be willing to assume
responsibility for her medical risks.  Thus we let her into our fold.  Three
weeks after Jasmine joined the family, SHE AND all of our other ferrets
began having the dread "green diarrhea".  Everyone showed symptoms at the
same time.  I wouldn't have expected Jazzy to be the ECE carrier & come down
with it at the same time!
 
After a month of agressive treatment with amoxicillan, flagyl, peptobismol,
and pedialyte the symptoms diminished and the ferrets regained weight &
energy and the poops pretty much became "mormal".
 
NOW, three months later, the "green diarrhea" has struck again and five furr
girls have it.  And it is even more acute than the first go round... Is this
going to keep happening?  Are they going to apparently recover, and then
later on have it recur again & again?  I don't remember seeing anything
posted that would lead me to believe this would be the case.  Or can they
catch it again?  We have been VERY CAREFUL not to have any contact with
anyone even remotely related to ferrets except for the vet & as far as they
know, our ferrets are the only ones they've seen who have it so it doesn't
seem like this would be the case.
 
Has anyone else experienced this?  We were off line all summer so if there
was anything posted we may have missed it.
 
Thanks,
  Cyndi, Mike, Halley, Rikki, Tika, Tavia, & Jasmine
[Posted in FML issue 1716]