I didn't catch the original message that brought this up, and I'm not sure that I can add anything at all to what was asked or commented about. Except to say I have two older ferrets that have been "diagnosed" with inflammatory bowel disease. A change in diet was suggested, away from chicken-based foods, not that the vet thought it would help necessarily but it couldn't hurt. They eat duck & potato cat food now, but generally I would guess a change in diet wasn't very helpful. Their vet basically called it an auto-immune disease, and to that end they were both put on immuram. Their vet is investigating if there is any connection between undiagnosed/untreated inflammatory bowel disease and lymphoma. Neither of these ferrets ever had ECE, as far as a connection between that and inflammatory bowel disease. Zooey has had a history of not dealing with environmental stress very well and having diarrhea as a result. Anyway Linus is 6 and has been on this medication for a year. It has improved his condition to the point where his lab tests look normal (except for a case of hepatitis). Zooey was 6 years and 10 months old, and was on the medication for 9 months. She was much worse off than Linus, and recently succumbed to her intestinal problems. The meds, for her, controlled her problem but didn't improve it. She died this Monday, October 30th. It was a struggle for her to let go. Very very hard for me to watch, I've had her for 5 1/2 years. Maybe that might help whoever asked about inflammatory bowel disease, and maybe it won't. but it's a touchy subject for me so please don't tell me neither I nor the vet knew what we were dealing with. Their vet is actually quite knowledgable about ferrets. Minta & Linus and Zooey [Posted in FML issue 3224]