Zen wrote: >Does your vet think a different corona virus is causing a different >disease? OR are we now labeling an older known disease with a new name?" >And "IBD as a diagnosis in ferrets seems to be a fad. ECE is not IBD. >ECE is a disease caused by a corona virus if I recall correctly". In my post about IBD in Utah kids I thought I was being clear what my vet thought, but perhaps my understanding or use of the word, "connected" was wrong? I didn't say he thought it was the same thing, or a different Corona Virus was causing a different disease. I said that he believes ECE (a Corona Virus) was CONNECTED to IBD in some way. Perhaps it is because of the internal damage ECE can do to the stomach lining, I have no idea, I am NOT a vet. He does know that IBD is a autoimmune disease. He did not just pull the diagnosis out of a hat thinking, "Oh this is the fad today, let's go with it". Both ferrets had surgery & had biopsy's taken & sent off to a lab & the lab is who determined both ferrets have IBD. Perhaps you don't take IBD seriously enough. I know that at least one of these 2 ferrets almost died from it. If he wouldn't have had the surgery he would have died & I wouldn't have known why. He had been to 2 different vets. I had thought he had a blockage. He had a X-ray & nothing showed up. He went back again because he wasn't doing good, another X-ray & still nothing. He went back again & she thought that since we didn't know his age, he might be an elderly ferret & old age was catching up to him. By this time he was lethargic, had lost a lot of weight & looked like a white fuzzy string bean with legs. I was still convinced it was something else so he went to a vet I know would do exploratory surgery on him. It saved his life. The second ferret also had a hairball that filled her stomach, so it was probably both that were killing her. It was touch & go with her. How many ferrets have this & waste away with people not knowing what is wrong? How many people don't have necropsy's done to find out what killed a ferret? When my ferrets are sick I take it very seriously & I do what I can to find out what is wrong & try to fix it. My post was only because I have 2 out of 11 Utah ferrets that have been diagnosed with IBD. I also have/had 3 with Insulinoma & 2 that have had adrenal surgery, which I realized I should have included in my post asking if anyone else, shelter's or individuals that have or had Utah ferrets have been seeing, these health problems. I am just curious if all of the stress these ferrets have gone through & the conditions they were kept in, has been showing up in the form of any of these diseases, such as IBD. Since we have no way of knowing if any of them have ever had ECE, we know for certain they have had a lot of stress. I do realize that shelter's take in many ferrets with these problems, especially the adrenal & I guess Insulinoma every day. I just lost 2 ferrets that were not Utah kids. They both had Insulinoma & adrenal problems so I know it isn't uncommon & only found in the Utah rescue ferrets. Perhaps my question was a dumb one after all & I do apologize for taking up anyone's time with it. IBD is serious & people need to know what it is & how to find out if a ferret has it & how to treat it. Lynn & Clan War Weasels [Posted in FML issue 3885]