To Jennifer Sherriff: >My question is, Vester had been exposed to ECE before I got a hold of him >and I realized that in doing so he would expose the other three to ECE as >well. As it turns out only Symon has come down with a dose of ECE thus far >and that was about two weeks after Vester came into the fold. Shoester and >Sebastian haven't shown any symptoms. Chances are they have been infected (ECE moves to fast too have skipped these two - especially if they run together and share food and litter boxes). >Can I hope that they won't ever? I've been reading a lot about ECE to be >prepared and I think I read somewhere there is a possible 4 month gestation >time. Does this mean that if I don't see the "greenies" in the next two >months I can forget about them? The gestation time (or really the prepatent period) is only 2-3 days. However, infected animals can shed virus for 4 months or loner, so are a danger to animals who have not been infected. I wouldn't totally forget about ECE, especially if you have friends with naive ferrets. But I think if you haven't seen signs by now, you should be in the clear.... Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP Chief Pathologist, AccuPath Dept. of Veterinary Pathology [log in to unmask] Armed Forces Institute of Pathology [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1502]