I'm sorry to hear about Uwe--Max Holmquist's ferret--passing away. Max was trying to find some answers about why his year-and-a-half-old ferret had died so suddenly: >The vet said he has had cases like this before, where a ferret dies >suddenly from something a weakened immune system could not fight off... and >Is it possible I just got a bad ferret from [Marshall Farms]? First, did Uwe have a known immune problem, or did the vet just suppose that must have been the case because the ferret died so suddenly and so young? There are tests that can determine whether an animal has a suppressed immune system. Were these done, or was the diagnosis of immune suppression based on observational evidence only? The reason I ask is that animals with suppressed immune systems often don't die suddenly but usually go through a period of decline and increasing illness before passing on. And animals that are born with serious immune dysfunction die *very* young--weeks old. As for a connection to Marshall Farms, or any other breeder for that matter, immune function can be inherited and it's theoretically possible for ferrets from one breeder to be more robust than others, but as I suggest above, the evidence doesn't necessarily indicate that this *was* immune related unless Max can tell us more. What we do know about ferrets is that they are very susceptible to respiratory infections and this was known around the turn of the century--long before there ever was a Marshall Farms. Infectious diseases like influenza don't care where the ferret came from. They will attack any susceptible host. Uwe may not have needed to have an immune problem to get pneumonia. It may have just happened. Finally, Anatole Mori posted info from Mary Van Dahn on the use of Pepcid to treat ulcers in ferrets with ECE. Sounds like good advice, and Pepcid has a low risk for toxicity, too, so it's not likely to do any harm. I did want to add a word of caution about the use of Imodium (loperamide HCl) for ECE. Please be *very* careful with this drug for your ferrets and consult your vet about proper dosing. First, loperamide is an opium derivative (no, you can't get stoned from it) and *very* potent. The dosage for adult humans is only 2 mg. Second, be absolutely certain that the infection is *NOT* a bacteria or parasite if you use this drug. Some intestinal bacteria and parasites damage the gut by producing toxins. This is how cholera, shigella and E. coli cause such acute illness. (The toxic strain of E. coli, known as "O157,H7," was the culprit in Jack-in-the-Box hamburger poisonings and the recent Odwalla juice contamination in Western North America.) The body's response to these toxins is to flush them from the gut--i.e., the severe diarrhea. BUT, loperamide inhibits the ability of the gut to move and all of the toxins can get trapped where they continue to do their damage. This is not a concern with viruses that causes enteritis. These are not known to produce toxins on their own. So, for any ferret with symptoms of ECE, please make certain that you have ruled out bacterial or parasitic infection before using Imodium/loperamide. You could make things worse if your ferret is infected with a toxin-producing bug, rather than the ECE virus. --Jeff Johnston ([log in to unmask]) [Posted in FML issue 1748]