Hi fellow ferreters: I have not posted in about 9 months or longer, but during my absence(sp?) I hadve lost one of my babies. A week before x-mas my SO bought me a new baby ferret, to add to my seven already. (exactly what I needed! haha :) ) My new little Shamus was kept seperate from the others in a smaller cage, but I introduced then for a short while each day. All of a sudden green poops started to appear from about 5 of the 7 and the baby was totally healthy. A couple of days later all the ferrets started having normal poops and one kept having green diarhea, my little Dakota. This poor thing kept getting worse. I took her to a vet who didn't know too much about ferts. He did a fecal test and said everything was all right. He gave my some antibiotics, but she continued to worsen. He poops had been black for 2 days and she stopped eating. I was force feeding her. The saddest thing is that she started to drag her body around because she couldn't walk any longer and she would push herself to say hello when mommy walked by her cage. (I kept her seperate from her fert friend as soon as I realized how bad she was) Needless to say I brought her to another vet and they said she would not make it through the night. She did but she wouldn't absorbe any liquids form her IV so I had to put her to sleep. (Hardest descision I ever had to make) My little Dakota ( a sweet doll face, fuzzy kissy face) is now on the other side of the rainbow bridge waiting for mom to throw her a raisen. Does anyone know if this was the dreaded ECE??? I told all the vets I took her too about the disease from reading about it here. But they never heard of it. They said I had to take her to some specialist in New York City (I live about 35 minutes outside) But I tried to nurse her back, she was already half dead when they told me. This is the most horrible disease- It is like cancer, slow and painful, but my Dakota was always sweet, never bit me cause of her pain and went out of her way to be petted during her illness. Please I beg you, be very careful bringing a new ferret friend home. I have 7 so I know how difficult ferret math can be, just be very careful. I am now one ferret-less :( Bye from the carpet sharks & their mama too Baby, Zoe, Wiley (SUPERGENIUS), Samson, Delilah, Bonkers & Shamus DOOK< DOOK< DOOK [Posted in FML issue 1891]