After the virus strikes, your ferret will not be able to digest solid food at first. Even if the virus is found, no antiviral treatments are available that could treat the virus itself. Talk with your vet. These drugs can do more harm than good in situations where the gut is reacting to a toxin, so use these drugs with close supervision. Young, healthy ferrets seem to weather the infection better than older ferrets.
Some ferrets never seem quite as robust following an outbreak.
You may see signs of weakness or malnutrition and ask your vet about food supplements. Some ferret owners report that their ferrets have recurrent bouts of ECE at intervals of about six months although it is generally believed that once a ferret recovers from ECE, it is probably immune from further infection, although it may continue to be infective to other ferrets for months after the initial illness. For more information on ECE, contact the Triangle Ferret Lovers. If every ferret owner contributed just a dollar for the rabies shed study, we would have six million dollars and a proven quarantine period for our ferrets. This is tax deductible.