From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2003-07-01 16:31:45 UTC
Subject: RE: precautions if not vaccinating for distemper?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6800626.1057077105898.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
If I recall right a vet here said that the figured aren't really known.
One of our past vet who moved to a different state (marriage) had at one point been treating a fmaily of ferrets with distemper and he was able to tell us a little about it, but that was some time ago so I am not sure of the years since vaccines for the ones who had been vaccinated.
What happened was that someone convinced a person that a wholistic "vaccine" for distemper worked and the person did not vaccinate the ferrets. Now if I recall right the adult ferrets went 2 or 3 years without vaccines though I could be misremembering. The ferrets who had not had vaccines since their first kit ones all died. The adults who had been vaccinated before survived, but were very badly damaged by the virus, so that may give a bit of an idea for limitations in terms of how long protection lasts after vaccinating can't be done.
That said, through the years we have had some ferrets who could not be vaccinated due to allergies or due to illnesses and we have found that simple precautions have worked for us even though part of that time was during a bad distemper outbreak. (Your vet can tell you how common distemper is aorund you and during bad times some extra caution would make sense.)