From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-12-01 20:53:49 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] shots
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6922527.1101934429616.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> Hi
> After bad reactions in my babies time and time again (severe vomiting,
> diarrhea, etc.), my vet and I decided that my ferrets would NEVER AGAIN
> get any shots!!!!!
If your ferrets are related to each other then realize that the propensity to get anaphylactic reactions runs in families. When I have heard of clumps where a lot were involved there has consistently been either of two things going on:
1. The ferrets are related
2. There was a mishandling of a batch of vaccine or a bad batch for some other reason
BTW, those reactions and batch number in such situations should be reported to the USDA and the manufacfturer.
Do be usre to keep eveeryone's shoes away from your ferrets, too. CDV can be caught from aerosol sources by ferrets (in experimentation in the 50s and 60s), and can certainly pick it up from shoes which track it in.
In experiments of vulnerability if something like 70% of a colony were immunized then the risk of CDV going through even the vulnerable members was greatly reduced due to disruptions in exposure. (BTW, ferrets shed the virus before they show symtoms.)
There appears to be some immunity for a while after the vaccines, but for at least one of the vaccines there is not immunity or resistance for as long as the older and no longer made vaccine types which were "avianized", i.e. grown in eggs. (We had a case locally years ago of ferrets who had not been immunized for something in the range of 2 to 3 years who survived it but had lasting neurological damage.)