From:
"Roger Vaughn"
Date: 2004-03-05 04:01:33 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] RE: reactions to two shots
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <49871.192.168.132.39.1078459293.squirrel@mail.seaconinc.com>
Hi Caity.
> The vet in question has been treating ferrets (and
> other animals) for 34 years and has taught (and I
> believe still guest lectures) at the local
> university's veterinary school. I trust his
> judgement. I can ask him the "why" question if you
> like at the next appointment.
I always like to know "why"; like to know a person's reasoning. I'm
just not one to take things on faith. No disrespect to your vet -
I'm sure he knows his craft very well - but I'm just curious how he
arrived at this protocol as I haven't heard it before, even from
other very experienced ferret vets. I find that the answer is often
"because I have always done it this way and it seems to work" rather
than anything more compelling. Not that that's necessarily "wrong"
either - I'm just curious how he developed that protocol.
As I said, it was particularly the three-day prior dex that caught
my eye because, by human measures, that would leave at best only one
third of the original dose in the body by vaccination time. (I did
originally think the half-life was lower, which colored my thinking
- before I actually did the math on it, I suspected the first dose
would be approaching zero by vacc time.)
I'm not doubting your vet; I'm just curious.
On a side note, does anyone know if corticosteriod half-lives vary
from the human standards in ferrets?
> I think the decision to vaccinate or not vaccinate
> depends on the benefits vs. the risks. The point of
> my post was to show that it is possible to pretreat to
> avoid an anaphylactic reaction, though it takes fairly
> aggressive and long pretreatment. If someone has a
You did an admirable job at that, and it's very valuable
information. I'm not contradicting you at all, I'm just curious how
your vet arrived at that particular protocol.
Thanks!
roger