From:
AFERRETVET@cs.com
Date: 2004-03-06 16:44:16 UTC
Subject: Re: Vaccine reactions
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <d9.506b099.2d7b59e0@cs.com>
Hi everybody,
A lot of the post have mentioned separating the
vaccines by 1-2 weeks "to prevent" reactions.
Unfortunately that will not prevent reactions! It will
just tell you which vaccine they are reacting too.
Plus in a semi-recent article from the U of Georgia,
both the rabies vaccine and the (Fervac-d) distemper
had roughly the same reaction rate if giving together.
or when they are giving by themself. The new Merial
Purevax distemper vaccine has a lower reaction rate
and a much lower rate of the severe reactions.
I have not seen a severe reaction since changing to
the Merial Purevax-distemper vaccine!!
As far as pretreating to prevent a vaccine reaction,
the owner can give liquid beneadryl roughly 30 minutes
prior to the vaccine. However if the ferret has had a vaccine
reaction previously then check to see which distemper vaccine
was used. Obviously change to the Merial Purevax distemper
if either Fervac-d or Galaxy-d was used previously. If it was
just a mild reaction then merely changing to Purevax may
solve the problem, but it would be a good thing to give Benadryl
to be safe. However if it was a moderate to severe reaction then
I use cortisone prior to the vaccine to prevent a reaction.
No, the cortisone will not prevent a immune response to the
vaccine, but it does prevent the vaccine allergic reaction.
Remember dogs, cats, and even humans have vaccine reactions.
Unfortunately ferrets do have a higher rate of vaccine reactions
(roughly 5% in the U of Georgia article).
Hope that helps,
Jerry Murray, DVM