From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2007-04-07 16:07:23 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Purevax reax
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Yes, all of the figures do agree that Purevax causes much fewer anaphylactic reactions
than Fervac did.
Yes, such reactions occur in individuals who have never reacted before. Going now from
work in humans: the most common time for humans to develop new allergies is in the
prime of life, their 20s. This may be because the immune system is so very strong then.
In humans food allergy anaphylactic reactions are more likely with some things that simply
seem to be common triggers (like peanuts or crustaceans), or they are more common to
things to which the individual has the most exposures, such as favorite foods which are
often indulged in, or to rice in Southern Asia, but wheat in Northern Europe.
The reason is this: allergies develop when the body confuses an item with an invader.
First there is an exposure to the item or to something which appears similar to it in which
a part of the immune system "mislabels" it as an attacker. Then the next time the
individual breathes, ingests, is injected with, or otherwise takes in that allergen the body
mounts a massive attack. The massive attack is that allergy reaction. You can see why
many exposures increases the risk factor.
Don't confuse the normal draggy feeling after a vaccination with an allergic reaction. That
is the kind of response which says that the right part of the immune system is reacting in
the way that it should to build up immunity.
Symptoms of anaphylactic reactions can include a number of things (but not necessarily
all) like bloody flux (from fluid loss so rapid that blood cells are carried right across the
membranes), passing out, extreme redness (which is not to be confused with other causes
of extreme redness like insulinoma, CO poisoning, or niacin overdose), trouble breathing,
respiratory swelling, facial swelling, etc. With immediate care most individuals survive
those reactions but that is not always the case even with proper care. The archives tells a
lot about how to care for these individuals in some great past vet posts.
In 26 years with ferrets we have had perhaps 4 or 5, maybe 6 who reacted to vaccines.
Only two of those reacted to rabies vaccines. The rest reacted to Fervac, Galaxy, or both.
Our personal habit is to no longer vaccinate ferrets who have reacted with an anaphylactic
level reaction with the same vaccine, and we stop vaccines totally for one who has reacted
to multiple vaccines, but we do vaccinate the rest.
Note here: in at least the case of Fervac there have been places which had multiple ferrets
react to the same batch of vaccine. At least one reported that shelter's vet suspected
mishandling of the vaccine by a distributor rather than an otherwise bad batch. The vet
got rid of the vaccine acquired through that distributor and began ordering the vaccine
directly with the result that reaction rate greatly decreased according to the shelter's note
to the FML years ago.
Reactions should be reported in case of bad batches.
Second note here: In a series of studies reported in _Biology and Diseases of the Ferret_ it
was found that if something like 75% or 80% (Check me for the figure) of the ferrets in a
large colony were vaccinated then the rate of infection of the UNvaccinated animals was
low, presumably because having so many individuals who could not pass the infection
greatly reduced exposure risk. The inverse experiment was also tried in which only about
a quart of the ferrets were vaccinated. In that experiment all of the UNvaccinated
individuals died. To top it off, in other studies by the time symptoms began there had
already been long enough exposure that vaccinating was ineffective. Do not take that as a
reason to not vaccinate when CDV shows up because there have been shelters which
vaccinated after the infection was recognized and had survivors who might otherwise not
have made it.
The very reason that Dr. Ruth Heller and a team of vets working with her (and perhaps a
second team unless the two have combined after their initial work) have done preliminary
work into canine distemper titers, and will be doing a larger study now is to get the
foundation data for knowing how long canine distemper vaccines may last in ferrets.
There will need to be further work after the titer data has been found, but this is the
necessary first step.
Yes, it could be that the vaccines last longer than they have so far been tested for, but it is
dangerous to assume how long that may be, especially in an area with high CDV rates, or
in a household where no ferrets are being vaccinated, where some animals go outside,
where shoes are brought inside, where there are people who work in settings that increase
exposure (example animal pounds), etc.
Note here: Many years ago (so when Fervac was the most common vaccine) a local vet
had a client transfered to him from a vet to whom the ferrets were brought after another
health provider failed to help the ferrets. That client lost her younger ferrets
(unvaccinated) to canine distemper and her older ones were very ill from it. It was never
clear quite how long it had been since the older ones had been vaccinated, and the guess
was 2 or 3 years but it could have been longer. Notice that guess was not able to be
checked. What was known was that in the intervening time she had been convinced by a
NON-vet to try what they person called a "holistic vaccine alternative" or something
similar. Well, the alternative didn't work. With a great deal of veterinary care the older
ferrets did survive but with neural damage and with tender health.
Second note here: Long ago many vaccines were grown in eggs. Those types (which are
no longer made) had a higher rate of problems and cost substantially more. (Today of the
common vaccines only traditional influenza vaccines are made that way.) Yet the ferrets
who were successfully vaccinated with those vaccines had extremely long protection, even
life-long in one study done on ferrets to postulate for dogs. More modern vaccines do not
seem to confer protection for as long as those old types, but only study will tell just how
long there is protection. It does indicate that perhaps a life-long vaccine may be able to
be developed at some point.
What we do personally:
We get the rabies vaccine annually. The rate of reactions to that vaccine is very low and it
provides a lot of legal protection as per
http://www.nasphv.org/Documents/RabiesCompendium.pdf
and
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/professional/professi.htm
etc.
allowing for variations among the states since states set their own rabies policies and
health department designs.
Until more is known, we have chosen to risk having the canine distemper vaccine every 18
months during years when there is not a huge CDV problem locally. That may not be
appropriate for others, so is not a recommendation, just a note. Meanwhile, we want the
current research to continue, followed by challenge work that hopefully substantiates it.
Those who do not vaccinate need to take special precautions, for example, leaving shoes
outside, and not letting animals walk outside. A vaccine reaction is very frightening and
more so when treatment does not work, but canine distemper is far worse given what the
ferret goes through before death occurs and given the infectiousness of the disease.
Anyone who has ever known an animal who was driven mad by it can easily attest to that.
Sukie (not a vet)
Current FHL address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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