From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2009-03-10 18:13:07 UTC
Subject: Re Vaccination Reactions Re: [ferrethealth] Digest Number 1463
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Just a quick lesson on allergic reactions:
Although some things are more likely to
cause reactions then others there is a set
pattern of events.
First there is an exposure. This may be the
first exposure but more often it is a later
exposure. The more exposures, the greater
the chance of a reaction, which is why true
food allergies are more likely to happen with
foods that are eaten often like favorite foods,
or like rice in southern Asia but wheat in
northern Asia (except for some reactions which
are simply more common such as crustaceans).
It is also why researchers are trying to find out
how much less often CDV vaccines can be given.
(How YOU CAN HELP:
http://www.ferret.org/news/07-april-titer_study.html )
Sometimes the initial exposure is to something
else which SHARES A COMMON INGREDIENT which
is why a number of people who react to bananas
also react to latex, a number of people who
react to lobster will react not only to crab and
shrimp but to iodine, and a number of people
who react to potatoes will react to tomato and
eggplant which are among the solanaceous relatives.
It is also why some ferrets react to more than one
type of vaccination, though luckily most of those
who react do not do so.
THE INITIAL EXPOSURE PRIMES THE BODY FOR
NEXT TIME, but a reaction does not happen with
that priming exposure.
Normally, the vaccine will teach the correct portions
of the immune system to respond to the disease and
kill it off before it can get a foothold. Teaching that
lesson can cause some of the normal immune system
responses to illness and hence some illness symptoms
but those are not a reaction; they are an expected
response.
When the wrong portion of the immune system
learns that lesson the body instead acts like it is
under major attack ON THE NEXT EXPOSURE to that
item. So, if one you you don't react to ragweed but
at the beginning of the next ragweed season you do
then your body learned the lesson wrong the previous
year. If you didn't react to a yellow jacket sting you
had five years ago, but last week when you got stung
again for the first time in 5 years your throat rapidly
swelled then the priming exposure was 5 years ago
and this time was the reaction.
It is not uncommon for people to confuse the normal
response of the immune system learning the lesson
correctly with a reaction, but they are completely
different.
There are multiple types of allergic reactions from
Stevens-Johnson, to anaphylaxis (which is what we
discuss in life-threatening reactions), to allergic
rhinitis (runny nose), to asthma, etc. and they vary
widely in severity.
BTW, the bloody flux that happens with anaphylaxis can
sometimes occur is because the blood cells are just washed
across the membranes because the fluid loss is so
very rapid. (If there is bloody flux with Stevens-Johnson
Syndrome then the cause is necrosis of the mucus
membranes in the intestines. S-J also causes dermal
necrosis. I have not heard of that syndrome in ferrets,
though it could theoretically happen, and it is incredibly
rare.)
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