From:
Mike
Date: 2011-06-28 16:03:42 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Distemper confusion and Vitamin A
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
When I posted about my thoughts on Vit A and whether it could ward off Distemper, they were not and should not be construde as a recommendation to use Ferretone (since it is high in Vit A) in place of Distemper vacinations.
Distemper is a horribly brutal disease, for ferrets, and my heart sinks when I hear about a fuzzy contracting this disease.
Any shelter which is faced with an outbreak of distemper is faced with one of the most critical situations that it can ever face. No one should ever have a bad comment to make about a shelter which has an outbreak like this. These shelters are doing a great service by taking in these wonderful animals. They provide Love and attention and they care deeply about them.
All the discussion about distemper has my head spinning. One says to vaccinate twice for ferrets who you don't know about vaccination history and other says run a titer before because giving a vaccination to a ferret with a high titer has a higher chance of reaction, and other talk about different vaccinations and their availability, reaction rates, effectiveness. Its all confusing.
Ferrets need to be properly vaccinated against Distemper. The thought of Vit A was that maybe it could be used in conjunction with vaccinations. Ferretone has a high amount of Vit A, but it also has other ingredients and the amount of ferretone should be kept low, so please do not bathe the ferrets in ferretone or give it to them unitl it drips out their ears as this will most likely cause harm to them. The only ancesters of Ferrets is other Ferrets and as such they can't tolerate large doses of some of ferretone's other ingredients.
Mike
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[In sum, from previous discussions:
The 'ideal' strategy in an adult ferret with unkown distemper vaccination history is to run a titer. If the titers are above 64, then the ferret likely has immunity and does not require vaccinating.
If titers are below that level then give Distemper vaccine and booster 3 weeks later.
If you do not check the titers, then vaccinate and give booster 3 weeks later.
The ideal vaccine is Purevax by Merial. - Moderator (TD)]
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