Hello all
I've been meaning to write about this subject, and the following post
really prompted me:
>Has anyone seen any reactions with FerVac-D lately? A local vet has
>seem some pretty bad reactions. I am not familiar with the lot numbering
>system United Vaccine uses, but the vet gave me what she thought was the
>lot number. It is SER FC14, expiration date 12/01.
On August 22nd, I took my four guys in for their annual FERVAC-D
vaccination. Two were vaccinated with lot FC13, and two were vaccinated
with lot FC14. Unfortunately, I don't have their records here with me at
work, so I can't check to see which ferret had which lot, but I believe it
falls out this way:
Beau (FC13): Mild reaction, vomiting [treated with injectible
dexamethasone]
Goose (FC14): No reaction (surprising considering he is the 'sick' one
with adrenal disease, insulinoma, and three vaccine-related
masses removed from him)
Maybelle (FC13): No reaction
Spikey (FC14): SEVERE reaction, extreme swelling, redness, and fluid in
lungs; according to the vet, Spikey 'crashed' and they
brought him back [treated with injectible dexamethasone
and epinephrine]
Spikey stayed at the vet's overnight for observation, and they sent him
home with me the next morning. It took him *a few days* to return to
anything approaching normalcy. He was very lethargic and was breathing
through his mouth (I think his nasal passages were swollen shut). Per the
vet, I gave him clavamox for a week to prevent any infections from settling
in his lungs and prednisone to help him recover from the swelling and
remaining reaction symptoms. The good news is that Spikey is fine now -
a little thinner, but OK!
Curiously, the vet did not give Spikey any fluids while he was there, and
he was indeed really dehydrated when I took him home. Fortunately I can
(and did) do SQ fluids at home. I'm thinking that the vet didn't want to
add any fluids to his body since his lungs filled up with fluid as it was,
but at the same time I don't understand why he was dehydrated and wasn't
treated for it. They also did not administer oxygen which I've heard is
helpful in treating reaction patients (they only have masks, not an oxygen
tank). While my vet is wonderful (24hr. emergency service, 5 miles from
my home, etc.), they do not treat a great number of ferrets, so they see
*very* few reactions, and they said they'd never seen one as bad as
Spikey's.
I did check with my vet, and they do report any vaccine reactions to the
FDA and United, so at least that's covered. The question for me arises
as to what to do next year. The vet swore up and down that we shouldn't
vaccinate Spikey, even if we pretreated him. He said that Spikey's
reaction was just too severe to risk it. This office does not administer
Galaxy-D to ferrets as it is 'off label' use, and since they don't treat
many ferrets, they're really not up on all of the details. At this point,
I think I'm going the same route as another FML'r in that I'd like to run a
titer test each year and see how things are going. Spikey's four now, so
he could conceivably make it to seven or so before his titer levels start
dropping... Thoughts? Comments? Advice?
I did a few searches for related information and I thought that people
might find the following to be useful:
There's a well-written article on the subject of vaccine reactions at
http://www.vin.com/PetCare/Articles/VetHospital/M00617.htm (by Dr. Susan
Brown)
And another at http://www.oregon-ferret.org/1997/August97.html (by Dr.
Jean Wardell)
If your vet needs the appropriate reaction reporting form, go to
http://www.ferret.org/vaccinations.htm (towards the bottom of the page).
Best wishes,
Gina Hart/Sage Ferrets
http://www.geocities.com/sageferrets
[Posted in FML issue 3169]
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