[story first for background, questions at end...sorry it's so long!]
Hi- we took my boyfriend's ferrets went in for their distemper shot today
and one of them, Scooter, a 10 month old male, had a reaction to it.  We
hadn't given him a distemper shot yet (he had one before we got him), the
older 2 have had them with no problem, and the other young one was fine.  I
really wish I had watched him more closely :-( Of course there have been
postings on this list before about distemper shot reactions but I didn't
pay much attention because it had never happened to these guys before.  But
I had just read a blurb *this morning* over breakfast in a ferret magazine
that said you should wait at the vet's for 15-30 minutes after the shot to
make sure there's not a reaction, but we'd never had a problem and since
the vet didn't make us wait, I trusted her...
 
The vet does treat some ferrets but isn't extremely knowledgeable about
them (we're in CA- she's the best we've had).  So they didn't make us wait
under observation after the shot at all or ask if the younger ones had had
the shot before (the 2 younger had been vaccinated once before we got them-
never by us)- we just took them on the 10-15 minute drive home.  When we
opened the door of the carrier, the other 3 ran out as usual.  Scooter (who
has always been the most active and alert) came out but was having a lot
of trouble walking- stumbling around, etc.  He then went in the bathroom
and either threw up or had diarrhea (I didn't watch but saw the result).
I immediately knew something was wrong and I picked him up and he was
absolutely limp- I mean dead weight, no attempt to support his body at
all.  Normally he'll let us hold him for several moments but then start
squirming.  There was no movement.  His eyes were open and we noticed his
tail seemed to have puffed up.  We did the "test"- my boyfriend held a
raisin up to his nose.  No reaction.
 
We called the vet and they said to bring him in.  We raced him back to
the vet- I sat in the back seat while my boyfriend drove 95 mph down the
freeway.  It was so horrible- he just kept getting limper and limper and
having trouble keeping his eyes open.  I thought we might be losing him.
 
The vet immediately gave him Benedryl (for all of you who responded to my
question last week of why you would ever give a ferret Benedryl- THANK YOU.
I didn't know I'd be needing that information, but if the vet hadn't done
it on her own, I would've told her to use it), then a steroid, and he
vomited and lost control of his bowels several times and had bloody
diarrhea.  They then gave him as much fluid as he could hold and he puffed
up like a fat little beaver :-).  She said she'd seen a few, very mild
vaccine reactions in ferrets before, but she didn't think the shot could've
caused this, it was so severe-- she'd never seen anything like it, but he
was fine before the shot so we knew that had to be the cause.
 
She was going to send us home with some other stuff to give him, but I
asked if they had Internet access there so I could look this up and see if
there was anything else she could do for him before they closed for the
weekend.  Bless her, she was totally in favor of me finding some info for
her- not defensive like some doctors can be about their lack of knowledge-
she wanted to learn anything I could find.  I went to ferretcentral and
some of the links from there and each one listed the same symptoms of an
anaphylactic reaction to distemper vaccines-- he had almost every one.  She
was really surprised to see that, but asked me to write down the sites for
her :).
 
The articles didn't say anything about how life-threatening the vaccine
reaction could be or mention anything else to treat it other that what
she'd already done- except to watch for dehydration.  By this time (about
20 minutes after we first brought him back to the vet), Scooter was
much more alert, although not at all himself.  He seemed confused and
uncoordinated, but he was sniffing at things and walking around a bit.
So we left with more prednisone (steroid), an anti-vomit/diarrheal agent, a
bag of fluid to be given subcutaneously, and some antibiotics (she thought
the bloody stool may be a result of a bacterial infection, although we told
her he'd never had that until right after the shot...), cautions about
dehydration and what to do about it, and instructions on how to administer
the drugs.
 
Of course it has to be a holiday weekend, so they're not open again til
Tuesday, but the vet even gave us her home number to call if we needed her,
and the number of an emergency clinic- although I hope we don't need it-
she didn't want to know if they'd treat a ferret and I'm not sure I want to
find out by bringing him in.
 
So it's now been about 4 hours since the reaction.  I have looked in all
the litter boxes and everywhere and see no more vomit or diarrhea at all.
He is still running around a bit and getting more active, it seems.  He
ate some food (his normal food), I gave him some water and he drank some
water on his own from his bottle.  He seems fine, although still a little
off-kumnmjun (he wanted to type a note to you all just now- I guess it's
encrypted :) off-kilter, but improving.  I'm actually surprised after his
ordeal that he's not sleeping with the others, but maybe the meds acted as
stimulants or something.
 
We asked the vet assistant if we should continue to give all the meds even
if he seemed to be improving, and she said YES.  She said that, even if he
seemed better and didn't vomit or have diarrhea, to still give them all.
But to only push the subcutaneous fluid if he wasn't drinking and was
losing fluids.
 
So, my question is this: if we have a 10 course day of all these meds, but
he seems a lot better, do we still give them all to him?  I hate to put a
bunch of meds into his already-shocked system if he doesn't need them, but
we really have no experience with this.  If someone (especially the vet who
sometimes answers questions!) knows anything about this, please email back
to the list.  I guess I'd rather err on the side of giving the meds, but
I'm not sure about the antibiotic at all, and if he's not dehydrated or
having diarrhea, I'm not sure whether we need to give him those things
either.
 
Also, the vet said she never wanted Scooter to get a distemper shot again-
that he'd be fine without it and she didn't want to risk him having a
reaction again- that it could possibly be fatal.  I read a few places
online that you should "pretreat" a ferret w/Benedryl the next time you
give the distemper shot if he has had a reaction to the shot previously.
Is that safe enough?  Will it really prevent a reaction?  I'm worried he'd
have another reaction, and since the other 3 ferrets are vaccinated and
they don't come in contact with any other animals, is there a big risk
with not vaccinating him again?  I feel like we have to weigh the risks
between getting distemper (unlikely I think??  but I know it's 100% fatal
to ferrets), or giving the shot with a potentially severe reaction.  Does
anyone know if this kind of reaction can be fatal?  Or cause long-lasting
consequences?
 
I really appreciate any help or advice you all can give me.  I've come
to the conclusion that, as nice and well-intentioned (and somewhat
knowledgeable about ferrets) as this vet is, my boyfriend and I (which
usually means me :) need to take responsibility to be as knowledgeable as
we can about their health and educate the vet whenever possible to help
her take care of them better.  I mean, I do that with my own healthcare
and doctors, so why should it be different for them?  Anyway, thanks in
advance for any responses- I really appreciate it.
 
--J.
(and G. and Scooter, Daisy, Freddy and Peanut)
[Posted in FML issue 3165]