FERRET-SEARCH@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG
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Date: | Wed, 20 Apr 1988 12:14:22 -0400 |
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[Thanks for the warning about ducts.
Regarding rabies: the cat and dog rabies vaccines *do* seem to work
with ferrets. The main difficulty is making sure that your vet uses
the *right* one. The "standard" (most common) vaccine is dangerous to
ferrets because it has been cultured in ferret cells by the labs. However,
there are vaccines that have been cultured in other media that should be
safe. For example, our vet has to make sure he's using canine/feline
distemper vaccines that have been cultured in eggs. Interestingly,
our vet recommended that we don't vaccinate our ferrets for rabies. He
said that the only way our ferrets could contract rabies was via infected
animal, and that the only way for this to occur is if we let our ferrets
loose outside. And, if we did, we'd lose the ferrets anyways. Basically,
he was saying that the rabies vaccine itself had significant risk - combined
with the non-rabies risk in taking care of the ferrets in such a way that
they *could* catch rabies outweighed the actual risk of catching the disease.
Even in Ontario - the rabies capital of the world.
This is similar to the current thinking about smallpox vaccinations - the risk
of severe adverse reaction to the vaccine, though very low, is now actually
higher than the risk of catching the disease. Unless you visit a place where
the risk of infection is considerably higher... Smallpox is almost, but not
completely eradicated.]
[Posted in FML 0018]
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