Last year someone who knows I work in an animal hospital emailed me about
Galaxy D.  They said that someone was telling the shelters in their area
that Galaxy D had been approved for ferrets.  I asked our Schering-Plough
rep about this.  The answer I was given was this: they are aware that
people use it in ferrets.  It was never tested on ferrets, it is NOT
approved for ferrets, it is not licensed for ferrets.  They have no
plans in the near future of pursuing this.  IF you use it on ferrets
it is completely off label and you do so at your own risk.  Meaning IF
something were to happen to your ferret after using it, the company will
not stand behind it.  It is the reason the AFA recommends only Ferrvac-D
and Purevax.  They are approved and licensed and while it may have been
used by some with little or no problem, it would be wrong of them as a
public organization to recommend that it's members do something with a
product that the company itself does not stand behind.  There are legal
permission slips that veterinarians have clients sign when using
something off-label, saying they do so with their permission and,they
understand the risk and that the company nor the vet can be held
responsible.
 
If you go to Schering-Plough Animal Health website
http://www.spah.com/usa/search/searchProd_sep.cfm
it states Galaxy- animals APPROVED- Dogs.
 
If something has changed, I would think they would change their website.
I will call our Schering rep tomorrow and find out if I can get it in
writing, or have them post it here.  NO vaccine is 100%, but the
companies who have spent the time and money to approve and license
vaccines specifically for ferrets will stand behind their product and
work to improve it.  As far as taking titers to determine immunity
levels, we just received info from the lab we use on the recommendations
for this.  The paperwork we received did not mention doing this for
ferrets, it was the first thing I looked for, only dogs and cats.  I
may be wrong (and again I will find out) but I do not believe there have
been any current studies on this in ferrets.  There are no guarantees
that you will not have a reaction with any vaccine labeled or otherwise.
Some of my personal ferrets have had near death experiences.  There a lot
of determining factors, including the individual animal immune system.
But my own personal decision is to vaccinate every year as I have always
done with a licensed vaccine.  For their safety as well as my peace of
mind.
 
What is a guarantee , is that if you do not vaccinate and you house
multiple ferrets and they are exposed to distemper you will lose many if
not all of them.  It is 100% fatal to ferrets and although I have never
seen it in ferrets, I have seen it in dogs and it is a horrible thing.
Each person has to decide for themselves about vaccination, but if you
take your ferrets into public situations, you also have to consider the
well-being of other ferrets you come into contact with.
 
Pat Stauffer
Weasels
http://pages.prodigy.net/staufferp/
[Posted in FML issue 4550]