Have your vet report that batch of Fervac to the maker AND to the FDA
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/ade/pharmacobrochure.pdf
to download file on federal reporting of adverse veterinary drug
reactions.
 
There aren't any unusual levels of CD around us this year so we are
holding off for when Merial again makes the Purevax Ferret CD vax (which
hopefully will be soon since the West Nile vax for horses, and Lyme vax
have been very sadly and very frustratingly displacing it during the
Summer months).
 
We STRONGLY believe in vaccinating when possible (some very elderly
ferrets, sick ferrets, or ferrets on chem can not be vaccinated) because
CD is worse than an anaphylactic reaction.
 
What confuses me is that I recently have heard of two (2) ferrets who
have died of anaphylactic reactions.  Death almost never happens, so
this is very usual, even with my hearing about medical things in fora
involving probably over 15,000 ferrets and a number of vets.
 
When death happens there are two things to seriously think about:
1. the batch was bad
   or
2. the response to the reaction was not swift enough or was not done
   properly.
 
With humans in our family who go into anaphylactic shock as well as past
ferrets who did we are very familiar with the procedure.  FIRST GIVEN is
epi!  In a study of hundreds of human emergency wards it was found that
a fully 1/3 did NOT do this first; there was a recent human medical
journal article decrying the risk or death or of brain damage involved
in emergency ward personnel not knowing this.  If there is one thing
that HAS to be done first with an anaphylactic reaction it is getting
that epi in!  If blood pressure is dropping (and it usually does in
ferrets which is why they pass out, and is due both to swelling and to
dropping fluids so fast intestinally that the fluids literally flood red
blood cells right across the cellular membranes) then fluids need to be
given.  Steroids help reduce respiratory inflammation (in some humans
extra Singulair is given off-label for this use if the individual has a
counter-indication for steroids such as ocular hypertension, but
sometimes sight does have to be sacrificed to treatment in such a case).
Antihistamines fight the histamines released during an allergic reaction.
Rapid treatment is essential which is why several school systems have
been used because of the teachers or monitoring playground personnel not
having a child's epikit immediately handy (Systems which require such
things to ONLY be in nurses offices or locked in desks have resulted in
several needless deaths and several children with needless brain damage.)
[Posted in FML issue 4617]