Okay, first off, while there is an outside chance that the vaccine
played a part, the probability of even a delayed reaction in a ferret
occurring in any time frame longer than a few hours in a ferret is really
negligible. There are a lot of fearful myths out there, but myths rarely
save lives.
Better candidates for the death include ulcer (could be secondary to
ingestion of a foreign body) topping the list, poisoning, JL with an
unusual but possible presentation, etc.
So, possible, but not the best candidate. It is impossible to draw
conclusions without have a necropsy with pathology and in this case
maybe toxicology.
Secondly, the research for ferrets i lacking -- pretty well completely
lacking.
Many, many years ago (well over a decade ago) a number of the canine
distemper vaccines were "avianized", i.e. grown in eggs. These days
influenza vax are pretty well the only vax still made in that way.
Avianized vaccines had a much higher reaction rate, but ones developed
for dogs were tested in ferrets. and some of those gave 5 to 7+ years
of protection in the lab ferrets.
That has NOT been the case with the more recent types of vaccines when
an exposure has occurred after too long a hiatus between vaccines. We
had one such case in our area. Unfortunately, not all info was readily
shared so all that could be documented was that it had been 2 or 3 years
since the older ferrets had been vaccinated. Those ferrets (unlike the
non-vaccinated ones who died) die survive but with brain damage and
serious health damage. So, we know that for at least one of the vax
around at that time (This was before Purevax.) either 2 years or three
years is too long between canine distemper vaccines.
This should not be a surprise for anyone because when you look at your
human vaccines you find ranges in time protected. For example: 1 year
influenza, 5 or more years (depending on recipient's age) for pneumonia,
10 years for tetanus, 15 years for small pox, about 15 to 20 for measles,
etc.
Now, it is true that the more exposures to a vaccine the individual
has the greater than chances of reacting. That is also why people who
develop true food allergies (rather than intolerances) tend usually to
be allergic to things they had commonly eaten, and often to favorite
foods -- which happened to me, actually, so now I can't even recall what
my once favorite food even tasted like. With allergies part of the
immune system confuses an item with an invader and the immune system
learns that. Then the NEXT time the body is exposed (or sometimes
exposed to something similar enough) a reaction occurs because the body
thinks that it is dealing with an extreme invader.
Deaths from anaphlactic reactions are rare if the vet provides Epinephren
and other supportive meds in a timely fashion (i.e. always remain at the
vets for a while after a vaccine and at your allergist's after an allergy
shot).
Our own choice is to do the rabies shots annually, but we do the
distemper shot every year and half. It seems to be the best of all
worlds until more is understood. I wish there were the funding from the
ferret world for such testing to be done because it would be so much of a
help. The last I heard there still wasn't even enough data to accurately
enough interpret the titers. Hey, when people want change they have to
band together to constructive create change, and in this case rather than
walk on ice while blindfolded it would pay to acquire the firm footing
and clear vision that only careful species specific inquiry can provide.
BTW, what works for one animal can not be generalized to anther. When
the original testing of several pre-selected rabies vax was going on to
see which would work in ferrets there was an interesting finding with
one of the vax that worked for along time in dogs. It protected ferrets
from rabies for no longer than 6 months. Be really, really careful of
generalizations because they do kill.
So does Canine Distemper and it is one of the most horrible ways for
anything to die that I have seen.
[Posted in FML issue 5004]
|
