Sonia:

I know it might not feel like it now, but you were lucky. I took my
sweet boy, Pedro, in for his distemper vaccine a few months ago and he
had a horrible reaction. The vet is very cautious and had pre-treated
with benadryl and had us stay there half an hour just in case of a
reaction. Sure enough, he had one with a vengeance while we were still
there. Our vet did everything humanly possible - even personally
transported him back and forth to the emergency clinic after office
hours - all free of charge, I might add. None the less, two days later,
we lost our baby. Just like you, we felt terrible to have taken a
perfectly healthy, happy ferret in only to have this happen, but what
do you do?

I've had to accept the fact that no vaccine is 100% effective or
risk-free. I know that distemper is 100% fatal, but the vaccine was
100% fatal for my Pedro. So, from now on, we will have the distemper
titer level test done on our ferrets before vaccinating, and our vet
is totally on board with this. The study is being done by Dr. Heller
and the AFA and you can find out about it at
http://www.ferret.org/news/07-april-titer_study.shtm

It's so heartbreaking when something like this happens, but all we can
do is try to make the best, most well-informed decisions that we can
to care for our ferrets.

Take care -
Judy Stickley
Chelsea, Alabama
Owned by: Possum and Emory.
Remembering: Pancho, Cisco, Trucker and Pedro

[Posted in FML 5785]