Hi there, I'm looking to see how everyone else, especially the other
shelters are going to handle this ongoing and possibly urgent issue.

I just called Merial myselft to find out how much longer the IMRAB
rabies vaccines will be on backorder. (It's been 8 plus weeks already)
and when I called today, they have no idea when the rabies vaccines
that we use for ferrets will be back in stock.

Selfishly speaking, we host an annual Ferret Rabies Clinic and Health
Care Day each year typically in April, and have had to postpone it.

We are now unable to vaccinate ferrets at the shelter to maintain their
vaccinations and worse we are unable to adopt out ferrets until we can
vaccinate them for rabies and have a tag.

Yes, the vets do have "some" IMRAB rabies vaccine at present, but all
the vets I have contacted are starting to run low and soon will run
out.

How else is everyone handling this?

We took in five new ferrets from various sources (some were strays and
have been outdoors) and we have no means to vaccinate them. They are
all highly adoptable and we have a few families who have applied to be
forever homes.

The answer from Merial is that they are setting no timeframe
expectations and have no idea when or if the vaccine will continue to
be available from them......

YIKES

With all the ferrets at the shelters already vaccinating them to get
them into forever homes should be the least of our worries.....

Ideas Anyone?

Sincerely,
Diane Wall, South Shore Ferret Care

Diane - South Shore Ferret Care

[Posted in FML 6680]