Excerpts from mail: 21-Dec-92 Ferret List Issue 383 by Ferret Mailing
List@ferr
> When I called the vet this week I spoke to the other doctor (as in the
> one I _didn't_ speak to the first time).  He said that they'd observed
> similar reactions in dogs to rabies vaccinations, but this was the
> first of their ferret patients to react in this way.  The lump _is_ in
> the approximate place where she was given the injection.  He said that
> these lumps take 1 or 2 months to go away.  It's been 5 1/2 to 6 weeks
> since she was vaccinated.
>
> I'm supposed to keep tabs on the size of the lump and whether or not
> it becomes tender.  Since the vet suspects that this is just scar
> tissue from the injection, he said that the worst case would be that
> it could abcess if it isn't reabsorbed soon.  There's always the
> chance that this is a tumor, but the vet said that it would be unusual
> to see a tumor in such a young (4 1/2 months) animal.
 
I had my babies both get lumps after a distemper vaccination. I gave it
to them myself and I was terrified that I'd somehow done something awful
(like mistakenly insert the vaccine between the layers of skin or
something). I found that if I rubbed it, it went away faster. I bet the
lump is from the vaccination ... I've had cats get them, too -- both
from me and from the vet -- so it's apparently not as rare as I'd
thought originally. I would like to know, though, why they get them
sometimes. I thought I might have pushed a hair fiber under the skin
with the ferrets ... (I thought a LOT of awful things about myself) ...
but they got them next time, even though I was absolutely certain I
hadn't done it again. I was getting paranoid to the point where I was
ready to shave them where I was going to give them the shot!!
 
So if anyone knows anything more, let me know ...
 
--Barb--
 
[Posted in FML issue 0387]