My questions are prompted by having just returned from a vet visit at which one
of two ferrets had an adverse reaction to her rabies vaccine. The ferret is
now stable and in recovery mode and the vet is going to notify the
manufacturer. Our vet also remarked that she was seeing quite a significant
number of reactions on the third anual injection. (This reaction was to
an injection of rabies only and was not involving a simultaneous injection
of distemper or anything else.) Now to the questions:
 
1. The dose of rabies vaccine is 1 cc per animal. Apparently this dose is
the same regardless of animal weight/size. I was told it is the same whether
given to a ferret, cat or a goat. Our vet seemed to be willing to contemplate
that a lower dose such as 1/2 cc might well be more appropriate to a ferret but
as the manufacturer recommends only a 1 cc dose there is no room for
discretion in varying the dose, probably because there is a legal document
in the form of a rabies certificate issued. My personal suspicion is that
the manufacturer is probably only recommending a single 1 cc dose as no
testing has been done with other doses. So my question is, what can we as
a group do to bring pressure on the manufacturer to perform testing on
lower doses?
 
2. I also had a couple of cats "done" today and I noticed that they are only
required to have a rabies vaccine every three years yet the ferrets are
required to have one every year. On enquiry I find that ferrets seem to be the
only common pet that require the injections yearly. My second question relates
to what we can do to get the ferret injections onto a three year interval? Is
this an issue of testing by the manufacturer or an issue of legislation by
the State?
[Posted in FML issue 1221]