Re: Another FerVac death
>This shouldn't have happened.  No vaccine should be allowed on the market
>that can do this to an animal.  I am angry.  Not at the vets, but at the
>vaccine and the reaction.  This should NOT have happened.
 
I am truly sorry for your loss.
 
But if all vaccines that ever had anyone animal (incl.  people) react to
them were pulled from the shelves, there would be no vaccines available for
anything.
 
Out of our four ferrets, 2 react to vaccines.  One reacts to the rabies
vaccine and the other distemper.  After nearly dying, the rabies reactor
doesn't get that vaccination any more.  The distemper reactor doesn't have
as extreme of a reaction as the other so with premedication we still have
him vaccinated.  (Canine distemper is too deadly and easily caught in our
minds to not persue the vaccination if at all possible.) It is with dread
and trepidation that we get our ferrets vaccinated every year.
 
This past year we found that a third ferret had a localized reaction to the
distemper shot.  She ended up looking like Quasi-modo for a few hours
because of the swelling.  I guess we have the luck.
 
As a non-ferret related sidenote, my uncle who used to be a firemen has a
particularly heart-wrenching story of an emergency that they responded to.
It seems friends of his had a small baby that had stopped breathing.
Regardless of my uncle's and the EMT's efforts, the baby was pronounced dead
at the hospital.  A vaccine reaction was the culprit.  So even the vaccines
that save our lives can be problematic.
 
While this is not intended to scare anyone into avoiding vaccinations, it
is, hopefully, a reminder that we must be as observant and careful as
possible in regards to any vaccinations.
 
BTW, I believe our webpage has the full reaction stories. Our URL is:
http://www.servtech.com/~greenman/ferrets.html .
 
-kim (Sorry, guys! You're getting them anyways!), squirt (no more shots!),
 pippi (no more shots!), atlas (no more shots!), and jinx (no more shots!)
 
Kimberly Burkard     |             _    Everything I needed to know in life,
Eastman Kodak Company|      _____C .._. I learned from my ferret:
Rochester, New York  | ____/     \___/  Frolic and dance for joy often, have
[log in to unmask]    |<____/\_---\_\    no fear or worries, and enjoy life.
[Posted in FML issue 2365]