Wednesday, November 6, 2002 - Today the Pensacola Ferret Rescue
almost lost 13 ferrets due to adverse reactions to a common distemper
vaccination, Fervac-D.Today was to be a busy day,19 of our ferrets needed
their distemper shots,and our vet was coming to the house to administer
them.
 
As she was finishing up, we noticed that Friend, one of the first ferrets
to get the shot, had started visibly swelling.  His eyes were puffy, his
gums swelled, as did his ears and nose.  His nose turned red and his tail
was frizzed out from distress.  Within three minutes he had gone from a
healthy ferret to a swollen, confused, very sick ferret.  He quickly
started gasping for breath as his throat swelled closed and then he went
limp.
 
Panicked, I told the vet to take him to their animal hospital, which is
only a half mile from the rescue.  Within seconds of the vet pulling out
of the driveway and heading to the clinic, my husband pulled in and I ran
out to his truck telling him that something was wrong with Friend and
that I needed to go to the clinic.
 
My husband dropped me off and returned to the house to make sure the
others were not having any reactions.  Two vets and several technicians
were swarming around him trying to figure out what was causing his
frightful condition.  I prayed that he would make it.
 
By this time my husband had returned to the rescue and found our daughter
panicked.  "DAD!..HELP ME!" She screamed.  "What's going on?" he asked,
afraid of the answer."They're throwing up!  They are pooping everywhere
and some of them are swelling!  And some of them aren't moving!" She was
in tears with a ferret in each hand as she tried to get them all into a
pet carrier.  "We have to take them to the vet!"
 
Not more than ten minutes after I arrived at the vet's office my husband
returned and handed me a pet carrier with a bunch of ferrets in it and
simply said "They are throwing up and swelling.  Get them inside.  I am
going back to see who else is having problems."  As I carried the pet
carrier full of my babies, I again prayed that they would be all right.
The vet staff immediately started assessing the new arrivals and
prioritizing them based on how hard they were having to work to breathe.
 
A few minutes later my husband and daughter arrived with the rest of the
ferrets that had gotten the shots.  The overwhelmed vet crew again set to
work assessing conditions and continuing to administer meds to them.
 
By now all of the ferrets had diarrhea, were vomiting, swelling, and
heaving.  They were hurting, itching, confused and scared.  The scene was
pure horror.  Everywhere I looked, one of my wonderful little babies was
vomiting blood, gasping for breath, or seemingly comatose.  Our daughter
started crying.  "Are they going to be OK?"  My husband kept trying to
assure her that they would.
 
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching waiting and praying for what
seemed like an eternity as they were stabilized.  Slowly, so slowly, they
started to breathe normally and rest easier.  Everyone was exhausted.
 
While the vet kept a watchful eye on them, she started researching what
could have gone wrong.  Never having used Fervac-D, she checked and
rechecked the dosage information and the potential side-effects that the
manufacturer published with the drug.  Nowhere could she find any mention
of the kind and severity of symptoms that she had just witnessed.  She
called other vets, researched on the Internet, and made some eye-opening
discoveries about the drug she had administered to our ferrets.  She
found a large number of cases where other ferrets had experienced the
exact same reactions to Fervac-D.  She called the drug manufacturer to
try to find out what could have gone wrong, but was met by a very rude
person on the other end who promptly hung up on her.  She then filed a
Veterinary Adverse Drug Reaction report (form 1932a) with the Food and
Drug Administration and a USP Veterinary Practitioner's Reporting Program
report detailing what had happened.
 
When I was informed of what she had found out, I immediately started
researching the drug Fervac-D on the Internet.  It is produced by United
Vaccines Inc. of Madison, WI.  The USDA has approved this drug for use
in ferrets, but there have been an unusually high number of severe and
fatal reactions to it since it was first introduced.
 
I think our situation is unique.  Whereas most vets see only a few
ferrets per month and only one at a time, our vet normally sees ten to
fifteen per month.  In this case, nineteen ferrets were all given the
exact same dosage at the same time.  They were all in excellent health
and were from a wide range of backgrounds, having almost nothing in
common.  Yet of the nineteen vaccinated, thirteen of them had severe
reactions to Fervac-D.  They all had some reaction.  This had to be more
than coincidence.
 
After reading many other stories from ferret owners on the Internet about
how their ferrets experienced the exact same reactions (and many of them
died), the thought occurred to me that the drug itself may be dangerous.
I called United Vaccines to see what I could find out and was told
politely "I cannot comment on that".  No "we're sorry you had problems
with our product, let me send you a form to fill out" or anything.  Just
"No comment".
 
In light of what we have learned on this long day, the Pensacola Ferret
Rescue Inc. is starting a petition for legal action against United
Vaccines Inc.  We want to gather the information needed to force them
to take Fervac-D off the market because it is unsafe.  We have already
sought legal counsel on this matter and were told that if a petition with
enough names was collected, something could be done.  In order to do
that, we need all of the information we can get about ferrets who have
had similar reactions to the drug.
 
Please take a few minutes to give us your contact information and
personal experience.  Please help us stop this from happening to another
sweet innocent ferret.  Please go to
http://www.weloveferrets.com/?page=fervacpetition to submit any
information you may have about this vaccine's danger.
 
We were blessed.  Although we came very close to losing many of our
ferrets, the quick thinking and wonderful skills of our vet staff, and
our prayers saved them all.  Nobody should have to go thorough that kind
of horror, especially these helpless little guys.
 
Thank you,
Jessica (Treasurer of the Pensacola Ferret Rescue, Mom to a Super
Wonderful Daughter, 28 Extra Special Ferrets, 2 Dogs and 1 Cat)
[Posted in FML issue 3962]