Our vet took part in the study of the vaccine and of the hundreds of
ferrets that received it - including many who had reacted badly to the
others - only one had a bad reaction.  He belonged to my best ferret buddy,
and she almost lost him.  He lost the use of his hind limbs for a couple
of weeks, but finally recovered, and has a slight residual weakness, but
is otherwise OK.  And one ferret in hundreds is a vast improvement over
the previous vaccine - of Barb's and my 12 ferrets, four had had negative
reactions (including the one who reacted to the Merial).  She waited until
every other ferret in the study had been injected with no reaction before
trying it.  I definitely give the Merial vaccine my blessings, but I would
continue to premedicate with 1.0 - 1.2 mL Children's Bubble Gum flavored
Benadryl 30 minutes to 1 hour before hand.  And by the way, the Merial
people could not have been more supportive the whole time.
[Posted in FML issue 3474]