A Soapbox Sermon on Vaccinations
 
A few years ago, my cat decided he needed to shred my other cat.  I
(idiotically) got between them, got badly scratched, the scratches got
infected, and to make a long story short, the doctor reported the incident
to animal control (he had to, by law).  So my cat was put in quarantine.
If he hadn't had his shots, he would have been euthanized and his brain
examined for rabies.
 
A whole lot of paperwork and grief, and I (the owner) was the only human
involved.
 
Let's say you don't vaccinate a pet (ferret, cat, elephant, whatever)
against rabies and it bites (even accidentally, even if it didn't break the
skin) someone else.  The legal headache turns into a full-fledged legal
migraine.  First off, your pet is going to be taken from you and probably
immediately euthanized.  If the person who was bitten decides to sue (or
his parents do), you can bet your bottom dollar that the lack of rabies
certification is going to cause the euthanizing of your pet AND will play
heavily into the size of the lawsuit against you.
 
There are times when it is healthier for an animal not to be vaccinated.
In that case, you and the head of your household, if you're not it, would
need to talk with your vet and decide what to do.  This sounds like
legalistic BS, I know, but ya gotta deal with the legal consequences, even
if you don't agree with the law.  (I was furious that my town's animal
control was quarantining my cat for scratching me.  I felt that since I was
the owner, it was my problem.  But the plain truth is that my feelings were
irrelevant--the law said the cat had to be quarantined.  We're just lucky
it wasn't worse than that.)
 
Finally (just another minute and I'll get off the soapbox), a word on
distemper.  Rabies is nasty, a legal issue, but also not that common.
Distemper is a whole different story.  Distemper is a killer and it IS out
there, all over, and it spreads easily.  If you read the ferret veterinary
info, you'll find that almost no ferrets survive distemper.  Those that do
survive suffer severe neurological damage.  It is a horrible disease.  If
your ferret gets distemper because you didn't get it shots (or if your baby
gets polio because you didn't get the baby its shots), the ferret and the
baby are basically screwed and it's YOUR fault.
 
PLEASE vaccinate your ferrets for distemper!  (And for your own sake, go
ahead and get the ferrets their rabies shots.)
 
Jacqueline
[Posted in FML issue 2590]