Sandi, well, the good news is that if Benedryl alone handled his systemic
reaction without need for epi, steroids, fluids, etc.  then it was a low
grade systemic reaction.  He should not be around it in the future,
though, and that likely means his also not having contact with other
ferrets who have the drops on them.  Yes, this degree of reaction is
vanishingly rare, but allergies are very individual.  For example, we all
know that while true food allergies are rare that many of those which
exist are to peanuts or are to crustaceans, but there are people who
are allergic to things that their allergists will never run into someone
else being allergic to like butternut squash or something else which is
virtually never seen as an allergy.  And the risk of an allergy increases
with number of exposures, so -- again using human food allergies -- as
the consumption of potatoes (more pounds per year per person) increases
in the U.S.  the number of people who have become dangerously allergic to
potatoes has also increased.  A bad anaphylactic reaction is when sronger
meds like epi are needed, fluids are needed, etc..  A really bad one is
when oxygen also has to be delivered.
 
Sukie
(not a vet but we have not only had ferret family members with
anaphylactic reactions -- usually to the older forms of CD vax, but in
our human family there are 5 people in our families who do, including us)
[Posted in FML issue 4431]