Carla, When H. C. was at B. R. Animal Hospital he wound up treating
some ferrets with CDV.  My impression was that they were not ferrets that
went outside for walks but I could be wrong or mis-remembering.  It wound
up with an entire household infected.  The person who had them was someone
who had vaccinated in the past, but she became afraid of vaccines for them
in general and was convinced by someone to instead go with a "wholistic
alternative vaccine".  Think it was something like the second year -- maybe
the third on this -- that the ferrets came down with canine distemper
virus.  Some died immediately -- they were new and had never had any
established vaccine; others had some small titer levels left from the
standard vaccines but even they had serious neurological damage from the
virus and -- if memory serves -- their health never returned to anything
like normal.  I do NOT know who had these animals; that is NOT part of an
academic discussion and my discussions with vets are academic rather than
nosy, so clients are left out of it unless they know me and have asked vets
to let me know how something turned out or have discussed things with me
themselves.  Last time I posted about this I was harassed by someone who
believes in wholistic vaccines who got very angry and wanted all sorts of
details which were none of her business or mine, unless the person with the
ferrets decided to release that info which did not happen.  This was years
ago, and diagnosis was from path and necropsy, as I recall; can not
remember there being any bit of doubt.  It must have been truly horrid for
the ferrets and the person.
 
Brenda then Bill wrote:
>>There are quite a large number of ferret owners who would dispute that
>>2% figure.
 
>You are right.  With well over a thousand shots then we should have
>expected some 20 reactions and have had instead zero.  Two per cent
>seems much too high by our experiences.
 
>See the problem with anecdotal evidence like this is those most upset
>rightfully because they had problems don't always know about the thousands
>that have no problems.  You have to add up all the experiences to get an
>accurate assessment.
 
EXACTLY CORRECT!  We fit between you and Brenda.  Can't tell ZIP from a
small sample.
 
We don't vaccinate the ones who have personally had life-threatening
reactions or ones fighting life threatening illnesses like lympho.
Otherwise, ALL get vaccinated.
 
BTW, though we have had three (two related to each other) who have had
life-threatening reactions through the years we have NOT LOST ANY to
anaphylactic shock.  There is also a tendency to do this in both Steve's
human family and mine, and he and I have both been hospitalized with such
reactions, but we haven't lost a human family member to it, either, nor
had any with lasting damage from the reactions as far as anyone knows.
Have an old friend who works a lot in the Amazon jungle and one of his
allergies is to eggs so some of his vaccinations get given in emergency
wards.  He's still alive, too, after doing this over and over again for
maybe 25 years now.  Yes, it can be fatal and without treatment it is going
to be fatal once it gets to the point discussed, so it should be avoided
in VULNERABLE INDIVIDUALS but that doesn't mean that everyone should
over-respond.  Don't forget the reported (Think it was in Britain?) vast
increase in damage to humans in recent years from things like Whooping
Cough (which can be prevented) and how the numbers for damage from the
disease already greatly out-strip those for numbers of damage from the
vaccine even though a much, much higher percentage still get the vaccine.
There are EXCELLENT reasons in terms of numbers dead or injured why these
vaccines were developed and tested in the first place.
 
MC quoted Charles Rupprecht et. al.:
>>Certain drugs, such as corticosteroids, are known to adversely affect
>>titers in study animals, sometimes leading to infection.
>
>>  MMWR Vol. 45 / No. RR-12, p. 18
 
Benedryl is an antihistamine, not a corticosteroid.  In treatment after the
fact then the things which are gotten in on way to hospital -- in order of
preference by allergist -- are: epinephrine (adrenaline), then Prednisone
(steroid), then Benedryl (antihistamine).  Each tackles an existing
reaction in a different way.
 
When a reaction does not YET exist (as when we know that I am going to have
to have general anesthesia and have a reaction history) then only Benedryl
is given beforehand, with IV Benedryl during (and after) and the others
given only if needed, but such reactions tend to be avoided in this way
for me.  (Hey, you learn wherever you can...)
 
I do recall a past discussion in which the vet thought that a ferret had a
reaction slowed and partly masked by pre-treating and that vet advised that
those who pre-treated wait a bit extra in the office, just in case.  Also,
recall a discussion in which a ferret had a lot of mast cell tumors and the
vet wondered out loud if the histamines from those tumors combined with
reaction histamines might have worsened the situation.
[Posted in FML issue 3240]