Hey,
 
Thanks for your comments and all about that bizarre situation.  Basically
it appears to have turned out that the vet tech and the vet were not
communicating to each other.  The vet had a completely different plan as
to what she wanted to do, and the vet tech didn't know this so what she
told me would be done was in fact not ever going to happen.  The vet did
want to observe Linus, but she wanted to observe him the first day to
make sure he was stable enough for vaccinations.  Then, her plan was to
vaccinate him early Saturday morning.  Now she screwed up because it
was busy and they just "didn't get around to it", so he was in fact not
vaccinated at all when my friend came to pick him up.  Anyway the vet
apologized for the misunderstanding and for the conversation I had with
the vet tech.
 
Although none of this responds to the original "reason" I had to have
Linus vaccinated in the first place -- mainly that he is exposed while he
is at the vets'.  And, the rabies vax was supposed to protect him against
other ignorant pet owners in case anything happened (though in this case
the possibility of anything happening is absurd.  Linus simply does not
bite, ever).  So, that didn't happen, and he didn't get observed, and
while the vet apologized for the last part not occurring, the whole thing
in general was wholely unsatisfying to me.  I know Linus was overdue, I
purposely hadn't done the vax for a little while because of his medical
issues and the fact he just does not go out.  I don't want to expose him
to other ferrets.  I don't handle other ferrets, either.  I was concerned
about his suppressed immune system.  I was concerned about possible
reactions.  I had a ferret who reacted but not for over an hour and a
half after the vax was given.  It was a lot to decide in a short couple
minutes, and in retrospect it annoys me because I really felt pressure
from the vet tech to do something that, as it turns out, the vet wouldn't
have done normally anyway.
 
Anyway, I suppose that's all settled though the vet tech was clearly
being defensive and not accurate.  By the way, my vet is actually out of
town and was not involved at all in this scenario.  And Linus is fine.
 
Minta & Linus
 
[Moderator's note: Except that some vaccines are indeed given
post-exposure.  Rabies is a good example: since the virus takes such
a long time to travel to the brain rabies vaccinations are effective
even after exposure (but before symptoms appear).  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 4024]