I guess I've been fortunate up til now in regards to distemper vaccines. My first four ferrets never had any problems except for one who had some slight redness around the area of his last shot. Well, now that good luck is over with my current group. They both just turned a year old last month so off to the vet we went this morning for their shots. Paddy Wack went first and while Asher was getting his shots, Paddy started vomitting profusely. He turned bright red from nose to tail tip all over his entire body and all his fur puffed out. He then went comatose and his feet, ears, nose and mouth turned grey! My vet tried to get a catheder in one leg but couldn't find a vein. She then shaved the other leg and actually made an incision and pulled the skin apart to find a vein. Because of his reaction the vein was as thin as a thread. I don't know how she managed to get the needle and catheder in since they looked bigger than the vein but she did. She then administered what she called the antidote, some benadril and dextrose. Paddy never moved the entire time this was going on. He was so out of it he didn't even react to the incision! After about 15 minutes he started to come around and his color came back. I then sat with him wrapped in a towel with a hot water bottle in my lap. Well about 5 minutes later he started jerking and then vomitting again. This time he had bloody diahhrea (sp?) too. So back to the exam room again and this time my vet gave him epinephrine (sp?) with some more dextrose. He stopped vomitting soon and only had a few more bouts of diahhrea. I'd say it was about an hour after the vaccine shot before he was anywhere close to semi normal again. Needless to say, he stayed at the vets all day today because I had to go into work. He seems to have recovered but he is sure worn out! What a day he has had, poor baby! I had no idea this bad a reaction could happen. My vet says it's an anaphylactic reaction due to how fast it hit, the turning red all over and the bloody diahhrea. Not too sure what we will do next year. What an un-nerving experience this was! She thinks that he might have reacted to one of the additives in the vaccine and maybe not the vaccine itself. She is going to try and see if she can get the pure form of the vaccine. Has anyone else ever seen this type of reaction? Will be really be okay now? One other thing, Asher had ECE when I got him as a baby so I'm sure Paddy was exposed too. My vet has seen a couple of ferrets who never previously reacted to distemper shots have bad reactions after being exposed to ECE. Has anyone else seen this? By the way, Asher did fine and had no problem with his shots. Go figure! Thanks for listening! Pam Zuiderweg (formerly Franklin) Asher and Paddy Wack (In spirit - Chubba Wubba, Big Foot, Fluffy and Oreo) [Posted in FML issue 3000]