I think that you can probably search the archives and find a lot of discussion on this topic. My viewpoint hasn't changed - distemper in ferrets is 100% fatal, and a very ugly way to die - rashes, pus from the eyes and nose, loss of the immune system, diarrhea, pneumonia and death. Not just the individual, but all other unprotected ferrets they come in contact with. There is no doubt that anaphylactic reactions do occur with vaccinations in ferrets - most commonly with Fervac-D, and to a lesser extent with Galaxy-D and Imrab, however with proper premedication with antihistamine, and close supervision for 30 minutes, the majority of reactions can be avoided or at least ameliorated. This is no amelioration of distemper in an unvaccinated animal - [They die of] this animal disease, but not without serving as a virus factory to pass on the disease to those around them. We have had this discussion before - you do hear a lot about the reactions. What you don't hear about is the 98% or so of vaccinates that have no problem. I've never had a problem in my own ferrets in 8 years of vaccinating with Fervac-D (although now I use Galaxy, just to be on the safe side) and everyone gets annual rabies boosters. I would strongly encourage you to discuss this with your vet and get those vaccinations. With kindest regards, Bruce Williams, DVM ----------- >I recently took my furbabies in for their distemper vaccines. One of my >boys reacted severly to Fervac. After the experience, thinking I had >almost killed my baby, my gut feeling is to never vaccinate him again. >However there is pressure to vaccinate for Rabies for legal reasons. Many ferrets that react to one vaccine do not react to the other. Definitely pretreat, but I would recommend that you do vaccinate against rabies. Dr. Ruth ***************************************** Save lives - spay or neuter your pet. ------- >So my questions are how necessary is it? Whats the risk if they go with >out getting it? Whats the risk of a reaction if they do get it? Am I >putting them in more harm not getting it? And if they do react to it >what will they have to go through and what is done to keep them from In my opinion, it is necessary to at least vaccinate them as babies, a year later, and then as indicated by their risk of exposure to distemper. The risks without vaccinating are a horrible illness and death, as distemper in ferrets is very, very nasty. You can have your veterinarian pretreat before vaccinating, and stay at your vets' office for at least a half hour following the vaccine. I do recommend that it be done. Just an anecdotal thing here, with no scientific proof to it. I have noticed that ferrets who have the vaccine injection site massaged gently for a couple of minutes after the vaccine is given are less likely to react. Any one else noticed this? Dr. Ruth ***************************************** Save lives - spay or neuter your pet. [Sukie note: Rumor has it that the Merial Recombitek vaccine will be released soon and someone here on the FML said that her vet would be getting that in. I was hoping that she would reply with expected release date but have not seen that, yet. This vaccine looks to be by far the safest option for canine distemper vaccinations, but meanwhile the actual reaction rates are lower than the noise about them would make them seem, and canine distemper is a horrible torturous death. Just use precautions and utilize options if reactions occur. Over the last 19 years (a bit less -- since can't recall when the current vax first appeared though we used killed-virus CD vax not grown in ferrets at first) we have had 4 with allergies to CD vaccines (one allergic to two types), and one with an allergy to Imrab.] [Posted in FML issue 3477]