Excerpts from mail: 21-Dec-92 Ferret List Issue 383 by Ferret Mailing List@ferr > When I called the vet this week I spoke to the other doctor (as in the > one I _didn't_ speak to the first time). He said that they'd observed > similar reactions in dogs to rabies vaccinations, but this was the > first of their ferret patients to react in this way. The lump _is_ in > the approximate place where she was given the injection. He said that > these lumps take 1 or 2 months to go away. It's been 5 1/2 to 6 weeks > since she was vaccinated. > > I'm supposed to keep tabs on the size of the lump and whether or not > it becomes tender. Since the vet suspects that this is just scar > tissue from the injection, he said that the worst case would be that > it could abcess if it isn't reabsorbed soon. There's always the > chance that this is a tumor, but the vet said that it would be unusual > to see a tumor in such a young (4 1/2 months) animal. I had my babies both get lumps after a distemper vaccination. I gave it to them myself and I was terrified that I'd somehow done something awful (like mistakenly insert the vaccine between the layers of skin or something). I found that if I rubbed it, it went away faster. I bet the lump is from the vaccination ... I've had cats get them, too -- both from me and from the vet -- so it's apparently not as rare as I'd thought originally. I would like to know, though, why they get them sometimes. I thought I might have pushed a hair fiber under the skin with the ferrets ... (I thought a LOT of awful things about myself) ... but they got them next time, even though I was absolutely certain I hadn't done it again. I was getting paranoid to the point where I was ready to shave them where I was going to give them the shot!! So if anyone knows anything more, let me know ... --Barb-- [Posted in FML issue 0387]