I took Hellmutt, my 5 lb. hob, in for his distemper vaccine on Thur. Mutt had a very bad reaction last year when I vaccinated him at home. I posted about it at the time. I thought you might be interested in what happened this time. I pretreated him with 1ml of children's Benedryl, twice a day for 2 days before his injection. Before I took him to the vets, I gave him 1.5 ml of Benedryl. My vet injected him with 4mg. of DexNaPhos just before vaccinating him with Fervac-D in his hip. (I vaccinate on the scruff of the neck.) Within 10 minutes he had turned a bright red (Really noticable on him since he is a very light silver). He had one normal stool and then diarrhea. There was no blood in the diarrhea this time. (Last year he had passed pure blood.) My vet injected him with 1:10,000 epinephrine, .3ml SQ. The redness cleared up somewhat but then he vomited. She then decided to give him 2 mg DexNaPhos IV. He was much better in a few minutes but was totally wiped out. Taking a ferret to the vets knowing that he is going to have a very bad experience is quite frightening. I don't know what I will do next year. My vet said if they weren't so susceptible to distemper she would recommend not vaccinating him at all. She also mentioned that his heartbeat was greatly increased after the shot of epi and that since he is young, 2 yo, and healthy it isn't a problem but will be when he gets older. I will probably try a different vaccine next year and hope for better results. I definitely won't vaccinate him again with Fervac. Cindy [Posted in FML issue 1437]