Vaccination-reactions fyi

[Cristina]

I just wanted to mention this to get the word out about some vaccine reactions and my personal experience this past week.

I took my 3 ferrets for their annual visits for distemper and rabies vaccinations. My Boomer has always had past reactions with both these shots so he gets them separately (like days apart with benedryll before each), but the one ferret I have never had any problems with past vaccinations is Penny until this year.

All three were given benedryll before their shots b/c the vet told me they do this b/c of the high prevalence of reactions with small animals/ferrets (this is a precautionary measure basically).

A minute after Penny received her shots she started to throw up/defecate and convulse uncontrollably, her breathing got very heavy and her face turned a deep purple and her gums reaction time was over 4 seconds, they had to give her a large dose of epinepherine and basically the vet told me she didnt know if she would make it (mind you shes only 2 yrs old), they had to put an IV drip into her arm and the works

After 3 hours she was finally out of the woods thank the lord, and shes better now....but we are not going to give her the distemper vaccine from now on because of this, since the vet said this was the worst reaction she has ever seen, and she also mentioned the distemper vaccine can be sometimes troubling to small animals so I just wanted to warn those about these reactions that can come up at any time, even if they havent had any issues with them before like my Penny.

Just an FYI, I just wanted to let everyone know about this and to ask questions to their vets especially about benedryll maybe before shots, b/c that helped save my little ones life...and I would hate for anyone else to go through what I did!

[Darlene Connon]

That is so scary! I pray Penny is doing much better now.

[Cristina]

It was soo scary and yes thank you she is doing soo much better now!

[sherrylynne]

To be honest- I wouldn't be giving her any vaccines of any kind after that reaction. Her odds of also reacting to the rabies have just increased dramatically.
So glad she pulled through!