It was my horse vet who made me get a bottle of epinephrine for the pets. She had me write the proper dose for each dog on a piece of paper which was taped to the bottle along with the syringe on the grounds that, during an anaphylactic shock episode one might not either have time to look up a dose, or might calculate it incorrectly. Since I was used to drawing and administering shots for myself, the dogs and the horse, we didn't go the 'pen route. In those days it was virtually impossible to get an epi-pen for an animal anyway. Anyway, the point is, she was right - when Erkenbrand ate the blasted bee I wasn't that worried, but when his face swelled like a basketball and he suddenly started gasping for breath, it was awesome being able to reach into the 'fridge and have what I needed, ready to go.
dturm wrote: Not as big a problem now as many companies grow the virus in tissue culture.
Doug
Tissue culture media is a mixture of salts, amino acids, vitamins, buffers (over 20 different components), etc.; some tissue culture media also has fetal bovine serum. Viruses need nutrients to survive and grow. Collection and inactivation of the viruses can produce virus fragments which may end up in the vaccine and it is possible for some of the tissue culture media to not be removed during virus collection and purification.
Vaccines also have buffers (to control pH), salts, stabilizers (proteins and sugars to preserve the integrity of the virus and prevent decomposition in a liquid vaccine or a dried vaccine), and adjuvants (which make the immune system respond more to the vaccine). Each manufacturer will use a slightly different set of these and some dogs can have adverse reactions to one set but not another.
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