God that's bad! Fifty doses in four hours:shock: - that's going to be impossible - I bet even my vets will struggle to get 50 done in 4 hours and they stand a much better chance than most. 10 or even 20 might be achievable for those without loads of rabbit clients but 50???
Thanks for that info, Liz. :wave:
This is what I was sent yesterday from a vet nurse - Just wanted to let you know that MSD (who manufactures the vaccine) will be providing practices with a 50 multi-dose vial to help vaccinate bunnies. Most vets will usually order the single dose vials as once reconstituted it only lasts 4 hours and then must be discarded, but at least as a 50 dose vial, some bunnies will still be vaccinated. At my practice we are thinking of holding 'vaccine clinics' so that bunnies don't miss out and we can vaccinate as many as possible with the 50 dose vial within 4 hours. I am telling you as I suspect you will have a number of bunnies needing vacs and this would be a way for you to get them vaccinated. An outbreak for you would be devastating.
I guess if I am willing to pay for the whole bottle then they can vaccinate ours and the rest can be wasted if no other rabbits registered to the practice can use it. But from the above Im not sure if practices are getting more than one large bottle, or are limited to just the one.
I work at a vet practice and as soon as I got into work this morning I rang our wholesaler. They said they have already sold out and won't be getting any more in stock until the end of November. We have 7 doses and I have rang our bunny clients due. Luckily we are a new practice and only one vet. There were only two buns due to be vaccinated but I have 3 of my own to do in September/October :/
I tried to speak to our MSD rep but she never replied
Did they make a bigger profit selling overseas than within the UK ?
I work at a vet practice and as soon as I got into work this morning I rang our wholesaler. They said they have already sold out and won't be getting any more in stock until the end of November. We have 7 doses and I have rang our bunny clients due. Luckily we are a new practice and only one vet. There were only two buns due to be vaccinated but I have 3 of my own to do in September/October :/
I tried to speak to our MSD rep but she never replied
Did they say exactly why ?
Call me cynical if you like but I smell a Rat here. They cant possibly not have had an indication of a potential problem long before it happened. Did they make a bigger profit selling overseas than within the UK ?
I am lucky in that my Rabbit's are not due their Vaccinations til next June. But there are going to be thousands of Rabbits put at risk now if there are no vaccine supplies until November.
I hope to goodness that there wont be too many victims of Myxomatosis because of this mess up. If the company have the monopoly on the provision of a product from which they make a profit then they also have a responsibility to make sure things like this can not happen. It's not as though we can go elsewhere for a similar product. There isn't one.
I read somewhere that it wasn't the manufacturer selling abroad but someone buying it off them and selling abroad. No idea where I read it of the validity of it but it does make more sense re the crisis than the manufacturer doing it. Even then there was a huge rise in demand at some point, did they not realise the need to do something.....
Do you know if there are alternative VHD vaccines still available, Jane? I presume the other manufacturers have stopped making them as it wouldn't be worth their while. .. there is confirmed VHD only 20 miles from here and I haven't seen any wildies (where there should be loads) for about 3 weeks now..... More than a little scared for the unvaccinated rabbit population and for the possible increase in demand if those who don't normally vaccinate hear of the VHD and decide to vaccinate!
Unless individual Vets have any held that are still in date then it's unlikely. I know that the manufactures of one of the VHD Vaccines (Anivac) stopped producing them a long time ago.
I agree, Jane. I find it hard to believe that they didn't see this coming and take action sooner, rather than to let stocks get so low so as to create a crisis situation. They have either been totally irresponsible and messed up big time, or maybe there is more to this.
I saw my vet yesterday and she didn't know anything about it, they hadn't needed to order any stock recently so were unaware of the problem. I filled her in with the details that we know (thanks Liz!) and she was going to investigate further. I think it's appalling that MSD haven't been in contact with all practices to let them know the situation, but instead to just wait until the practices need to reorder and then tell them that they can't have any. At least if they know in advance they can make plans before they run out of stock and not just be dropped into a crisis situation of having to quickly set up vaccination clinics for the 50 dose bottle.
My Minnie had her vaccination last night while she was accompanying Scooby in hospital (he's fine - just a dental procedure!). It's about 6 weeks early, but she is covered now so I can relax as far as my lot are concerned. My next isn't due until December, I sincerely hope they've got it sorted by then.
I really hope that people don't lose their bunnies to these dreadful diseases because of this **** up.