Thread: Vaccination and Re-Vaccination - your thoughts?

Recently I have come across a number of articles suggesting that some vaccinations can be harmful (e.g. our breeder does not routinely vaccinate her kittens against Feline Leukaemia Virus as she is unhappy about loading their systems with it at a vulnerable age), and that booster vaccinations are unnecessary.

Now, we have always ensured that the booster vaccinations are kept up to date and indeed, had we not done so, then when Gabby, Spike and Whisper went down with Cat Flu, Petplan would not have paid out! The fact that the Cat Flu vaccine doesn't protect against all strains of the virus is immaterial - so long as you have vaccinated against whatever they have developed, in theory the Insurance should cover the illness.

There is a lot of conflicting information out there - for instance, one site states that FIE, FCV and FVR are "compulsory", with Chlamydia and FeLV recommended and boosters every year. Our vet gives boosters to our "oldsters" of FIE, FCV and FVR but not FeLV and has recommended vaccinating Hobbes against FeLV as he wasn't vaccinated as a kitten and the others in the household are no longer given the booster.

I am obviously concerned at this point, because Hobbes may be at risk from developing FIP and the older ones don't need any stress either. Our cats do not go outside and they stay home with a sitter if we ever go away.

I will be checking with our veterinary practice but would like to get your "take" on this subject.

A difficult one. I dont think vaccinating against FeLV would stop a cat developing FIP. We are on the fence about that vaccination I know Louie's ins wont cover him for anything related to that but have read & herd alot of bad reports about the vaccination.

Have you looked at this site it may help Feline Infectious Peritonitis and Coronavirus Web Site there is alot of info on more than FIP which may help you, our vet recommended the site to us as he has worked with Di Addie.

The following page contains fairly detailed vaccination info from a vet association in USA that specializes in cats:
Feline Practitioner Guidelines Publications

This has always been a big worry of mine. My dogs have always had their boosters because of insurance and if we ever needed to put them in kennels or take them abroad and just because they are out a lot running around in stagnant water etc they are more likely to pick things up but it does worry me. A friend of mines dog was just diagnosed with auto immune disease and this came on shortly after having a booster which she is convinced started it. But often it's a catch 22 situation you don't feel safe if you don't have them and you don't feel safe if you do. Vets will always be pro them as it is a large part of their income so don't feel you could get an honest reply.

Not sure what I will do yet about Simba - if I want to keep him insured I will have too but because he is unlikely to go further than our back garden or meet any other cats not sure if it is worth the risk. At least I have a year to think about it.

I don't do vaccines for myself, my daughter or my pets. I do plan on getting my MC the rabies shot IF she becomes and outdoor cat but that's it. I don't want harmful chemicals injected in mine or my daughters body and same goes for furbabies.

You've got me thinking now - Freyja's fully vaccinated for everything until April next year and it hadn't occurred to me not to sort her boosters out when the time comes; I assumed that they would give her some protection against the most common things that she could pick up. I hadn't considered that there could be pitfalls in giving her the boosters.

Mine are always kept vaccinated, just in case....I worry about what other people may bring into the house but I also like to make sure that everything is up to date as some of them do occasionally go into my friends cattery when we go away so I have to protect her cats too.

Whether or not they actually need it - who knows! When I was little, we always had moggies that were outdoor cats and I guarantee they never had a vaccination in their lives and most of them lived to 15-16 years old with no problems at all.

We always used to let our cats' boosters lapse. They were healthy moggies, uninsured, and never went into a cattery. They had free access to the outdoors so perhaps we were taking a risk there. But our vet at the time said don't bother with the boosters, they're healthy, they don't roam, there's no need. Even so, I always felt I was 'getting away with it' rather, and really if I was being properly responsible I ought to keep the boosters up to date.

Now, when I got my rescue cat Humph a few months back, I had to prove to the cat shelter that my existing moggy Barney was fully vaccinated. So I got him re-vacced after a 6-year lapse. Then the kittens came and they were fully vacced, of course. I've insured them all now so I will have to keep them boosted.

Funny though, that Barney had his first bout of illness recently - after being re-vaccinated! It was quite serious too - a severe throat infection so that he couldnt eat and kept trying to be sick. He lost weight and he's old, at least 16, so we thought it might be a tumour, we thought oh no, here we go again, it's a credit card and shovel day. But he amazed us all by making a complete recovery in about 4 days. The vet even said he has perfectly normal kidney function, which is surprising for an elderly moggy.

I do wonder though why he got this illness - perhaps the 3 new cats in the house brought it in? But none of them were ill. Maybe it would have been a whole lot worse had they not been vaccinated.