What exactly are cat vaccines?
Cat vaccinations, like any vaccinations, are a way of training the immune system to fight off disease without the effects of the real disease itself. They come in two forms, either a modified live vaccine or a killed vaccine. The most common killed vaccine is rabies and the modified live vaccines are the feline viral rhinotrichitis, calicivirus, and panleuk, otherwise known as FVRCP, and FeLV, which is for feline leukemia.
Dr. Glennie Ferniany
Village Veterinary Clinic
Are cat vaccinations necessary?
Yes, cat vaccines and really vaccines for humans and dogs as well are all considered necessary. Probably the one that is the most famous is the rabies vaccine, which is necessary both by law and as a public health standpoint since rabies is a disease that can cross to humans. The other vaccines are really necessary to try and protect the health of your pet because we don't want them to get some of these viruses that are preventable and can cause serious disease.
What cat vaccines do you typically recommend?
The cat vaccines that we typically recommend are FVRCP, which covers the kind of upper respiratory viruses and then a relatively serious virus called panleukopenia, which just causes all the white cells to decline so that the animal can't fight off disease. The rabies vaccine, of course, protects against the rabies virus. And then feline leukemia vaccine, which protects against the feline leukemia virus. That one is not considered core and we really do recommend it, but only require it for those cats that go outside and have frequent contact with other cats, which is how they get that disease. You will occasionally find a cat that has been vaccinated for a disease called FIP. This is coronavirus. We don't typically recommend that unless they're living in a household with an FIP infected cat.
What is the vaccination schedule for various stages?
When an animal is a kitten, we will do a series of vaccines to train the immune system to recognize and fight off disease. So we usually do that starting at five or six weeks of age and then continue every three weeks through 16 weeks of age. The kitten has to be at least 12 weeks to have their rabies vaccine. And usually around nine weeks is when we will add on the FELV vaccine. We do recommend that all kittens, whether they go outside or stay indoors, get at least those first two FELV vaccines. Adult cats, we will see yearly. Depending on the vaccine, we can do either a three-year vaccine or a one-year vaccine. So rabies, we do offer a three-year vaccine, but the FELV has to be boosted every year. And then senior cats, a lot of times we will, we do continue to vaccinate them. It is important that they stay protected in their old age when they may not be able to fight off disease. We also like to see them every once in a while so that we can address issues as they come up.
Are there any risks or side effects associated with cat vaccines?
Any vaccine may cause a reaction. It does tend to be pretty rare with our cats, though.
If a cat is strictly indoors, do they still need to be vaccinated?
Yes, they do still need to be vaccinated because there's always the chance that they may get out, or if you bring a new cat into that space, that they carry disease with them.
Why is it important to avoid missing a cat vaccination?
A lot of that has to do with immunity. So if you miss a vaccine given at the regular time, a lot of times we don't know whether that immunity is still remembered. So we are going to restart the vaccine process, which involves getting it boosted. It also could potentially leave your cat unprotected, especially in the case of FELV. And if they were to get into a cat fight or something while that vaccine had lapsed, they would be more at risk for developing that disease.
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