How long is too long? (vaccine reaction)

brooklet425

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First, I just called my vet but as I'm waiting for someone to call me back I thought I would ask here and possibly get some opinions in the meantime. I took 2 of my cats in for a checkup yesterday to get vaccines and to get tested for PKD (a cat related to them had PKD and HCM and recently died, but these cats have absolutely no symptoms - I'm just checking them to make sure). So the appointment consisted of a full blood panel, a urinalysis, and 3 vaccinations (FVRCP, rabies and FeLv). I have 10 cats and have never seen one have any negative reaction to a vaccine, including the one I am worried about right now. Oreo has been pretty lethargic since late yesterday afternoon. He's alert, but he's sleeping more than usual and wasn't interested in food last night or this morning, though when I brought a treat right to him he gobbled it up instantly. He's purring (he is ALWAYS purring, and based on my other cats, when the purring stops, something is usually wrong) and like I said, he seems alert, but just....off. I've been reading up on vaccine reactions and this seems to be a typical reaction. But everything I read says something differently. Some things say to call a vet if this persists for more than 24 hours. Others say 1-3 days, and a few things I have read say 1-3 weeks. His symptoms seem to be symptoms most associated with the FVRCP vaccine.

So on one hand, I'm not too concerned because it does seem to be a "normal" reaction. On the other hand, I've never seen this happen before so I don't know if I should be worried or not. Oreo has been vaccinated before and this didn't happen ever before, at least not that I can remember, and I think I would remember this! I called the vet, but I guess I'm wondering, should I panic and rush him back to the vet? Give it a few more hours? A few more days? Has anyone had a cat with any negative reactions to a vaccine before?
 

mews2much

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I never give my cats more then 1 shot at a time and the leukemia shot killed my lucy and I will never give that shot again.
I hope your cat feels better.
Lucy did that then she died on the way to the er vet.
I would go to the vet in case.
In the future do not give all the shots at once.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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we have always had all the shots given at the same time (even given the 3 year rabies because we didn't know any better), and only one cat has ever had a reaction, and she is always lethargic for approximately 24 hours. We just know to expect it, then she's fine again.

That's all I can tell you. That's our experience with a total of 9 cats over the years.
 
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brooklet425

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Originally Posted by mews2much

I never give my cats more then 1 shot at a time and the leukemia shot killed my lucy and I will never give that shot again.
I hope your cat feels better.
Lucy did that then she died on the way to the er vet.
I would go to the vet in case.
In the future do not give all the shots at once.
I'm so sorry about your Lucy. She definitely died because of the vaccine? I'm so sorry that you had to go through that
.

The reason my cats get the FeLv vaccine is because I unknowingly exposed my cats to leukemia a few years ago. I had an 8 month old kitten who had been tested, and tested negative for it. I had him secluded from my other cats until that test, and then I introduced them all. He was a pretty wild and hyper kitten. He bit and scratched the other cats quite a few times. Then one day he got really sick. It happened almost instantly, and within 48 hours of noticing that something was wrong, we were at the ER vet having him put to sleep because there was nothing else we could do. She had retested him for leukemia and this time he tested positive. He had never gone outside, so he had to have had it the first time he was tested, but we just got a false negative. It was horrible and not only was I devastated about an 8 month old wonderful kitten dying, but I had also exposed my other 2 cats to leukemia. Thankfully, they tested negative, and have had several tests since then - all negative. But they were definitely at risk.

Since then, all of my cats are vaccinated for it, because we are constantly taking in strays, and while false negatives are apparently rare, we've talked with the vet and have decided that the benefit in our case is greater than the risk. If we weren't bringing other cats into our home constantly then they wouldn't be getting the vaccine, but I don't completely trust negative results anymore. However, they only get it every 3 years, which is what the vet recommended. That way they have some immunity but aren't exposed to the vaccine annually. Plus, they don't get the injectable vaccine. They get the air shot one (and I can't think of what thats actually called right now), which is supposed to be safer.

So with that being said, I know there are risks to the Felv vaccine, but at the same time I don't feel comfortable with my cats not getting it at all.I still feel guilt about exposing 2 of my cats to the disease without knowing it
.

Oreo has gotten all 3 vaccines at the same time before and didn't react like this, but I guess things can change! He is actually up and wandering around right now. He still seems to be a little tired and weak, but he's moving around more than he was last night. I'm going to take him into a separate room to see if he'll eat something for me (he's a bullied cat so if I re-feed them all right now, he won't eat until the others are all done anyway).

mrsgreenjeens - thanks for telling me your experience. I'm hoping that he'll continue to improve as the day goes on. It hasn't quite been 24 hours yet - we still have almost 2 hours to go, so I'm hoping and praying that its just a reaction that will clear up very soon. In the meantime I'm still waiting for the vet to call back. When I called before they said they have had several emergencies already today so they are really busy. I don't want to come running in there if its not actually an emergency, but if he's not better by the time they close tonight, I might bring him in just to be sure.

And now I know for the future to not give all 3 shots at one. Its just so weird that in all the years and all the cats I've taken in, nothing like this has ever happened before.

ETA: I'm also trying to find the article that I read that makes this sound more like an FVRCP reaction and not a rabies or leukemia reaction.
 

mews2much

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Yea we know for sure Lucy died from it.
You can always try the purvax sot that I use for my cats.
They have less things in them that cause reactions.
 
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brooklet425

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Good news! Almost exactly 24 hours after he got the vaccinations, Oreo is completely back to normal! I'm still keeping an eye on him, because it seems odd that he went from being so lethargic and not hungry, to normal in a short period of time (though I guess this is normal - I've just never dealt with this before), but I'm hoping it really was just the vaccine reaction. Wow...that was definitely scary for me!
 

lauren_miller

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Originally Posted by mews2much


In the future do not give all the shots at once.
I only give mine one shot at a time, as well. After reading the "Holistic Cat" by Jennifer Coscia vaccines scare the crap out of me.
 

taryn

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Honestly if they were exposed to leukemia and didn't get it chances are they are immune, as their immune system fight off the virus, it's kind of like chicken pox, once exposed and your body fights it off you are immune. I can however understand wanting to keep up the vaccines but I would get titers drawn the next time to see if they even need the FeLV vaccine or if they are immune(either through exposure or vaccine.)

I don't like the FeLV vaccine and honestly would never give it to a cat. I have 2 FeLV positive cats so I'm not just talking as someone who doesn't realize the risk or what the disease can entail or how it feels to have a cat diagnosed. Attitude was diagnosed at 8 weeks and was a faint positive at 12 weeks and Nuts was also a faint positive at 12 weeks so their immune systems almost beat it and they were infected in-utero or right after birth. Maude got the vaccine only because we brought Attitude and Nuts inside(it took a while to decide that they could come in and we'd get Maude vaccinated. She died of liver failure, nothing leukemia related, she was still negative when she crossed the bridge. Most older cats have a natural 'immunity' as they get older. The amount of virus that would infect 100% of young kittens would only infect 30% or less of adult cats. An adult cat with a healthy immune system is more likely to have their immune system fight it off than to be infected. I did my research before deciding to bring them inside, this wasn't a snap decision we had to think it over and Paul had to decide as Maude was his cat. We were going to get her titers to see if she needed it again once time was up on the vaccine(it would have been yearly due to her very high risk, unless immune) but she passed away before it was needed.

Like I said get titers before giving the vaccine again, chances are they don't need it anymore because they are already immune.

Like I said I would never get the vaccine for my cat unless exposed to known positive cats(which should never ever happen, my situation was weird, plus the outside cats were infected so chances are we would want to vaccinate her anyways.) If I were to get a negative cat I would get them vaccinated if the outside cats are still here since they are positive but I wouldn't bring a negative cat here, if Attitude and/or Nuts pass away and the outside cats are still here I'd just adopt a positive cat.

I know the fear of a negative cat having exposure to a positive one. Maude had a few very brief exposures(never any contact, just seeing each other) to Attitude before I knew Attitude was infected.

Taryn
 
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