Bathing and Vaccination

Hi

My cat has caught a flu lately and I've been delaying his bathing, and now his vaccinations until he is fully cured.

Can he be bathed and get vaccinated immediately?

I don't know what to do? I've been reading that you shouldn't.

I really need to bathe him to make sure he has no flu virus left on his hair. And it's already passed his vaccination date which is supposed to be June 13th.

Bathing at 10:30 AM and Vaccination at 11:00 AM.

Is it safe?

I don't want to regret doing it.

Or can I delay his vaccination for 4 days after being bathed?

Like Bathing him on Monday and vaccinate him on Friday?
 

I would not give a vaccination to a cat who is sick. His immune system is already compromised. Vaccines have been shown to last much longer than the 1 or 3 year label. If you must vaccinate, I would wait until he's fully healthy again.

As for bathing him, I think it depends on whether he is used to it or not. If you regularly bathe him and he's ok with it, then it should be ok as long as you make sure to dry him thoroughly. However, if he fights you at all or you don't regularly bathe him, then it might be too stressful to do right now.

Are you giving him lysine to help his immune system battle the flu?

Useful tip there vball91.  I had to look up lysine.  

Thanks for that info.

Adele

Yea he usually bathes every week or two, but now it's been over a month because of the flu.

No, I gave him baytril 23 for 8 days. It was actually 5 but since he wasn't fully cured the vet added 3 more days.

He hasn't been fully cured like I can say he is 97% cured, he does sneeze every now and then like once a day every 2 days.

He caught the flu on May 23rd. The vet said since there's no nasal discharge it will go by itself. It did reduce but wasn't completely gone so I took him back on 28th of May and started with Baytril 23 until June 4th. It did reduce drastically by 4th of June. And ever since he does sneeze occasionally. Like once every other day.

I guess I will just bathe him for now and wait a couple of days to see if he does sneeze or not and will go get him vaccinated.

Thanks.

Unless you have a hairless cat I don't get bathing every week or two.  I occasionally bath my longer hair cat with a thick undercoat to cut down on shedding.  I usually don't bath her more than once a month and usually not that often.  I have never bathed my short hair cat because I just don't see the need.  A cat should be fully over an illness before being vaccinated.

He's a long hair. And he rolls in the grass daily lol.

You can actually get pet wipes that will work really well to clean him. Unless you are bathing him because you have allergies every week or two is far too often and you should try wipes instead. Even show cats do not get a bath that often. The worry is that you are drying out his skin and probably stressing him out with all the baths. Try the pet wipes they should get off any mess from the grass. 

As for the vaccines do not get them done before he is all better. Here is a great resource about vaccines written by an amazing vet (http://catinfo.org/?link=vaccines). I would recommend only getting one shot at a time and look into each vaccine carefully before you give them to him. For my kitten I did FVRCP and Rabies. 

I live in a dusty climate and if I don't bathe him his hair becomes stiff and hard due the to the dust. I've tried the wipes but they're not good enough.

As for vaccinations thanks for the website. Very confusing.

I usually go for Rabies and FVRCP yearly.

Did leukemia once because we were traveling and it was required.

Other thing is asking vet/groomer how long they want to wait before having him in for electives.  I do a rabies vaccine for cats who get out and my strictly insiders get no shots at all. Dogs get just rabies. I would be more worried that rushing a vaccine may not take full affect then worried about being a month or 2 late. 
 

I think it would be okay to bathe him if you do it regularly, as long as you make sure the water is WARM. Not cold, not hot, just right lol. And I would hold off on vaccines until his health is secured.

Other thing is asking vet/groomer how long they want to wait before having him in for electives.  I do a rabies vaccine for cats who get out and my strictly insiders get no shots at all. Dogs get just rabies. I would be more worried that rushing a vaccine may not take full affect then worried about being a month or 2 late.

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She said it's safe to do it on the same day, but I'm not comfortable.

I don't understand what you wrote in bold.

I think it would be okay to bathe him if you do it regularly, as long as you make sure the water is WARM. Not cold, not hot, just right lol. And I would hold off on vaccines until his health is secured.

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Lol of course he's my baby, I always use warm water.

I'm holding the vaccines for now.

Thanks both of you.

I would for sure only vaccinate for one thing at a time. This is the safest.