Safe to skip the 12 week fvrcp vac?

I got my cat vaccinated at 8 weeks and would like to skip the 12 and just get the 16.

What are the odds that distemper could get in my house from strays in the yard?

I want to minimize vaccines because of the kidney problems it may cause.

I personally don't play around with that initial series of vaccines for kittens.  Kittens are very vulnerable to feline distemper which is actually a parvo virus and young kittens very, very rarely survive it.  The virus can survive in the environment for as long as a year, outside it is in the soil.  Of course if you live in an area with very cold winters it probably doesn't survive the winter.  I got the full series with shots on time for both of mine as small kittens.

As far as boosters for adults there are varying opinions and I am fully with you when it comes to minimizing vaccines for indoor adult kitties.

Do you have the mother cat also?

I didn't get my 2 kittens vaccinated until they were 20 weeks old.   It seems like kitten (and even human baby) vaccinations are just so much and can overload a young developing system.    But I had the mother cat on site and they stayed nursing til almost 5 months!  (not every single day towards the end, but still from time to time).   I took them for their shots after they stopped nursing.    I don't know if that would be considered irresponsible - and I would hate to tell someone "don't get the kitten vaccines" but it worked fine in my particular situation and environment.     I probably would have taken them to get their kitten series vaccines if I didn't have their mother in the house also.  

Yeah I guess I should.

It probably does not cause kidney problems.

Dr. Pierson recommend kittens get vaccinate at 8-10 weeks and again at 16 weeks and thats it. I'm following her guidelines with my kittens because i prefer to be conservative with vaccinations. http://www.catinfo.org/?link=vaccines

"I find that most kittens that are presented for vaccination are kept indoors and are well-isolated from disease.  If the kitten resides in a protected indoor environment, I feel comfortable starting the vaccine series later than the conventional protocol calls for.  This means that I may not start a kitten's vaccines until he is ~9-10 weeks of age, with the second vaccine given at 16 weeks of age. "

Thanks for asking, @ander35.  If you are concerned about over-vaccinating, I would suggest you go ahead and get the 12 week vaccination, as it will reinforce the 8 week vaccination, and then skip the 16-week one.  Many vaccines do not promise full immunity until the second dose is given.  If your cat is not going outside and obviously not in a shelter environment or exposed to other cats, two should be just fine.  I am not a vet but just sharing from a shelter perspective, and we are big on the early vaccines because they do save lives.

I still stand by the 3 shot series.  The reason for the series is residual immunity left from the mother.  That immunity affects how the vaccine works, or doesn't work.  That is the reason for the series, it's like giving mini vaccinations because some of it is eventually destroyed by natural residual immunity.  There is no way of knowing how much of a vaccine given that young stays with the kitten.  That is why an adult cat with unknown vaccine history can be given one shot and considered to have full immunity.  They don't have that residual immunity interfering with the vaccine.

I am just going to give it to him because I have strays who are in the yard and on the porch sometimes. Too risky. If the vets are killing our cats with vaccines then there's no hope anyways, screw it.

Just as in people there are small risks with vaccines.  It's a benefits vs risk thing.  For kittens, given how contagious this is, it's ability to live a long time in the environment, and how vulnerable kittens are to it I think the benefit far outweighs the risk.  For an adult cat things begin to tip  the other way and a good case can be made for the risks outweighing the benefits.