Anyone been in this situation re vaccine, please?

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone has been in this situation before and could perhaps share their experience.

I adopted an adult cat that had never been vaccinated.
Before I could vaccinate, she came down with a terrible bout of cat flu - we nearly lost her, she was in intensive care for several weeks.
She fought her way back, but her nasal passages were damaged by the virus and she remains with daily nasal congestion and sneezing (which we keep under control with inhalations) and apart from that, she is doing very well - eating, playing, hunting.

My vet feels we could get her vaccinated now for the basic (cat flu and distemper). I must confess I am very scared by distemper and wouldn't mind getting her a jab for that, but here in France, I'm told they can't dissociate the cat flu from the distemper jab - they have to give both together.
I am very nervous, fearing the cat flu vaccine might start another episode of major sickness.

Has anyone been through something similar?

Thank you for reading

The vaccines are available separately, although most vets don't carry them that way.   There is an intranasal vaccine, Feline Focus 3, that comes with two vials, one dry vial containing the vaccine for the respiratory viruses, and one vial with liquid which is ONLY the vaccine for distemper (panleukopenia).  To use it, you draw the wet out of its vial and put it into the vial with the dry, mix, and administer by putting a drop or two in each eye and then drops in each nostril. 

I have used the wet portion alone to protect very little kittens against panleukopenia in a rescue situation, because once they are infected, you cannot save them, but these babies are too young for the respiratory vaccine.  I give that later by mixing with a sterile diluent. 

It does not require a syringe and needle.  It comes with a squeeze dropper enclosed.  I do not know if it is available in France, but check it out.  Otherwise, just go with a 3-way injectable vaccine (rather than a 4-way).

http://www.revivalanimal.com/Feline-Focus-3-Drops-Vaccine.html

By the way, I highly recommend using  Lactoferrin, which helps a lot in cats recovering from upper respiratory infections.  I use it on one cat whose eye kept running long after she was over the URI.  She is now 3 years old and the eye still runs if I don't give her the lactoferrin, but there is no running eye as long as I don't run out of lactoferrin.  She gets 1/4 of a capsule at least once (sometimes twice) daily, mixed with a little oil (it is oil soluble, not water soluble) plus some baby food or tuna, and she laps it right up. 


We have a long ongoing thread about using it, along with other things, for cats recovering from upper respiratory infections, particularly herpes.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267703/stubborn-herpes-infection-add-lactoferrin-in-addition-to-lysine

One of our members lives in france, @JennyR

Maybe she will know if there is a vaccine in France that separates the distemper vaccine as its own thing

Glad your cat is entering the recovery stage now.

Thanks for the heads-up. I am also in Normandy. If you feel like it, PM me with your location and maybe I know a vet near you - I have contacts all over Normandy through my cat welfare work. But I have always had the combined vaccine given to my cats. I am happy to ask my vet if they can be separated, right now I have no idea. I have one cat who had severe pneumonia as a kitten, and almost died. She gets the combined vaccine, though her lungs were permanently damaged then and she has a slightly odd breathing sound. She is now 14.

Thank you so much for your replies, Red Top Rescue and Jenny.

I will look into your kind suggestions.

Kitty cat does get Lactoferrin every day ( I tried lysine but it didn't help much - as a matter of fact, I tried just about everything!!!)

Lactoferrin is good however and I will keep it up.

Thank you once again.