Rabies Shot Question

Hello everyone,

I have a question regarding a situation that my new kitty and I find ourselves in. I adopted this 10-month-old kitty less than a week ago. The people at the shelter where I got her told me that she has been through many hardships in her short life. She was found last August, taken to a no-kill shelter, vaccinated and spayed, adopted out in November, and was abandoned at a vet's office a couple of weeks later. This shelter takes very good care of the cats that come through its doors, and to help them get adopted, it even takes care of most of the major vaccinations... with the exception of the rabies shot.

Now I come to my predicament. I live in an apartment building and I need to provide my landlord with documentation regarding her vaccination record. The pet agreement for my building states that any cat living here must have had a rabies shot. The shelter was able to provide me with the veterinary documents for all of the vaccinations that it covered, but they had no way of knowing whether or not the people who adopted her for a couple of weeks back in November had her vaccinated for rabies. I'm really worried about over vaccinating her as I've read online how most rabies shots for cats usually last 2 to 3 years. However, I don't want to violate the terms of the pet agreement and risk incurring any penalties that may result from that.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I cannot believe this shelter does not require the pets to be vaccinated for rabies BEFORE adoption, they are actually part of the problem, sadly.  If they happen to be city-funded (tax-funded), they would have a record of a rabies certificate if the vaccination was given by a vet (if it is a city ordinance and if the shelter is the local animal control as well) - if they are privately owned, they probably don't.

Call your vet (not the shelter) - tell him the scenario, ask if it would be safe to give a 1-year vaccine at this point  - even if your kitten was vaccinated with a 3-year vaccine, it might be possible to vaccinate again with a 1-year vaccine - you might also ask if it would be more prudent to wait for a few months to vaccinate with the 1-year vaccine and ask your landlord for a grace period (you might ask your vet for a document stating the need to wait a few months for kitten's safety/health) - you really have to get your vet's advice on whether or not she can be vaccinated again this soon.

You could also talk to your vet and landlord about titering, that is, drawing blood to determine whether your cat has developed antibodies against rabies, thus indicating she has been vaccinated.

The Truth About 'Titering' Instead of Vaccination

Many shelters don't vaccinate against rabies---because a rabies certificate counts as proof of ownership, they want the new owners to do it. If the certificate is in the shelter's name it won't be much use to the owners.

Anyway, if they dumped her I'm not very inclined to think they vaccinated her either :/. You could have the rescue ask the vet clinic she was dumped at if they ever vaccinated her at that clinic, and if they did if they'd re-issue the certificate in your name, but if you can't get an answer I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. At her age it shouldn't overtax her immune system too much. And legally speaking, you do not want to be without that rabies certificate.

I'm not sure where u live at but I know for like $15 u can get a rabies shot. I was told before that it should be ok to get one even if u don't know if they have had one. That's at least what they told me about my stray cat that I got. Here they always do it prior to letting them leave the shelter so I really don't get y it wouldn't have gotten one at the shelter.

Willowy, if a shelter vaccinates for rabies before adoption, that serves as a legal document/proof of vaccination, they can then transfer the document to the new owner at time of adoption.   The problem lies with depending on new owners to get spays/neuters/vaccinations/microchips/registration done on their own - as we all know, there are people out there who never get it done.  Shelters can be the first line of protection for pets, and more and more shelters are indeed, vaccinating for rabies at or before adoption because of complicated scenarios such as the OP's.

Wow, thank you all for your suggestions! I have an appointment with the vet next week and I feel much better prepared with questions. My landlord is a nice man and I've been a good tenant as far as paying rent on time and abiding by the lease, so I'm sure if I ask him for a grace period he will most likely be understanding.

I wasn't aware that the rabies shot gave the person paying for it proof of ownership, so I guess that explains why the shelter wouldn't be responsible for it. Other than that, the shelter did literally everything else; they had her spayed, vaccinated, and even microchipped her. I'm kind of in the same boat as Willowy in thinking that if these people dumped her then they probably didn't have her vaccinated, although I suppose there could have been any number of reasons for that decision. She's a really sweet, affectionate, playful kitty from what I've experienced; she can be a little annoying when she wakes me up early meowing for food, but I wouldn't ever consider dumping her for that! That's just normal kitty behavior.

Again, thank you all for your helpful advice! I really appreciate it!