boosters and annuals

Brady is set to go in for her yearly round of shots this month, mainly rabies, FIP and I believe either her FIV or giardia. My vet nurse was busy to get me all the info and I'm just going by everything she received last year so I may be wrong about the giardia needing annuals. I've been reading about boosters and continuous shots and how they can cause more problems, do I have to be on the look out for anything and are they all neccesary for an indoor cat? Thank you for any help!

How old is Brady? I ask because a few years ago, UC Davis revised their guidelines regarding "annual" vaccines, stating that overvaccination can harm the immune system & recommending that, after the initial kitten series of vaccines, cats should now receive the rabies & distemper vaccines every THREE years. They DO NOT recommend ever giving the FIP & giardia vaccines & the FeLV & FIV vaccines are only recommended if the cat goes outdoors. Here's a link to their current vaccine recommendations for dogs & cats:

http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/vmth/cli...ccinproto.html

If your baby is an adult & has been vaccinated for distemper & rabies within the past three years, you may want to just have an annual exam done & skip the vaccines.

Amanda

Thank you for the link! We're waging she's between 1 1/2 to 2 right now, she's only had one round of all shots right after we found her last halloween. I called to check b/c of the rabies and the vet nurse went into her needing Everything she had for annuals, thats what raised a flag. I had a cat when I was younger who had a rabies vaccine very shortly before being diagnosed with kidney failure and were told she may have declined a lot sooner b/c of it, we just weren't informed back then about vaccine harm.

I agree that it is important to do research. The only vaccines worth even considering IMO are distemper, rabies, and possibly leukemia *if* your cat goes outside. I would not give the FIP vaccine and the FIV vaccine will make her test positive for FIV so it could actually indirectly kill her if she ever ended up in a shelter since many kill cats who test FIV positive immediately.

Originally Posted by semiferal

I agree that it is important to do research. The only vaccines worth even considering IMO are distemper, rabies, and possibly leukemia *if* your cat goes outside. I would not give the FIP vaccine and the FIV vaccine will make her test positive for FIV so it could actually indirectly kill her if she ever ended up in a shelter since many kill cats who test FIV positive immediately.

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I have done some homework but to be honest have always left vaccines to the vet ... Does a 3 in one or 4 in one have leukemia??

Standard 3-in-one or 4-in-one combos shouldn't have the feline leukemia vaccine in it...they usually contain upper respiratory vaccines (like rhinotracheitis & calcivirus).

Amanda

Thank you ... sounds like I will have to go ala carte

Personally, if your cat is indoors only, I'd get the 3-way combo (FCRV or something to that general effect, I'm tired and it's finals week and I just wrote a paper) and rabies on a 3 year basis and nothing else. That's kind of a compromise between getting like 12 different (potentially dangerous or ineffective) shots and not getting any, and my kitties are both healthy and happy indoor babies.

Originally Posted by sharky

I have done some homework but to be honest have always left vaccines to the vet ... Does a 3 in one or 4 in one have leukemia??

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No. A trivalent (3-in-one) is for distemper, calici, and viral rhinotracheitis. A tetravalent (4-in-one) is those three plus chlamydia. There are combinations that include leukemia but they are labeled accordingly, for example as a "three-in-one plus feline leukemia".

This is an issue I've been wondering about, too -- thank you all for sharing your knowledge!

If I may ask: do you feel that the UC guidelines apply across the board, regardless of a cat's history? My almost-three-year-old boykitty, Clyde, very nearly died as a baby -- he had pneumonia and pleural effusion so severely that, on the x-ray, one lung was completely collapsed due to the fluid buildup, and his heart was pushed so far out of place that the vet couldn't hear it with a stethoscope!

Bless his heart, he pulled through, and he's been perfectly healthy ever since... but I always worry that his ordeal may have left him more susceptible to disease. What would you recommend?