Cat death after yearly booster

[ash1981]

Hi my female 3 year old house cat visited the vet today for her yearly booster, on returning home she was a little timid but expected after a jab. After an hour she started panting heavily and squealing every so often she was very lethargic at this point. She then managed to walk into our hall way(very wobbly) she lay down and started to cough a significant amount of blood, in a lot of pain she then died in a pool of coughed up blood and wee, no health problems previous at all and a healthy 4.4 kg. Any ideas would help ? She actually died while I was on the phone to the vet ??

 

[denice]

Kitties can have an allergic reaction to vaccination, an hour after is about right.  My kitty had a reaction to his 1 year booster.  It wasn't nearly as extreme as this but there was that slight delay before symptoms appeared.  The vet told me it was a reaction to one of the additives, it could happen again or may never happen again.  After that he go a shot of benadryl 20 minutes before a vaccination.

I am so sorry this happened.

 

[zed xyzed]

That is awful, I am so sorry. Did you let the vet know ?

 

[ash1981]

Yes she was in terrible pain it happened so quick I had no time to do anything. I took her to the vet after and didn't get any answers. Considering a post mortem at a different vet. She has had previous jabs without problem though she always got very worked up at the vets.

 

[red top rescue]

It does sound like an allergic reaction.  You didnt say WHICH vaccine(s) she got which might make a difference.  I had one cat who was allergic to rabies vaccine, and annual rabies vaccines were required in our state.  After the first rabies shot, he got hives and itches all over but that went away on its own.  You could see the welts in his ears because he was a ginger cat and had pink ears anyhow.  The next time he got a rabies shot, a year or so later, I must be honest, I had forgotten about first reaction.  When we got home, he suddenly vomited, then ran for the litter box and pooped pure red blood.  I rushed him back to the vet and they gave him benadryl and fluids and whatever else, and he came around quite well.  It was marked on his chart that he was never to have another rabies vaccine, because evidently the reaction gets worse each time, and a third one might have killed him.  He lived for years and ended up dying from heart failure at a ripe old age.  Obviously he never had another rabies shot, but he did get his other vaccines, with no problems at all.