Vaccination and Re-Vaccination - your thoughts?

[WoodsideMaineCoons]

Mine are always kept vaccinated, just in case....I worry about what other people may bring into the house but I also like to make sure that everything is up to date as some of them do occasionally go into my friends cattery when we go away so I have to protect her cats too.

Whether or not they actually need it - who knows! When I was little, we always had moggies that were outdoor cats and I guarantee they never had a vaccination in their lives and most of them lived to 15-16 years old with no problems at all.

[Howlinbob]

We always used to let our cats' boosters lapse. They were healthy moggies, uninsured, and never went into a cattery. They had free access to the outdoors so perhaps we were taking a risk there. But our vet at the time said don't bother with the boosters, they're healthy, they don't roam, there's no need. Even so, I always felt I was 'getting away with it' rather, and really if I was being properly responsible I ought to keep the boosters up to date.

Now, when I got my rescue cat Humph a few months back, I had to prove to the cat shelter that my existing moggy Barney was fully vaccinated. So I got him re-vacced after a 6-year lapse. Then the kittens came and they were fully vacced, of course. I've insured them all now so I will have to keep them boosted.

Funny though, that Barney had his first bout of illness recently - after being re-vaccinated! It was quite serious too - a severe throat infection so that he couldnt eat and kept trying to be sick. He lost weight and he's old, at least 16, so we thought it might be a tumour, we thought oh no, here we go again, it's a credit card and shovel day. But he amazed us all by making a complete recovery in about 4 days. The vet even said he has perfectly normal kidney function, which is surprising for an elderly moggy.

I do wonder though why he got this illness - perhaps the 3 new cats in the house brought it in? But none of them were ill. Maybe it would have been a whole lot worse had they not been vaccinated.

[candes]

I know this is an old post. But decades ago, every cat and kitten in this area was immunized for feline leukemia. Since it was darn near epidemic. Now in my area, it has been erradicated. I was shocked to hear that from our vet. She told me that vaccination was not needed. My breeder from Florida even suggested not getting my kitty immunized against it.