Kitten vaccinations

[EweSheep]

I got an 8 week old Siamese kitten that had her first round of shots from my vet. Due to his outrageous fees on vaccinations and his banter about people self vaccinating their animals dont know what they are getting and most of the vaccines we get online does not work well and I would be putting my kitten at risk. I thought time for me to find another vet and I do have some pre-vet courses in college to understand the risks of vaccine your own animals and never I had any problems or death resulting from me giving vaccines on all my animals. At least my vet courses didnt go to waste either!

I have a hard time finding a vaccine for the second and third rounds for distemper, rhino, calici, chlamydia combo vaccinations and leukemia vaccines in SINGLE DOSE vaccinations. My favorite supplier the Omaha Vaccine company no longer have the four in way shot in single dose, most of the suppliers have it in 25 to 50 doses. I have only one cat and need about three doses is all I may need for the kittens first year. I am questioning about the feline infectious peritonitis vaccinations since there are still guessing whether or not to have it vaccinated.

I never had my strictly indoor cats with rabies and never had any problems either but out of four vets, one said if the cat is strictly indoors, never go out for exposure of other animals, then rabies is not required. However our city has passed an ordiance that all pets must be vaccinated for rabies. Sigh! Now wondered if that would be really necessary.

One vet will charge microchip insertion with anesthesia??????? I never have heard to put the cat under ane for that kind of ID....whats up with that?

I would like to get my kitten spayed as soon as possible but must be over two pounds??? while others say must be around four to five months of age. I have seen eight week old kittens being spayed or neutered at the vets office for adoption purposes while the same vet tells me that I can not spay my cat until she is four months old. SAME vet that did the surgery on the adoption pets!!!! Talk about forked tongue!

We are going to be heading out next week to scout the best price for low income folks like us for spay programs but nothing found yet in the papers.

Any suppliers that carry single dose, please provide link and do you have success with it? I hope the vets dont think we are taking their business away but sometimes some of us like to do it ourselves even the risk is the same for both of us. Save money too!

I love those vets ripping us all off LOL! I told my vet what I think of this and he didnt like it and finally said, its your decision but its the money that will cost you if something happens to your pet. Well same for him if he ran into problems too! Lawsuits are not as common as human MD's do run against.

 

[jjthink]

I get female cats spayed at 6 months and males at 8 months - this catches all before sexual maturity. The earlier spay/neuters are often done by shelters to ensure that they do in fact get done (that the animals don't end up being adopted and then never "fixed") but if you have the choice, most info points to it being healthiest at the ages noted above.

So much controversy about over vaccination. One of my vets (holistic vet) doesn't believe in any vaccinations. Others do. And still others believe that some vaccination is okay but admit that annual vaccination is not necessary so I generally give the first years vaccinations and then wait at least some years before repeating.

The rabies thing - I hear you. Same law here. And true - indoor cats will not get rabies. They defend the rule by saying indoor cats often end up outdoors at one point or another, inadvertently or otherwise. The 3 year rabies vaccine carried with it carcinoma problems. The one year vaccine supposedly eliminates or severely lessens this risk.

Check with Friends of Animals for lower cost spay/neuter certificates. For many years I paid high out of pocket costs for my rescues (often $200 for a spay) and then I was really getting broke due to helping a lot of animals and finally got around to checking of FoA and saved a good deal of money.

JJ

 

[Frozen Feathers]

You can try Jeffers . I believe you can even get Rabies vaccine through them, however certain states aren't allowed to purchase certain
vaccines.
Try your local shelter about spaying. Sometimes they offer discounts.

 

[Katy]

My vet sells me the distemper vaccine so I can vaccinate my farm kitties....I couldn't afford to have him give them the shots. I do still take my inside cats to him for their shots. My state doesn't allow rabies vaccination except by a vet.

 

[gritsar]

I'm lucky in that my "country vet" tells it like it is, whether it's a waste of money or not, whether it costs her the business or not. She COULD have agreed to treat my wolfie for her heartworms that she's had since she was a pup and charged me big bucks for it while putting my dog's life in jeopardy, but she didn't. She told me, the dog looks great, she's not suffering, it's not necessary in every case. Turns out she was right. Charlie is almost 9 now and still doesn't have trouble from her heartworms. True the heartworms may shorten her life in the long run, but the treatment for them (arsenic) is no walk in the park either.
I agree that a kitten that you know you are definitely going to keep indoors can wait a bit for their spaying. The breeder my siamese came from required it by age 6 months, for registration paper purposes.
Your state may be different, but can't you buy your single dose vaccines at your local farmer's co-op or farm supply store? Tractor Supply I know is pretty much country wide and they have them here. The only vaccine I don't give myself is the rabies vaccine. I let my critters get their first rabies when they go to be spayed/neutered, as it's a requirement. After that, I get them their annual rabies when the local vets host a rabies clinic (usually offered once or twice a year). It's $5 a pet then.
I never used to keep my strictly indoors cats vaccinated, beyond their annual rabies required by law. Then one day while I was not home my DD brought home a stray kitten and introduced it to my siamese. My sweet little female siamese, Bekka, caught feline leukemia from that kitten and although she recovered, her health was always fragile after that. Now I believe in vaccinating completely, for those things that you never know about.
P.S. You lucky thing with a siamese kitten!!! I miss my Bekka and her big brother Danang so much every day. Love your kitten a little extra for me, k?

 

[bluerose]

You DON'T really want to do 4-in-1... HUGE slam on the immune system. How would you like to be infected with 4 different diseases at once? Not so fun.

Vax as needed with what's needed... no more.

More than 2 at once is probably too much especially for a baby.

 

[peepkeeper]

Why do so many people here not want to listen to a vet, when they're the experts? If you're not going to do what the vet says why bother even going. Just so that you can dismiss the advice? Sorry to be testy, but it puzzles me why anyone would ignore the advice of an educated licensed professional and then come here, where we are all well meaning but let's face it, no experts.

 

[gritsar]

I don't outright ignore my vet's advice, I take it into consideration, but let's face it. There are unscrupolous (sp?) vets, just like there are human doctors, dentists, etc.; maybe more so cuz they know it's not a HUMAN life involved. Anything to make a buck. So I think the best advice is to always ask the experts, but educate yourself as well. Then you can make an educated choice. My choice on not getting Bekka fully vaccinated for example. The odds were in my favor, but I was wrong.

 

[Wildsky]

We don't vaccinate our indoor only cats. No chance of anything coming in and I'm happier without the vax.

 

[patandchickens]

Here is food for thought about rabies vaccination for an indoor cat.

Even if your cat truly genuinely never does set one paw outside the house except in a carrier, there are still 2 issues:

1) Bat rabies is pretty common in many parts of the country, and bats can and will enter the living space of your house, especially if they're sick. Don't think your house is batproof: we had a sick bat in our kitchen last summer (tested negative, fortunately) and I still absolutely cannot figure out how it could possibly have gotten in here. Couldn't have happened! But it did.

Bats are one of the commonest ways for *humans* to contract rabies, in fact, precisely because they can enter peoples' rooms. And anyone who's ever had a bat in the house knows just how attractive they are to a bored cat! (Please note I am not in any way anti-bat -- I am a professional biologist, I admire bats, I think bats should be encouraged. But you *do* have to allow for their habits).

2) If your cat should bite someone outside of the family and it is reported to the local health department, your life is going to be MUCH MUCH more complicated if the cat hasn't had its shots. In many jurisdictions (there are probably local exceptions, dunno, but this is the norm) a vaccinated animal that bites someone needs little or no quarantine, but if an UNvaccinated-for-rabies animal bites someone, it needs to be strictly quarantined for between 1-6 months depending on how your local laws are written. And some of that time may need to be TOTAL quarantine, i.e. not just living in the house with your family but in total isolation. You can get into serious legal and police troubles if you defy a rabies quarantine order. Note that many, possibly all?, states require this to be a VETERINARY vaccination for it to 'count'.

I am not defending/debating this, I am just pointing it out. So if your cat *should* nip the neighbor's kid or the Avon lady or the plumber, you and the cat will be MUCH happier if it had gotten a yearly vaccination from the vet.

The 1-year rabies shot is, from all I have heard, as safe as anything in life ever is. Actually even the 2- or 3-year shots, which yes do carry a higher risk of vaccination-site sarcoma, don't have MUCH risk of causing sarcoma... it's still really rare. (That said, having gone thru a scare about that with one former cat I will stick with the 1-year shots from now on).


Pat