Vaccinating your cats at home? A couple of questions

[Fawkes]

Where do you buy your vaccines? I want to make sure I'm buying from a reputable source. Is Tractor Supply a good place to buy them? Or would an online source be better?

And when using live virus vaccines is there a chance the virus can be passed to young kittens? I have 2 week old kittens, the mother cat wasn't vaccinated. Obviously I won't be vaccinating the mother or kittens until they're old enough but is it safe to vaccinate other cats in the household? Could the mother pick up the virus from using the litterpan that the other cats have used? (thinking the virus could be shed through poop...)

 

[cassie]

The chances of causing an animal to contract a disease from a live vaccine is just about nil. I don't think it matters a lot where you buy your vaccine but if the employees are incompetent and leave a vaccine out in the heat that isn't good. Most of the online vet supplies are reputable and they pack their vaccines in such a way for shipment that they remain cold.

 

[anankae]

The source I buy from varies because supplies change. I usually will google for it. I've often bought from UPCO they're pretty steady. I get the single dose RCCP + Feline Leukemia.

Unless you're talking about rabies vaccines then I can't help you cause I can't legally buy those in my state. With rabies -- I think I'm better off letting my vet do it.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Be careful with vaccinating cats. Many shelters are against it. Why? Because then your cat will be marked as a carrier when they test for that disease. If your cat ever gets out, the first thing shelters do is test for diseases. If your cat comes up positive, it would usually be put to sleep immediately.

 

[collie1470]

The first thing shelters do is scan for a chip. Vet care comes whenever their associated vet is available, which would depend on when the animal gets picked up. Since blood tests require lab equipment, and most shelters cannot afford that kind of equipment, test strips, microscopes, and training.

 

[collie1470]

Though, I suppose all of that depends on location.

Here, high kill shelters don't bother doing any testing, unless the animal gets sponsored or an adopter comes up. Shelters who occassionally euthanize coordinate with a local veterinarian regarding all health care. They quarantine new or sick animals, depending on the outcome of a vet visit (even parvo gets treated, if funds are available). No kill shelters only euthanize only when there is a serious medical condition that has significantly degraded quality of life.

The majority of the time, the only way you need to worry about your animal being euthanized is if they go to a full kill shelter, they appear very sick, they get badly injured, or they are at the shelter too long (but if you are actively looking for your pet, that last one should never happen).

When you go to reclaim your pet, they require vet records to prove the animal HAS been vaccinated, otherwise they'll do it there.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

I guess it depends on where you go. I've heard horror stories locally about cats put to sleep immediately for having FIV (or FELV, one of those) when really they were vaccinated against it. Shelters aren't willing to house these cats because they are afraid one will infect the rest. Anyway, the shelters where I live practically beg people not to vaccinate their cats against these diseases. They say the first thing they do is check for FIV/FELV, and if its positive, they put it to sleep immediately.

I've been seeing you a lot collie1470, I guess we have similar tastes in threads.

 

[collie1470]

We must.

A search even on petfinder.com will show FIV/FELV+ cats up for adoption. I know we had a few FIV+ cats while I was still working in rescue. Best bet would be to contact local shelters if the cat gets loose and give them a picture and description, along with medical history....that way they know in advance that such a cat may be coming in.

Whereas there seem to be some shelters in certain areas who will euthanize a cat for testing positive, the vaccines could also prevent your cat from actually contracting the diseases.

 

[collie1470]

They're not airborne, so the risk of cross infection is very slim (unless someone lets out an infected cat with the others, which would be very irresponsible). Typically, they'd be quarantined. But, those are really only options in a no kill shelter.

As for high kill shelters....well....they euthanize most anyway. Heaven forbid an animal has the sniffles.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Felv should not cause a positive result on a SNAP test, but as I understand, FIV can. FIV and FeLV are not core vaccines though, and I probably would not bother giving them (at least FeLV) to cats older than a year or cats that are strictly indoor cats. FIV is harder for cats to transmit and the vaccine is not protective against all strains, so I probably would not even bother. I would just give the core vaccines and rabies. I usually take the stickers off the bottles I get at TSC and stick them in my records.

I've heard some people talk negatively about TSC vaccines but I've never had an issue (I'm in vet school but it's still cheaper for me to do shots myself!)