Well, I know you don’t live in CA, so technically I’m not licensed to give medical advice to you, but FWIW I think we have to try and tailor the vaccination protocols to the individual situation of each pet. Ask 10 vets and you’ll get at least 8 different opinions. I generally recommend a kitten series of distemper (FVRCP) vaccines and rabies, then a 1 year booster. Outdoor cats should also get feline leukemia vaccine. After that, outdoor cats should probably get vaccinated every 3 years for distemper and either annually (with Purevax, which is my preference) or every three years with traditional adjuvanted leukemia and rabies vaccine. After about 8-10 years, the evidence that additional vaccines are protective is weak, so I generally recommend no further vaccinations. Indoor only cats should at most have a FVRCP very 3 years, since casual exposure to upper repiratory viruses from ferals can lead to infection (the disease is usually not serious, but the vaccines is pretty safe as well).
One can make an argument for rabies vaccination every 1-3 years (depending on vaccine type), but I think it’s a tough risk/benefit analysis. We know the traditonal vaccines cause fibrosarcoma in 1:8000-10,0000 vaccinations, and we don’t know exactly what the risk of getting rabies from a chance encounter during a rare escape from the house, but it’s probably quite low. The Purevax is supposed to be safer, but we don’t have the data yet to prove it. And while protective titers are established for rabies and most URI viruses, meaning you could do a blood test every year to see if vaccination is really necessary or not, we don’t really know what a protective titer is for FeLV and some of the other infections we vaccinate for.
So while I strongly defend the use of vaccinations, I don’t want to give the impression that there are no risks or that we don’t need to make choices, with imperfect information, about what exactly each patient should get. If anyone is interested in the technical details, HERE is the most recent set of guidelines on vaccination from the American Academy of Feline practitioners.
My girls have gotten all but the Feline Leukemia one. The vet for some reason avoids that vaccine for 2 or less indoor cats and cautiously recommends it for 3. Over three, he suggests it. Not sure why he tries to avoid that one.
As for Scarlette, even with a distemper shot, she is still prone to bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. The vet says it’s because she is 1/2 Persian and Persians are prone to respiratory problems due to the inbreeding to cause the flat face. Scarlette’s litter was not inbreed though, but rather a mistake of the previous caregiver, who gave her to us, against my better judgement, at 4 weeks. It was either take her or they would… well… basically kill them by having them fend for themselves. :( I fed her the cat’s mother’s milk you can get at Petsmart and other places dedicated to pets for a couple weeks and slowly weaned her of it, but that first year was hell due to all the respiratory infections she got and vet bills because of it. The second year was slightly better. I was afraid I couldn’t take care of her, but I’m happy to say she is now 8 years old. :D The distemper vaccinations didn’t help prevent those types of infections. Also, she is my first Persian I’ve ever raised and unlike the Siamese, Burmese, Tonk, and alike (all short hair of course) that I raised before, I had a lot to learn about raising a Persian those first two years. She has had only occassional repiratory infections after the second year, but she still breathes funny once in a while and the dr says that is common in Persian breeds, even without an infection. Believe it or not, she even snores.
I can’t remember any of my other breeds, not even the other two I have currently who are part Siamese (2 yrs now) and Calico Tabby (All American short hair and 8 yrs old, four months older than Scarlette) having respiratory infections like she has had. So, distemper only works for a specific respiratory infection. At least from what I can tell and I really don’t recommend any flat-face or semi-flat faced breed of cat unless one is prepared to learn a lot about the breed, preferrably BEFORE getting such a breed, and be prepared even after getting such a breed for related medical expences. Personally, I have come to the conclusion, that breeding a cat (and maybe even a dog) to get such facial features is inhumane. Breed a siamese with a Tonk or another siamese, for example, for the breed itself and not for some crazed deformed “exotic” look like a flat-face. Breed bangels if you like, I don’t care, but not for some genetic “defect” you think is so appealling. Those “exotic” features come with a price that vaccines won’t “fix” or prevent.
That, however, is another topic though and a side rant about breeding animals. Yes, I know. I breed cats (Scarlette is spaded though because of the landlord at the time), but I’m very seletive in the cats I breed. Persian, I have decided, will not be one of them and prefer Tonks over Siamese due the Show physical requirements of siamese now days (anorexic look for starters).
Again, OT, but back on topic, sadly vaccines for pets don’t cover all illnesses. :( However, what they do cover is worthwhile, esp in the early years, as Brennen pointed out. BTW, Brennen, thanks for the link too. I was concerned about being very late this year with their shots. :(
Cat license? Sounds like a sketch from Monty Python. There is an actual sketch about a fish license. Eric the Fish. This is off topic but it made me find the link to the video and improved an otherwise dreary day, worth a watch-- John Cleese and his facial expressions at his best ("It’s people like you what causes unrest"):
I’ve vaccinated my daughter, but I absolutely refused for her to receive these cocktail vaccinations, and I didn’t let the doctors pump her full of vaccines right after birth. Amazingly, she didn’t get whooping cough in that first month.
I’ve nursed several babies in my Intensive Care Unit who died from pertussis (whooping cough). It’s a horrifying death made all the more awful because of the fact that it’s completely avoidable. Once a small baby contracts pertussis, there is often very little we can do.
I think, the vaccination wheel will spin full circle if the Herd Immunity currently available to the unvaccinated dips to levels to make it unsustainable. Once we see more babies dying of pertussis or of the side effects of measles, I’m sure the same people currently railing against vaccination will be railing against the government (and probably medical science as well ...) for not making vaccination compulsory.
Cat license? Sounds like a sketch from Monty Python. There is an actual sketch about a fish license. Eric the Fish. This is off topic but it made me find the link to the video and improved an otherwise dreary day, worth a watch-- John Cleese and his facial expressions at his best ("It’s people like you what causes unrest"):
I’ve nursed several babies in my Intensive Care Unit who died from pertussis (whooping cough). It’s a horrifying death made all the more awful because of the fact that it’s completely avoidable. Once a small baby contracts pertussis, there is often very little we can do.
I think, the vaccination wheel will spin full circle if the Herd Immunity currently available to the unvaccinated dips to levels to make it unsustainable. Once we see more babies dying of pertussis or of the side effects of measles, I’m sure the same people currently railing against vaccination will be railing against the government (and probably medical science as well ...) for not making vaccination compulsory.
Thank you for your personal story. It is a very real example of the tragedies that can happen when people believe rumors and hysteria.
Has your wife been tested for toxoplasmosis? That is something you could protect your child from.
Not usually a problem unless you are a pregnant woman with a cat and an indoor litter box to clean. Then you are just advised not to clean the litter box. Otherwise, simple hygiene should be sufficient. MacGyver may have something to add to this.Edit: oops, sorry--I meant McKenzie
The majority of women are positive for toxoplasmosis already by the time they get pregnant, usually acquiring it from soil or inadequately washed raw vegetables. These women are not at risk when pregnant. Cats are the defintiive host, but they are pretty hard to catch it from. They only shed once for a few days when they are initially infected and then never again, barring immunosuppression (as in kidney transplant patients). The oocyst require 24 hours exposure to the air in order to become infected and then must be ingested. So it makes sense for women to be tested because if + they can stop worrying about it. If not, it doesn’t make sense to test the cats because that doesn’t tell us if they’re in the brief shedding period. Ideally, as Asanta points out, someone else in the house should clean the litterbox and do it daily.
I’ve nursed several babies in my Intensive Care Unit who died from pertussis (whooping cough). It’s a horrifying death made all the more awful because of the fact that it’s completely avoidable. Once a small baby contracts pertussis, there is often very little we can do.
I think, the vaccination wheel will spin full circle if the Herd Immunity currently available to the unvaccinated dips to levels to make it unsustainable. Once we see more babies dying of pertussis or of the side effects of measles, I’m sure the same people currently railing against vaccination will be railing against the government (and probably medical science as well ...) for not making vaccination compulsory.
I agree with Schtumpy, watching an infant die of Pertussis is terrible. The last one I took care of (that died) just had signs of sepsis--no cough, so we didn’t know he had pertussis until the autopsy. Most (of us) were all gowned up because we didn’t know what he had, but several needed a prophylactic course of erythromyin.
One of my co-workers had pertussis at 35, she broke several ribs coughing and was out of work on disability for several months (can’t work when you have a cough--it’s too frequent--even if you’re no longer infective).
My facility is now recommending the staff have the pertussis vaccine every two years, I’m sure it will be a requirement soon.
Apropos of this perennial topic, HERE is a great summary of the benefits of childhood vaccination in terms of illness and death prevented for specific diseases, and the current incidence of such diseases worldwide and in the US.
VoS, I have no clue what those pics are suppose to say. In all honesty, I see vaccines preventing that. As I READ, it sounds like these guys are supporting vaccinations. This is good because vaccinations do prevent these things. My mother came home from the hospital in 1944 as a newborn with whooping cough. They almost lost her, but thankfully they did not or I would not be here today. A vaccine for whooping cough we developed after she had it and my mother got ALL vaccinations available at the time for me from ‘66 on to my adulthood. I had a healthier childhood for it and did the same for my sons when they were born. Mumps came and went as I was a child and I never caught it, even though a first grade teacher swore up and down that I would. By the end of the school year, I made my point when I told her I was glad my mother vaccinated me (she had brought her two kids with mumps to class so she could be with them about mid-year, swearing we’d all get it) because I never got it. She frowned and made no comment in return. IF she had vaccinated her children, they would have also missed out on the discomfort. Disbelieving teachers of vaccines in the very early 70s exposed us to many childhood illnesses with the belief that if we caught early, we would be less miserable than if we caught it later in life. This simply is not true, for my sons appeared just as miserable with the Chickenpox in the early 90s as a baby and toddler, as I was in the late 70s as a 13 y.o. with Chickenpox. As a talking two year, my older son expressed his discomfort in words, which communicated volumes to me and my baby almost constantly cried because of the illness, which also told me a lot concerning his misery too. I was grateful that I did not allow them to acquire any other childhood illnesses that were preventable at the time. Like me, they had Chickenpox inside and out, which is a horror and a terrible way of gaining lifetime immunity. I didn’t let them get Chickenpox, it just happened and when they did they had it just as bad as I did.
Sadly, living proof that vaccines help and do not cause the problems that anti-vaccine people profess to does not help to win them over to vaccinating their children. I wonder if death of their child from a childhood illness would win them over? Probably not. It is a shame they will not educate themselves concerning vaccines, but prefer to fall for consperacies and lies about vaccinations. Truth is, as the pictures reveal, these anti-vaccination people are doing more harm than good to their children. They could give their kids far less suffering during childhood if they would just vaccinate them.
… Truth is, as the pictures reveal, these anti-vaccination people are doing more harm than good to their children. They could give their kids far less suffering during childhood if they would just vaccinate them.
People who don’t vaccinate are like people who drive but don’t insure. They are a risk to everyone else. These diseases are hellish, live or die.
