Vaccinations for Your Cat
The subject of vaccinations for cats is one that has become a bit threadbare, and this is due to the many opinions, debates, and discussions about it. Should a cat owner vaccinate or not? Which vaccines should they use? Can they do it at home? Should they do it at home? The list goes on and one, but the best advice is to just use some common sense.
For one thing, even the cat who lives indoors year-round is actually going to somehow become exposed to some sort of health issue that is preventable via a vaccination. For example, a screened in porch cannot prevent certain diseases from being caught via contact with outdoor or stray cats since some are passed through saliva or even just through close proximity.
Vaccinations for a cat can come in the “core” and the “non-core” categories and these are differentiated by the fact that core vaccines treat conditions that will prove potentially fatal, while the non-core are usually administered to cats at risk for infection due to exposure issues.
The core vaccines recommended for cats are the rabies vaccine, and those intended to prevent distemper, calicivirus, and the herpesvirus. The non-core vaccines include those for the feline leukemia virus, feline infectious peritonitis, feline pneumonitis, Microsporum canis (ringworm), and Bordetella.
Any vaccination is going to come at the recommendation of the cat’s regular veterinarian, and in some locations there are mandatory vaccinations such as rabies. The frequency with which a cat must be treated with the vaccines depends on their lifestyle and the protocol that the veterinarian believes necessary.
For example, there is a lot of debate about annual boosters over a longer cycle, usually of three years. This means that one veterinary practice might have a cat owner bring in the pet for a “booster” of the vaccine every year, while another might have the cat come in for an annual examination and receive a new vaccination once every three years. There is no conclusive evidence as to which is the best system, though some point out that secondary conditions can develop at the point of injection with animals that get frequent boosters or vaccinations.
The best approach to knowing which vaccinations are right for your cat is to discuss the animal’s day to day lifestyle with the veterinarian and assess the health risks that this lifestyle creates. For example, the indoor cat that spends a lot of time on a screen porch should probably receive some of the non-core vaccines because they will come into contact with animals that carry such diseases on a regular basis.
