Cats seem independent and self-sufficient, but cats need just as much care and attention as other pets. Cats are prone to a number of serious diseases and it is extremely important to ensure that your cat is vaccinated from an early age. Further prevention from diseases is necessary to maintain your cat’s health with annual booster injections.
Anyone who has seen a cat in pain and distress because of a condition that could have been easily prevented by adequate care will understand why vets are so keen to promote preventive vaccination for all cats. This not only helps to prevent the development of the disease to a terminal stage but also limits the spread of these infectious diseases to the surrounding feline population.
Vaccinations are important as almost all kennels will only permit cats that have past records of vaccinations. This measure serves to protect your cat as well as to ensure other cats in the kennel are not infected should your cat be ill. Even cats that have been vaccinated can sometimes contract a variant of the disease and the less risk there is to the kennel as a whole the better.
Travel restrictions for pets can be stringent for most countries. If you are considering traveling with your pet you will need to carry all available documentation concerning your pet’s health and vaccination record, and you may need to show evidence of feline veterinarian treatment including deworming schedules. Without these documents, your cat may have to be quarantined for up to six months, so do check with your travel agency to make sure you have all the documentation you may need.
Kittens should be vaccinated from the age of nine weeks. They are then vaccinated again at 12 weeks, and then go on to a program that would include annual booster injections.
Your vet would also advise you on the necessity of giving your cat a rabies shot, particularly if your cat has contact with other feral cats in the neighborhood and gets into scrapes. A point to note is that the rabies shot is a requirement if you are traveling to any country within Europe and in the US.
The four main vaccinations a cat can have from the age of nine weeks are the following:
Feline infectious enterovirus (FIE, also known as the feline panleukopaenia virus.
Feline herpesvirus (otherwise known as feline calcivirus, or cat flu)
Feline leukaemia. A vet will test a cat’s blood to see if there is already an immunity built up from previous contact, and if the test shows negative i.e. there has been no contact and therefore no immunity built up the cat should be vaccinated.
Feline Chlamydophila, which causes conjunctivitis. Again your cat may already have built up an immunity so your vet can check for antibodies in the bloodstream and vaccinate if the test comes back negative to previous contact.
Vaccinations may save your cat’s life should it get into any contact with any horrifying diseases. Although vaccines do hold a risk for a small minority of cats who received them, proper vaccination is still the best solution and protection your cat can have against infectious disease.
