Protecting
your Cat with Vaccinations
Vaccinations
can help protect your cat from disease so it lives a long, happy,
healthy
life. Like you, your cat should have a regular checkup once a
year
and at that time should have any necessary vaccinations.
However,
it is important to understand what vaccinations protect against and
how
they will benefit your cat in particular. As with people, you
want
to assure your cat is properly protected but you do not want to give
unnecessary
vaccinations.
Recently,
veterinarians
have identified a trend that shows some cats are reacting to
vaccinations
with site sarcomas (or cancers). A task force is doing
additional
research into the trend and the American Veterinary Association has
released
some new guidelines for vaccinations. Here is a summary of the
guidelines:
-
Information to
record in your cat's health
record
-
Recommended
vaccination
sites
-
Recommended
vaccination
schedules.
Vaccinations can
be given under the skin (subq) or into a muscle (IM). Vaccinations
often result in a slight bump shortly after inoculation which goes away
rapidly. This "bump" is similar to the one you may get after a
vaccination
and is not the same as site sarcoma. The bump can be minimized by
massaging the site immediately after inoculation as this helps to
disperse
the vaccine. Vaccinations should never be given between the
shoulder
blades. Talisker cats receive IM vaccinations when they go to the
vet as we rarely ever see even a small bump with this type of
inoculation.
It takes a little more time and care to give, but we believe that the
muscle
tissue helps disperse the vaccine more effectively since muscles are
made
to disperse certain types of acids as part of their normal
function.
There is no evidence that proves this however our 28 years of experience
has shown we see fewer reactions this way. In addition, rabies
vaccine
is the vaccine most implicated in site sarcomas however the taskforce
did
not find one site sarcoma linked to rabies vaccine given
intramuscularly.
Here is a set
of links for additional information. Please share these links
with
your veterinarian in case they have not already seen the information:
