Severe shortage of cat vaccines

[Greenhand]

I have used the same vet for 20 years and they religiously send out a vaccination reminder for all pets so I rely on it heavily.

I realised it had been an awfully long time this year and couldn't immediately locate my cat's record card so called. Turns out she was due a vaccination 2 months ago and they have none and are expecting none other than for kittens hence why no reminder.

I was told to keep my whirling dervish inside.

If I wanted to go away, I wouldn't be able to book a cattery for example as she's not got an up to date vaccination.

Has anybody else come across this? Do I need to call round lots of vets to find one with a vaccination stock?

Was told this by our vet today but they said something about it being one type that they give every 3 years so our cat was fine for this one.

Yes PILs have had this with their cats too.
They told me about a month ago that they have to wait until January.

Our vet had a waiting list and called about a month after it was due.

Have a new kitten who needs her second vaccine but can’t get to the vets as no spaces till Feb/March time. Will keep trying.

We had no vaccines at work and were only doing kittens and cats about to go out of date but as of Friday we can order normally and have restarted normal booster schedule
It changes very rapidly so worth calling your vets again this week

@Veterinari what a ridiculous statement considering doctors are more heavily regulated, but Harold shipman managed to murder potentially 250 plus patients before he got caught. My old vets made all sorts of mistakes including mistreating my dog for what started off as a very mild case of mites until he ended up with all kinds of secondary infections and was close to death. And also misdiagnosed my cat who had cancer, and when had to take him in to be euthanised they snapped a catheter in half trying to insert it into him and then had to ‘euthanise’ him 3 times because they kept miscalculating the dosage of whatever drug they use.

[quote Winniemarysarah]@Veterinari what a ridiculous statement considering doctors are more heavily regulated, but Harold shipman managed to murder potentially 250 plus patients before he got caught. My old vets made all sorts of mistakes including mistreating my dog for what started off as a very mild case of mites until he ended up with all kinds of secondary infections and was close to death. And also misdiagnosed my cat who had cancer, and when had to take him in to be euthanised they snapped a catheter in half trying to insert it into him and then had to ‘euthanise’ him 3 times because they kept miscalculating the dosage of whatever drug they use.[/quote]
You're using a single serial killer to make a point about the entire medical profession, but I'm the one being ridiculous.

Aye, right

Odd you kept returning to a vet you were so unhappy with. Especially as it sounds like you know SO much better than trained professionals.

Our Vets for Pets branch basically has a spreadsheet. They've said it's fine for cats to be up to 3 months late for their boosters.

One of our cats was due in September, and went on the spreadsheet. Got a call yesterday to say he'd reached the top of the list, and had him jabbed last night.

Other cat is due in December, so he went on the spreadsheet yesterday when we took the other cat in!

We understood it was a vial/container shortage.
I was called for my annual diabetes check up, but as they could not take my blood I had to return two weeks later. A complete waste of the first appointment; they could have cancelled and treated someone else who needed no blood test.,

Our old vets sent a note out in August saying they were pausing vaccines for 3 months because of staff shortages, blaming Brexit, the pandemic and increasing number of pets being acquired during the pandemic. No mention of vaccine shortage. So could it be a staffing issue? Try ringing a few vets because its a nuisance.

Some resources are being redirected. Lots of veterinary supplies are the same as those used by human medical supplies or can easily be adapted to do so, so some things are being redirected to covid vaccine production. Resulting in a shortage of animal products. It's happens during "normal times" as well (I remember a tube shortage due to producer shutting down and the others redirecting to human supplies) it's just quite obvious right now.

@MGMidget

Our old vets sent a note out in August saying they were pausing vaccines for 3 months because of staff shortages, blaming Brexit, the pandemic and increasing number of pets being acquired during the pandemic. No mention of vaccine shortage. So could it be a staffing issue? Try ringing a few vets because its a nuisance.

Yes there's an approx 15% shortage of vets in the workforce due to Brexit, burnout and vast numbers leaving the profession due to stress.

It's pretty bleak