How many of you do boosters for your cats ?

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I expect a number of strong responses to this question. How many do yearly boosters after the initial kitten jabs?

I’ve always had cats and always taken them for annual boosters. As PPs have said, I’d be there anyway for their annual check up. Current cat has poor teeth so definitely needs regular dental check ups.

And I always insure too. I had a cat for 15 years who ended up with kidney issues. My premiums went up every year because of his age and medical issues, but I checked how much I’d have paid if I was taking out insurance for the first time when he was 10, and it was extortionate. So I’ve always thought starting insurance early keeps the costs way down when they’re older.

Insurance and cattery reasons, so yes we do. But growing up all our cats lived until 20+ years and never had any.

Yes insurance reasons. They’ve paid out over 6k without a single question and I want to keep it that way!

You know OP, it is a basic to top up their vaccinations. Put aside £20 a month so you don’t find yourself in this situation next year. Look around for different vets and see what they offer. One poster said about their vet offering vax for life, see if anyone near you does it.

My rescue cat has FIV He was vaccinated at the shelter and I’ve had his boosters done so far but just wondering whether to have anymore as I’m not sure if it’s overloading his immune system No one will really give me a definitive answer.

Every year. Can't think why I wouldnt.

Also when I got my youngest kitten jabs for the price of 2 jabs I got them boosters for life. So first ones cost double but it means she is covered for life.

£74 per cat isnt much

Try boosters for life vets for pets is call vac4life itll cost more the first time

My understanding is that they don’t really need boosters every year, a longer gap would be absolutely fine. Which seems to be supported by a previous poster saying that they only have to do them every two years in their country.

However my cat does have boosters every year as the cattery won’t take him without them - and that’s a condition of their licensing from the council. Even though I use a cat sitter more and more I still want the option of the cattery. I also like the health check he gets at the same time.

and here if we don’t keep them boosted we have to restart the vaccines and give them 2 doses about 4 weeks apart.

Every year with a full health check.

I did the 99 quid and it's vaccinations and check ups for life so yes and insurance. But that's just for emergency situations.

Yes, every year. Full annual checks and every booster that is required

I've only started getting my current cats vaccinated and boosters and get it as part of their worming and flea treatment so don’t really notice it. At the last 6 month checkup the noticed tartar build up (she’s only 4) so hoping we can control it early on

Actually during Covid our vet didn’t do routine vaccinations. I remember ringing in as we usually get a text to say they are due. I can’t now remember if we just skipped a year or it was massively delayed but whichever it was we were told it was fine. (That was our previous cat so I can’t check back the card thing.)

Mine did but we stopped them when he was older and not going out. Going to the vets stressed him it so much he would vomit and then sleep for ages so I decided it wasn't fair on him. He died from cancer (well he was PTS a few weeks after the diagnosis) in his very late teens so it didn't do him harm.

We used to do the regular flea treatment but I stopped that. He only ever had fleas once, and they were easily sorted. He was wormed regularly though.

Never insured and never went to a cattery so we didn't need to have the boosters for that. He was however neutered and chipped.

I do for my two. In fact they had their boosters only 2 weeks ago. And that’s despite about 20 years ago, our cat getting cancer from those injections. It’s very rare but I feel the benefits outweigh the downside. Our young vet at the time had never experienced such a case. It was very sad. The pharmaceutical company paid for our cat to be put to sleep when the time came. RIP Mitten.

It’s become too expensive for more snd more people.

I vaccinate my cat but try not to do it every year as he's an indoor cat. But if he has to stay at the cattery and he's a bit behind in his jabs he has to be done or he can't stay at the cattery. The reason it's not strictly 12 monthly is a vet told me he only gets his dog done every five years as in his opinion every 12 months is too frequent. The other reason is both my cats had horrible reactions to jabs. My ragdoll was excluded from having any more jabs after that whereas my current cat is given an antihistamines beforehand and only a 'dead' vaccine not a ' live' one and no more severe reactions. I've since been informed by another vet that all vaccines are dead.

We are part of a monthly plan which is £15 and that includes all yearly injections plus a check up and 10% off any treatment.

We don’t do booster.

our cat is a timid indoor cat, she is scared of her own shadow at times and the stress to her of getting her in the cat carrier, going in the car, going to a noisy vet and getting her immunised wasn’t good for her.

she would retreat back and hide for days after a vet visit so we took the decision to stop after about the 3rd or 4th booster.

she isn’t insured either but we do have savings if need be,

Yes, ours get their annual boosters. A neighbour normally looks after them, while we are away; but if we needed to use the cattery, they wouldn’t have them without vaccinations. They are insured as well.

2 year old has booster and is insured, 14 year old no longer has boosters and we pay for treatment as we go. Both are chipped and neutered.

I had a boss once who was a vet and said it is fine to stop after having had a few so with very vet averse older cat we stopped. I think vet is relieved, they didn’t want her for post operative check up after dental work as it stresses her out. Think it stressed them out too!

We don't. We got our 2 cats from a rescue - they were feral. One of them has got a bit more friendly but the girl cat won't come near us. We tried catching them the first couple of years we had them to take them to the vets but it always ended in disaster so now we don't bother. They're 9 years old now and both fighting fit. We do treat them for fleas and worms.
We've had several cats over the last 40 years - they've all died in their late teens. Our last cat had cancer so we had to pay to have him PTS but the others have all died of natural causes. We've never insured them and we're definitely quids in

I insure and vaccinate my cats every year and flea and worm them every 3 months. I managed to get them on free vac for life as we adopted and the vet practice offered it for free to the charity we adopted from. I believe they stopped offering it free shortly after. I would imagine as things get tighter money wise it’s unfortunately one of the things people may let slip.

A lot depends on whether they are allowed to roam or not. If they're out and about , and you care about them, I think vaxxing is a necessary evil.

I do mine as we are rural but there are a lot of other cats around. My friend doesn't bother because she and her cats live on a farm, and don't see any other cats