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?

Have a petplan with the vets that I pay a certain amount per year for cats and dogs alike to have yearly boosters and flea/wormer treatment every three months. Also have a lifetime dog licence for each dog. That said our old cat that was 20 when she died never once saw a vet.

Yes because although I don't use a cattery if I wanted to they'd need the certificates.

Don't people have an annual checkup on pets usually?

Yes, I take my cats to the vet once a year for a routine check-up and immunisations.

Mine includes an annual health check. I might not moving forward once she gets past 7 which is what my Mum did with ours. However, the annual check is reassuring that there's nothing much wrong with our cat and that she's eating properly.

Every year without fail even if he is an unsociable big toad!

Interested in this thread as I now take a different approach with my dogs, so genuinely interested to see what the norm/advise is for cats, as no idea if they're different.

For my dogs, I no longer booster for the core vaccines - I titre test for immunity - then you only have to booster if immunity is low. In 10 years, my dog has always come back as having sufficient immunity so as not to require a vaccination. I also do not routinely do flea, tick or worm treatment (use wormcount instead) and again - have never had to, no evidence of parasites, aside from the odd tick which is quickly removed. I think on balance I've removed a lot of unnecessary drugs from my dogs (and in case the parasite treatments, from the environment as well)

Yes, I do. I have 3 cats and they all have boosters every year. Apart from anything else, the cattery we use requires it.

I got a rescue that was vaccianted unfortuneately she already had FHIV so then had all her teeth extracted and she can't go to a cattery. I still vaccinate her and my other cat in the hope it doesn't spread and the other one stays safe. They go out but don't mix with local cats they are all very terratorial and seem to stick to their area

(vet here)

kitten vaccines and the first year booster are the most important ones - getting in protection for feline leukaemia virus before they have opportunity for exposure and protection against panleukopaenia virus which is usually fatal (cat version of parvo in dogs). These vaccines do give longer cover than just a year if a full first course and first booster is given.

the annual element of the vaccine is cat flu (herpes virus and calicivirus) these are very contagious, they can cause acute flu which can be very serious plus chronic issues with breathing, nasal discharge/sinusitis, eye problems and are implicated in some diseases of the mouth and gums.

in the U.K. we have a generally well managed stray population and a fairly good penetration of vaccines in the pet population which is probably why many non vaccinated pets have not contracted these illnesses (compare it to some countries where there are strays everywhere coughing and snotting).

vaccination helps protect your own pet from these illnesses. It is a risk/benefit decision but for the vast majority of cats the evidence is that it is beneficial. There is a lot of information available via the world small animal veterinary association (WSAVA) if you are interested in looking at where the studies/data comes from.

They need to develop their immune systems somehow.