To consider not vaccinating my cat

[MyCatProbablyHatesYou]

I think I probably am BU but my cat HATES the vets. Last time I took him for his first booster (he's just turned two and is due his second) he went absolutely mental.

He attacked both me and the vet to the point where we were both actually bleeding in quite a few places and I thought we'd never get him back in the carrier and he'd have to live there.

When we got home he was distressed for a number of days afterwards.

He's such a lovely cat at home but just hates being taken in the carrier/car/into the waiting room etc...

I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem and whether you kept it up and how? I know he is going to flip the minute I get the carrier out again, I've no idea how I'm going to even get him in it.

Our other cat is absolutely fine, she will happily go in the carrier and doesn't really bother when she's at the vets either other than the odd meow but this one is an absolute monster!

After having a cat die at four years old in the most distressing way from feline leukemia (one of the things they vaccinate against, but he was an adopted street cat so picked it up before vaccinations), I would never ever not vaccinate a cat now.

If they never go outside, ok, but if they do you are risking things which can kill them. That's why you are not supposed to let out kittens until they are vaccinated.

Find a cat friendly clinic, speak to the vet about ways to make the trip less stressful. House visits are possible but most small animal vets aren’t really geared up to do them for non-urgent care and so they’re usually pretty expensive (more than for large animals where the vet is already in the car iyswim)
It’s great that you want to do preventative healthcare for your pet.

My cat was done as a kitten but because he's an indoor pedigree but this year he had two visits to the vet for his vaccinations because he was going in a Cattery. But yours is outdoors and he needs them so get the vet to the house if you can or go to the vets he'll get over it I had a cat years ago that got aids and had a lot of problems and had to be put down at 12 due to serious health problems due to aids so get it done.

I think the person asking about flea and worm stuff is on about how most vets won’t dispense it if they haven’t seen them in a year.

I know I have to bundle my cat to the vets once a year for a check up much to her disgust

Presumably your vet has seen the cat in order to prescribe the right dosages to him/her? It was more of a general comment in ref to the people on this thread saying that their cat doesn’t see the vet and I’m wondering if that means that they don’t get decent worm/flea treatments either.

I agree with others saying about seeing cats dying needlessly from conditions that vaccines protect against. It is heartbreaking and entirely avoidable. If you love them, protect them. It is worth it for an hour of distress, once a year (I say that as the owner of a cat who would shit his brains out with stress before we got to the bottom of the drive, I do understand).

I am, Soubriquet, yes.

Presumably your vet has seen the cat in order to prescribe the right dosages to him/her

I'm not strictly sure how it works but last time he was in there (the embarrassing one where he nearly clawed both me and the vet to death) he was moved onto the 'large' cat dosage and so I don't think it changes after that.

My smaller cat has to go back every few months to be weighed again to get the right dosage but she's tiny. My boy is big though and since moving up to the largest dose he's not had to be weighed again and I can just go in and collect the stuff every 3 months.

I'm going to ring vet tonight and see what they suggest. Will look into the Feliway or whatever it's called too! Will also force DH to come with me this time so I can leave him to tackle DCat back into the carrier.

If a large cat were to lose weight and drop below the 5kg ‘large cat’ threshold, they could overdose on the medication and end up with unpleasant side effects.

Though I suppose it depends on how ‘big’ big is. If he’s 7kg or somethingthen you’d notice a 2kg+ weight loss and would be taking him to the vet anyway.

Yes obviously I'd take him if I noticed any weight loss. He's always been a big cat, not fat but just a bit of a brute ha.

My teeny girl cat was the runt of the litter and still looks like a kitten to this day. She's so well behaved in the vets, it's like chalk and cheese. And yet she's always been the one who gets ill. He's never once (that I know of) thrown up or had diarrhea which is surprising because I'm fairly certain he eats all sorts when he's our and about whereas she pretty much stays in the house or just on the lawn and no further.

Anyway, I'm going to try and get him an appointment but I'm taking H with me for back up this time!

I said
"Most people don't vaccinate."

Do you have a reference for that?
Will this do?

I wrote that coz it's what my vets tell me! About cats specifically I mean, not people or dogs. They volunteer that sort of comment spontaneously, I didn't ask. Backed up by what other cat owners say in casual conversation. My vets act like they are super pleased that I bother to vaccinate even 2 of mine.

Also most small pet owners I know don't have pet medical insurance. Will this ref do?
But vets never volunteered any opinion on that.

I don't know anyone who would ever put their cats in a cattery. That's my bubble.

I leave the cat box around the house for a few days before the vet visit - as soon as my girl cat sees it she flees, but after a few days of it being there she ignores it. Then while she’s eating I’ll shit the kitchen door and then she’s contained. I have to use a towel wrapped around her like a swaddled baby (and she gives me evil looks the whole time) but it’s the only way I can do it.

Once we’re there she won’t come out the box and then won’t go back in it to go home!!

You shit the kitchen floor while she's eating?!?

I said
"Most people don't vaccinate."
*
Do you have a reference for that?
<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.thecatgroup.org.uk/policy_statements/vacc.html" target="_blank">Will this do??

Bit of an odd reference - a page saying that not enough people vaccinate and that is why cats contract diseases and die! Suppose it proves your point that many don't - but not that that's a good thing - quite the opposite.

I've never vaccinated my cat. He's 22.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 oops!!