Vaccinations for feline enteritis

[mermaidsariel]

I am wondering how many of you have your cat vaccinated every year? Previous cats have not been done past the initial first jabs and were fine. We live in an area with few cats and our cat never goes beyond our own and fiercer neighbours gardens. They do not have cats.

Direct neighbours

Depends on whether you’re happy to gamble on an infected feral cat never passing through your neighbourhood on its travels, OP.
Do you immunise your cat against feline leukaemia etc and just miss out the enteritis jab, or are they missing all available health care?
Do you take them for an annual veterinary check, do they get treated for worms, fleas and ticks? What does your vet say when you refuse the proffered immunisations?
I would imagine your vet’s opinion would be more helpful than a few randoms on MN, no?

Thanks for that aggressive response. Yes the cat is wormed and also defleaed. She has an annual checkup. She’s had all her jabs up till now. There aren’t any feral cats around and very few domestic ones. Her booster is due and I’m just wondering if all cat owners have their cats vaccinated every year.

Ours are indoor cats and they are vaccinated every year - I believe this is the standard and required by their insurance anyway.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't unless you have concerns about the jab itself?

Mine are both vaccinated every year. Not worth the risk of not doing.

I only ever gave mine the first one and one booster. They are now 10 and so far there’s been no issues. My late girl was just under 15, she also had vaccinations only until she was 5, with no repercussions.

I do volunteer at a cat rescue so know I could be bringing bugs home, but I change as soon as I get in. Mine have a catio and supervised garden access.

I decided not to vaccinate when I realised yearly jabs are not the norm in all countries. Plus in some other countries they jab in the leg, in case the site goes cancerous they can take the leg off, much more difficult to deal with in the neck.

It won’t invalidate your insurance, only means they won’t pay out for illnesses related to not having the jab. My boy fat boy got sick last year, probably from licking a frog and insurance covered him

We don’t jab the ferals where I volunteer (not easy to catch so many free roaming, mostly human shy cats) and they don’t get sicker than the domestics.

Basically do your research and make up your own mind. Be aware if you put them in a cattery, they will require them to be vaccinated though.

It is worth chatting to your vet we don't vaccinate for every disease every year. Like in humans the flu (herpes and calici) portion is not long lasting so this is usually done each year, all enteritis (pankeukooaenia) vaccines have extended duration so are done every other or every third year. Different leukaemia vaccines have different schedules, but some are every third year.
The most valuable but is the clinical examination ( and this is the majority of the cost) as it can pick up problems like heart disease enabling diagnosis and management.

Lonecat. That’s very helpful, thank you. My last car was vaccinated only whilst we used a cattery. First few years. He lived to a ripe old age. Of course you never know. I just wonder how common these diseases are really.

I’ve always vaccinated yearly. It’s about £40 & they checked his teeth while he was there.

That’s a bargain. No one give me a free teeth check or tells me I’m beautiful when I get flu jabs

@mermaidsariel herpes and calici virus are really very common in cats with lapsed vaccination and these cats often have chronic low grade cat flu in later life.
Leukaemia it's still out there in the feral population and if your cat goes out it is at risk.
Panleucopaenia we see sporadically particularly when herd levels of vaccinations drop.

I’d recommend having a chat with your vet - many vets now don’t vaccinate for everything every year - for instance at my practice in dogs we only vaccinate for distemper/hepatitis/parvo every third year because that’s all that’s needed with the vaccine we use.

Also have a look at the wsava guidelines - they’re an independent body who make recommendations about vaccinations.

Personally I’ve seen many many cases of cat flu and leukaemia in my career and only ever two cases of injection site sarcoma (a type of cancer caused by injections, which can include vaccinations) so on that basis I still vaccinate my cat.

@Fluffycloudland77

I’ve always vaccinated yearly. It’s about £40 & they checked his teeth while he was there.

That’s a bargain. No one give me a free teeth check or tells me I’m beautiful when I get flu jabs

My vet charges £74 and the nearest other one £99!

Have you tried a vets in a less than desirable neighbourhood?.

I phoned one a bit further away and it’s much cheaper! Thanks for that prompt @Fluffycloudland77!

Your welcome.