Cat Vaccination

Together with your veterinarian, you will plan your cat's vaccination schedule at your annual visit.

Why You Should Vaccinate Your Cat

There is no doubt that vaccinations have made a huge difference in the spread of infectious disease for both people and pets. In the third world, Rabies is still a constant, fatal threat to people and animals because vaccines are not available.

It has always been the goal of Blue Cross Animal Hospital to recommend vaccines that are needed for individual cats, rather than having a one-size-fits-all protocol.

Increasing concerns about vaccinations have caused people to question whether vaccines are safe for their cat or needed at all. We believe that they are safe, and we know that they are needed to prevent outbreaks of life threatening diseases such as Panleukopenia in cats. As well, vaccines are needed to prevent diseases which can be transmitted to humans, such as Rabies.

When to Vaccinate your Cat: Our Up-to-Date Vaccination Schedule

As much as they are life savers, greatly improved vaccines and on-going research have prompted us to re-visit our vaccine protocols over the years.

We used to vaccinate annually for the “Core Vaccines”. Several years ago we changed to every other year.

Now we have changed to a need-based protocol based on the latest recommendations from The American Animal Hospital Association and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association and the International Society of Feline Medicine. These bodies follow research and disease trends to determine which vaccines should be considered Core and which should be given only for pets at risk.

It has always been the goal of Blue Cross Animal Hospital to recommend vaccines that are needed for individual cats, rather than having a one-size-fits-all protocol. For instance, we do not routinely vaccinate cats for Feline Leukemia if they are going to be indoors. We don’t have one blanket protocol that fits all our patients.

In simpler terms: we recommend your cat get the vaccines he or she needs when they are needed.

We still strongly recommend that your cat have an annual health exam. Some vaccines may be given on alternate years, and the annual exam is a thorough exam of many aspects of your cat’s health, not just vaccination.

What Vaccines Does My Cat Need?

When see your cat for their annual visit we will give them a thorough physical examination and discuss their health and activities. We then recommend the vaccines that are needed that year based on your individual cat’s needs and set or re-set the schedule for the coming years.

In determining which vaccines should be given to a particular pet, we break vaccines into two categories, Core and Non-Core. Vaccines classed as Core are the ones that all cats should get as they are at risk no matter their lifestyle, for example Panleukopenia. The non-Core vaccines are ones that should be added if your cats’s activities are likely to expose them to the disease, for example Feline Leukemia for outdoor cats.

Core Vaccines

Rabies (even for indoor cats, see below)
Feline Rhinotracheitis
Panleukopenia
Calici Virus

Non-Core Vaccines

Bordetella
Chlamydia
Feline Leukemia: For cats that go outdoors.

There are vaccines for Feline Immunosuppressive Virus (FIV) and Feline Infectious Peritonitus (FIP) neither of which we recommended.

Indoor Cats and Rabies

Why should indoor cats be vaccinated against Rabies? Rabies is a fatal, neurologic disease in animals and people. The biggest carrier of Rabies in Toronto is bats. A rabid bat is not a normal bat. It could well fly in a high-rise window or basement door. Cats love to play and a rabid bat swooping around or falling out of the air would be a perfect toy. One bite and your un-vaccinated cat has Rabies. If the cat has Rabies, any humans who come in contact with him or her is exposed.

Just such a thing happened recently in the US. An indoor cat died of Rabies and the whole family and many of their friends had to have post-exposure treatment. That could have been avoided with a vaccination for the cat.

Note that city by-laws require that all pets be vaccinated for rabies.