My latest video from SkeptVetTV covering vaccine recommendations for cats. Below are some resources for further information.
American Academy of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) Vaccination Guidelines
World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) Vaccination Guidelines
AAFP Guidelines for Feline Injection-Site Sarcoma (FISS)
Vaccine-associated feline sarcoma: current perspectives.
Feline Injection Site Sarcomas: Data from Switzerland 2009-2014.
The incidence of feline injection site sarcomas in the United Kingdom.
Great video, skeptvet, that last mention was priceless 🙂
(scary stuff on the net)
I do have a question…. If a cat is ill with calicivirus, isn’t vaccination at the time rather contraindicated, given the (mostly) severe symptoms? I’ve always thought that vaccines should not be given to ill cats (or dogs).
That’s correct. The vaccines are intended to reduce symptoms by stimulating protective mechanisms, and they can benefit cats who have bot been infected and cats who are carrying latent infections, but they should not be given to cats having active outbreaks with symptoms because they would provide no unfit (the infection is already stimulating the immune system, the hard way).
Ha, I *thought* I had heard you correctly in your video, thanks for confirming!
I just found this site and am so appreciative of the information you provide! My question concerns FeLV/FIV testing. My kitten was tested by my vet at approximately 3-4 months of age and the results came back negative for both. We proceeded with all core vaccines, and once those were completed, my vet said I could now introduce the kitten to my other two cats that are exclusively indoors. The kitten has always had a bit of nasal discharge, which I mentioned to my vet, so we put him on Clavamox for 9 days after the vaccines were done, and it cleared the infection entirely. The kitten is completely healthy with no other symptoms. He is approx 6 months of age and is due to be neutered in a couple of weeks at another facility since my vet no longer performs the surgery. When my vet called to see how he was doing, she recommended retesting for FeLV (for $95) out of “an abundance of caution” prior to the neutering, along with a complete pre-surgery blood panel. I have read your articles on this site regarding the blood panel and am going to forego that. However, I am wondering why a retest for FeLV would be necessary after a negative result? When researching this online, it seems as though only positive FeLV tests in young kittens warrant a later retest to rule out a false positive, but negative results are typically reliable. Any guidance you could provide would be much appreciated – thank you for this site!!
I agree that retesting of kittens is typically used to show that a positive result under 6 months of age was due to maternal antibodies rather than infection. I would not retest a kitten with an initial negative result unless I thought there might have been exposure or infection after the previous test was done.