Cats

Once your kitten has gone through the series of initial vaccinations and boosters including rabies, they will not need any more vaccines for a year. Generally your cat will be 16-18 months old at this time. At 18 months we can give your cat a 3 year rabies vaccine – meaning the rabies only needs to be boosted every 3 years or a 1 years rabies vaccine. There is a low incidence of fibrosarcoma developing at the site where the 3 year rabies vaccine has been given.The down side of the 1 year vaccine is that it needs to be administered annually and is also more expensive. Cats do not develop a super strong immune response to the rhinotracheitis virus or to the calicivirus and can easily become infected and inapparent carriers. For that reason it is strongly recommended that these virus vaccines are boosted annually. The panleukopenia virus on the other hand, stimulates a great immune response and therefore only needs boosting every 3 years after the vaccination at 18 months. There are other vaccines available for cats against feline leukemia, feline immunodeficiency virus and feline infectious peritonitis. Please inquire whether these vaccines should be a part of your cat’s health maintenance program.