Vet-Recommended Vaccines for Cats

Join us on Vetsplanation for a comprehensive guide to cat vaccines! Our veterinary expert breaks down which vaccines are crucial for your cat's health and why. Learn about the benefits of each vaccine, how they protect against serious diseases, and tips for maintaining your cat's vaccination schedule. This episode is a must-watch for any cat parent looking to provide the best care for their furry companion. 

In this episode you will learn:

• Essential vaccines every cat should receive
• Benefits of each vaccine for your cat’s health
• Recommended vaccination schedules for different life stages
• Common side effects and how to manage them
• Tips for maintaining your cat’s vaccination records
• How vaccines protect against serious feline diseases
• Expert answers to frequently asked questions about cat vaccines

Resources:
Crazy Cat Vet

Transcript

Dr. Sugerman: 0:00

Imagine your beloved cat contracting a preventable disease simply because you weren't aware of the importance of vaccines. Welcome back to another episode of Vetsplanation, I am your host, Dr. Sugarman. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Černá, a newly board certified internist with extensive experience in feline health. We're thrilled to have her here, especially because she also just gained membership in the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in the medicine of cats. So congratulations Dr. Černá, we're really excited to have you here. Just so you guys know, you know, this information is all free, so we really do appreciate when you give us likes, follow our page, follow our podcast, follow us on YouTube, and make sure to leave us a review. I do look at a lot of the comments that are on YouTube. I think that's the best place to kind of interact with this, so I do make sure to respond to a lot of those comments. So if you have a comment that you want to leave, feel free to leave it there. Otherwise, you can always email us as well. All right, let's jump into this week's episode. Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Vetsplanation. I'm so excited again we're gonna be here with Dr. Černá and I am really excited because she just passed her boards if I remember correctly if I saw..

Dr. Petra Černá: 1:12

Yes, actually.

Dr. Sugerman: 1:14

Yes, now a board certified internist and and like a hundred specialties just in cats.

Dr. Petra Černá: 1:20

Yes, yes. I actually also gained my Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientist membership exam in Medicine of Cats.

Dr. Sugerman: 1:31

Very nice. Congratulations. We're really excited for you.

Dr. Petra Černá: 1:33

Thank you.

Dr. Sugerman: 1:34

Yeah, so today we're gonna be talking about vaccines in cats. I feel like not a lot of people think that vaccines in cats is really important. People always focus on dogs, but vaccines in cats I think are really, really important. Do you agree?

Dr. Petra Černá: 1:48

Absolutely. Yes, I couldn't agree more. And I think especially in cats that go outside and in cats where we have multiple cats in the household, vaccinations are definitely very important. But even in indoor only cats and especially young cats. So I definitely think once we have vaccinating the cats multiple times throughout their life, I don't think we really really need to continue vaccinating them until they are 24 years old. But I think especially when they are kittens and young adults as well in their first few years, vaccinations are really important.

Dr. Sugerman: 2:22

So why are they so important?

Dr. Petra Černá: 2:24

So they protect you from several diseases and there are different types of vaccines. Some of them that can protect you from the disease completely, and some of them that you can still get the disease. Like for example, one of the main ones that we do in cats would be feline panleukopenia, feline herpes, and feline calicivirus. And you can still get calicivirus and herpes even when you vaccinate, but the vaccine kind of protects you from developing very severe clinical signs. So if your cat is vaccinated for herpes, they can still get it. They can develop some clinical signs, but very unlikely they're actually going to get severe enough signs to die from the disease.

Dr. Sugerman: 3:03

Yeah. Yeah, I know a lot of people always get confused by that because like well I gave them the vaccine they shouldn't be able to get this disease but you'll have to like it to like us getting influenza or you know your flu vaccine or COVID you know we might get a vaccine and it's going to help protect us to where hopefully we won't get very severe signs but you're still most likely going to get the flu and you're probably still going to get COVID at some point.

Dr. Petra Černá: 3:29

Exactly. But it's really important that it protects you from developing severe clinical signs where you can die from. And for example, panleukopenia, that's a disease in cats. It's similar to dogs with parvovirus. So panleukopenia can cause really severe clinical signs and we can lose actually, and a lot of kittens will die because they develop severe white blood cell deficiencies, severe anemias, and really severe clinical signs and diarrhea as well. And just become very weakened. We have lost several kittens to panleukopenia both in my hospital and especially in shelter environments as well. So it is really important that those young cats and kittens get vaccinated.

Dr. Sugerman: 4:10

Yeah. I know there's different types of vaccines. We have like core vaccines and non core vaccines. Why don't we start with what core vaccines are and which ones are core vaccines?

Dr. Petra Černá: 4:19

Yeah, I think that's a great topic. So what we call core vaccines are, it means those vaccines that be really, really strongly recommended each get cats. So those would be, like I mentioned, the feline calicivirus, feline herpes virus, and feline panleukopenia. Those are the three core vaccines. The great thing is most of them come in one vaccine, right? In one vial. So it's like a magic vial that has all three of them together. So you don't have to bring your cat to the vet to get vaccinated for each of these separately, which is amazing. And then those non core vaccines are vaccines where we might recommend them depending on the cat's lifestyle. So for example, that would be a FELV vaccine. So Feline Leukemia Vaccine, where we might not be recommending it in all cats. So if you only have one cat that's indoor only, never goes outdoors, this cat is very unlikely to get FELV infection because it spreads from other cats. But for example, let's say you have one cat that is FELV positive and then you have a second cat in this household that is so far still FELV negative, that one might be a good cat potentially to vaccinate to try to prevent the infection in that cat.

Dr. Sugerman: 5:28

What about rabies vaccines? Are those core or non core vaccine?

Dr. Petra Černá: 5:32

Yeah, it's actually a great question. And this one rabies I think it very much depends on the state and the legislation. So those are really hard to consider as core or non core vaccines because those very much are state and country dependent. So actually in Czech Republic, it's until I think recently, I don't know if it has changed because I do not practice that much in Czech Republic. But they did not have to have rabies actually. And I believe they still do not have to have rabies vaccine. Dogs have to, but cats do not have to have rabies vaccine. Now I live in Colorado. So my, all my cats have to be rabies vaccinated because it's a legal requirement and they are actually, if my cat went to the vet and accidentally bit someone, there are extremely strict rules. And sometimes some states might even require that these cats then get euthanized. because there is of course the risk of the rabies or at least be put in a strict quarantine and receive vaccination. So I would always recommend that everybody checks or talk to your local vets and check the requirements in the state or country you live in.

Dr. Sugerman: 6:36

Got it. So you had mentioned, we don't want to vaccinate them until they're like 25 years old, but how often should we be vaccinating them and until what age?

Dr. Petra Černá: 6:45

And this is changing all the time with new research as well, but currently, and what we actually use are the AFP AAHA feline vaccination guidelines. The newest ones have been updated in 2020. So currently what we are doing, we actually recommend to vaccinate more when they are young kittens. So interestingly, what we have learned in the past, because in the past we usually used to vaccinate somewhere around eight weeks. And especially when we have a shelter or rescue situations, we might want to start vaccinating even a little earlier, but otherwise we are recommending vaccines starting around eight weeks of age and then revaccinating in three to four weeks after that. And in the past, this seemed potentially, maybe this was enough. But we have actually learned just recently that cats get these maternal direct antibodies, which means that as kittens, if they were drinking colostrum and milk from their moms, especially the colostrum within the first two days, they actually got some of the kind of the antibodies from the mom to protect them against these diseases. And what we have learned recently is that sometimes these maternal derived antibodies can potentially prevent the vaccine actually working and creating immunity for them to then be protected enough. So now we are actually recommending again, somewhere vaccine around eight weeks, and it can be as early as six weeks. We usually try not vaccinating earlier than that, then three to four weeks later. And now we actually are recommending that they get vaccinating until they are about 16 to 20 weeks of age, because we really want the last vaccine to be around 16 to 20 weeks of age to make sure that there were no more maternal derived antibodies present, that they are not interfering with the vaccines. And this is mainly the cause for feline panleukopenia, but it potentially can be, there could be interference with other vaccines as well.

Dr. Sugerman: 8:45

Basically, so that Mom's antibodies are not making it so that the kitten cannot make its own antibodies. Is that correct?

Dr. Petra Černá: 8:51

Exactly. So they are fighting against the antibodies that the mom gave to the kittens, which is a great thing. And we really want that, but potentially this can be fighting the immunity and antibodies that the kittens would get from the vaccine. So we really recommend a little bit more of a frequent vaccines when they are small kittens and then potentially revaccinating at 6 or 12 months. And then actually after that, a lot of these vaccines, and this very much depends on the manufacturer, but a lot of these vaccines are actually good for up to even three years. So then we don't have to vaccinate for a while, which is a really, really good thing.

Dr. Sugerman: 9:28

Is there an FELV that's for three years? I don't remember. I know that there's FVRCP and there's rabies that are three years, but is there an FELV that's three years as well?

Dr. Petra Černá: 9:36

Yeah. So the FELV very much depends on the manufacturer. So there are some that are every two to three years as well, actually.

Dr. Sugerman: 9:45

So then we're vaccinating, as an adult every one to three years, depending on which vaccines. And then do you have have an age where you stop vaccinating them?

Dr. Petra Černá: 9:53

Yeah, and that's a great question. I think we currently do not have like a data that says, we want to stop vaccinating them at when they are this age or that age, unfortunately, however, we also potential a little bit concerned that sometimes these adjuvants might, there are very few studies, not many, but few studies that maybe could suggest that vaccinating older cats that have kidney disease, it might not be the best thing for them as well. So I think it's really important to really consider always the environment the cat lives in, right? So I actually breed kittens sometimes, so I still vaccinate even my 10 year old cat every three years. Just because I really want to make sure she is protected, but also that she doesn't get something that can get transmitted into the kittens as well, because we have newborn kittens in the house at least once a year. So I, but if I, for example, had one indoor only cat, I might not want to be vaccinating her after 10 years when the cat already has received like several vaccines. But there are no studies showing that just stop vaccinating after 10 or 12 years. And that's that's the way to go. We need more studies looking into this, and there are places where you can actually send your cat's blood and measure those antibodies as well and actually see if the cat needs a vaccine or not

Dr. Sugerman: 11:11

Yeah. Yeah. And those are like things that you need for traveling and stuff anyways, right? So it's super easy. You just send out a blood test. They tell you where their levels are and tell you whether you need to continue vaccinating or not, right?

Dr. Petra Černá: 11:23

Exactly.

Dr. Sugerman: 11:25

What are some of the side effects of vaccines for cats?

Dr. Petra Černá: 11:28

Yeah, side effects can definitely happen. They usually do not happen with the first vaccine the cat ever gets, but there are sometimes reactions, especially to the second vaccine, because then the cat was already exposed to the antibodies. Things like anaphylaxis and anaphylactic reactions are extremely rare in cats. I think the latest study was showing like less than 1 percent of cats will develop anaphylaxis. So it's, it is quite rare, but it definitely can happen. What I see most of the times is just the cats being maybe a little bit more sleepy after the second vaccine that day. I just vaccinated my kittens, I think two or three weeks ago, and I thought they would finally get some rest and be a little sleepy for one. Yeah, I've seen also potentially cats maybe being a little bit nauseous, hyper salivating, some cats can vomit, maybe have some diarrhea, but these are usually very rare side effects of vaccine. So most of these times the cats might just be a little sleepy.

Dr. Sugerman: 12:27

I think the most common thing I see is that they're just painful over that area, or they get a fever from after the vaccine. People often come in and be like, my cat just feels very hot after it got his vaccines today or yesterday.

Dr. Petra Černá: 12:40

Yeah. And and that's one thing we can potentially call it a side effect. However, it also means that the immune system is working appropriately, right? So I think I try not always calling fever like a bad thing because even in diseases when cats have fever it's the body's natural reaction and natural body's kind of defense against pathogens as well. But yes, they can definitely develop fever. Pain is definitely at the injection site a big thing. And what we really need to cover, and I talk about is potentially the feline injection site sarcomas as well, because there is enough research and enough evidence for us to know that cats can develop what we call FISS or feline injection site sarcomas. So where the cat has been vaccinated, they can develop tumors that are very locally aggressive. What that means is that they can really grow really big in size and reoccur even if you remove them by surgery. However, they don't seem to really metastasize. So they're not really aggressive by the ways that they would spread, for example, to other sites like lungs or for example, liver or other organs. However, that can happen as well. And because they are so locally aggressive, we really try to recommend that cats get vaccinated either in their tail or in their what we call distal limbs. So either in the front paw when we go below the elbow or in below the kind of their knee or the hock even in their, in their hind legs. And we usually actually have a special vaccination system and scheme that we would try to do. For example, the right front leg where we would be vaccinating cats with the regular core vaccines, the herpes, calicivirus, and panleukopenia. And then we do the right hind leg for rabies, and then we would do the left hind for FELV.

Dr. Sugerman: 14:34

Do you see them getting these sarcomas with any particular vaccine more in general?

Dr. Petra Černá: 14:40

There is potentially a concern that they might be more likely getting this with the adjuvanted vaccine. So for example, like some of the FELV vaccines, there has been some reports of this happening with rabies vaccines as well. So most of the times it's the adjuvanted vaccines that this can happen with. And that's why we really need to be careful with those vaccines. And the fact that we would vaccinate into tail or the distal limb doesn't prevent from the tumor developing. However, those are really easy places where we can prefer either partial amputation of the tail or limb. Cats do really great living with three legs. I've had multiple throughout my career where, they had an accident, for example, or because of the injection site sarcoma they had to have an amputation. But if you actually vaccinate between the shoulder blades, that's not good at all. Because unfortunately, I've seen cats where we had to remove even partial part of their ear. And it's just they had two or three surgeries, radiation therapy, and these can be very, very locally aggressive. And there is at some point, there is really nowhere else to go to remove things. To skin and everything because you run out of the tissue in the area. So we really want to be careful and proactive and really vaccinating either in the tail or limbs. And it sounds hard, but I actually just vaccinated my kittens, actually on my own at home with one hand into this limb. So I would really urge people to try doing that as well.

Dr. Sugerman: 16:09

And I know that it, so it's not like it happens right away, right? It's not like I give the kitten a vaccine and then the next week it develops a sarcoma, right? Like how long is it?

Dr. Petra Černá: 16:19

Exactly. It can really take. It can really take several weeks, but actually months or even years for us to see any kind of masses or developments there. So we need to monitor and unfortunately the fact that it's not there in a few weeks doesn't mean that it's not gonna come on in a couple of months to years. And. Yeah, and we usually try to because they can have a small lump there after a vaccine, actually, when you give it to them. So we usually follow with this what we call the 321 rule. And what that means is that we usually monitor and we get really concerned if the mass is present three months after vaccination still. So if the lump or the mass there is still present after three months of vaccination. If it's bigger than two centimeters in diameter. Or if it's increasing in size one month after the vaccine has been done. So these are our main rules that we go about and try to really follow these. So if you just see a small mass there after the vaccine and it disappears within the first month, then we are usually not too concerned.

Dr. Sugerman: 17:27

Yeah, that's it. I think that's really easy to understand that, that kind of 3 2 1 rule because that's, it's a really scary thing for them to have to see this mass right afterwards. I've, I saw one that the cat hadn't been vaccinated for, I think, six years, and it ended up developing a sarcoma after that. So I know it's always a very scary thing. And I do know that there are people who do not go to the vet to vaccinate, and they typically would do it themselves. And I think it's really important to know not to do it between the shoulder blades, right? Because when they do do it, they don't know that we have this scheme to try to figure out which type of vaccine potentially could have caused this, and also to know we need to do it as low as possible so that if we have to amputate, then we can.

Dr. Petra Černá: 18:09

Yeah. I actually had no idea that someone can vaccinate up unless you're a veterinarian. That you can actually vaccinate at home.

Dr. Sugerman: 18:15

You can, you can go to a lot of the feed stores and get vaccines and the hard part is like they aren't always effective, like I get this a lot with parvo dogs. They aren't always effective because they weren't stored correctly and then they a lot of times aren't given correctly and then, and then now we have all these problems that develop.

Dr. Petra Černá: 18:32

Wow. I am definitely, I am definitely now really surprised because only veterinarians in Europe can actually vaccinate cats. So I'm shocked that this is even possible in this country.

Dr. Sugerman: 18:45

I'm surprised you haven't come across it yet.

Dr. Petra Černá: 18:47

No, no. Thankfully no, because that definitely sounds very scary to me.

Dr. Sugerman: 18:51

Yeah, exactly. Was there anything else we need to know about vaccines?

Dr. Petra Černá: 18:58

I think I would definitely just make sure that we are aware about the vaccinations. Which vaccines to vaccinate for. For the rabies to really check the local kind of rules and everything. And just trying to keep up on the schedule. I think, I know it's really hard to forget. I actually keep up. Kind of an Excel documents because I have six cats. I have an Excel spreadsheet with all the vaccines because not every cat also has been vaccinated at the same time. So sometimes the core vaccine for the calicivirus, herpes, and chlamydia finishes earlier than then my rabies, for example. And then they actually have no rabies for three years as well. So there's also a three year rabies vaccine, which is great. So I definitely am using that one for my cats because I think the risk of my cats ever getting rabies in my house or in their carriers is extremely low. But we are, of course, complying with the Colorado State legislation and vaccinating the cats. Yeah, but just, just keeping on top of the schedule. And I think that's probably the most kind of important thing and just not panicking. There are a lot of people who are, of course, adverse to vaccines. And I understand some, I've seen cats getting anaphylactic shock from vaccines. I have seen cats having side effects from vaccines. However, the risk of your cat dying from not being vaccinated is much higher than your risk of your cat dying from side effects to the vaccines. I think that's probably my one like to go home message for people who are a little bit adverse to vaccines and they didn't maybe want to vaccinate their cats. Like seeing kittens dying from a disease that's 100 percent preventable by vaccinations. And those tiny kittens really being anemic, needing transfusions, and there is no treatment, there's no cure for panleukopenia, right? So we can try treating and do supportive treatment and maybe try getting them like the serum from vaccinated cats and stuff, but there is no cure for that disease, there is no drug for that disease, so it's just something that's 100 percent preventable with vaccinations.

Dr. Sugerman: 21:03

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That is so sad because I do see like a lot of panleukopenia cats, unfortunately. It's a lot of barn cats and stuff. And there's so many different vaccine clinics that you could potentially go to. Not just like going into your vet, but even just like vaccine clinics. They have trucks that go to different places or really low cost vaccine places like so that way they could get vaccinated and we've talked a lot about before just had like how to get your cat to be able to be comfortable in the carrier. So that we can bring them to the vet. But I also love your idea of doing that spreadsheet. If you go to multiple different vaccine clinics or you've been to different vets, they may not always send you those reminders to be able to tell you like when to get vaccinated. So for my dogs, like I actually just put it in my phone to tell me as an alarm for in three years to tell me to get the dogs vaccinated. But you don't always know what's going to happen to your phone. So definitely some sort of spreadsheet or something I think is a really great idea as well.

Dr. Petra Černá: 22:02

Yeah, because for me, like my cats have these in Europe, each cat they, we now have to require to have these vaccine passports actually. So all my cats have a European Union vaccine passports and I just don't want to list through all those pages because I've had some of those cats for years, right? So I made that spreadsheet. I actually have a reminder on my phone for their antiparasitic for their heart and tick and flea. Yeah. So I have that every two months on the dot, it's like today's Bravecto day. And then all my cats get medications that day. So I have that for that. But for the vaccines, it just, I just like having it there. And I usually put an alarm on my phone too, but I think this spreadsheet was just, yeah, the six cats at home and you don't want to miss something.

Dr. Sugerman: 22:46

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And especially like one of them gets sick, I do have that happen a lot in litters when they come in. One of them gets sick and it's like they can't get vaccinated and they have to get vaccinated at a different time than the other kittens. And that's really hard to remember who needs to get vaccinated when we're doing it every three to four weeks. Right.

Dr. Petra Černá: 23:04

Yeah, exactly. No, I couldn't agree more. So I think it's really important to keep up on top of that. And it's not always easy. I feel like I personally don't go to doctors myself as often as I should for regular checkups, but I try at least once a year and go in and make sure I'm okay.

Dr. Sugerman: 23:22

Yeah. Exactly. Was there anything else you wanted to share about vaccines in our kitties?

Dr. Petra Černá: 23:28

I think we covered a lot of the topics, so I hope people are a little bit more comfortable with getting their cats vaccinated. There are, of course, other vaccinations as well for example, Bordetella for cats, which actually is not very common disease in cats. It's a non core vaccine as well, it's an intranasal vaccine. But for example, if I have a, if I had a dog, I don't have a dog and probably never will have a dog. But if I had a dog and they were going a lot to kennels or just like daycare and stuff, it might be a good idea. And they had a kennel cough. It might be a good idea to potentially protect the cats. I vaccinate some of my cats for chlamydia as well because we go to sometimes to cat shows so they can get it there. And there is an FIP vaccine on the market at the moment, but it's a non actually it's a non recommended vaccine. So it's not even non core. It is a not recommended vaccine. We currently do not recommend vaccinating with the vaccine for FIP because there is just no study showing that it's effective. And also, you're only supposed to be vaccinating kittens that are coronavirus free at the age of 16 weeks, which good luck finding those. Coronavirus is just so prevalent. About 90 percent of cats are seropositive for coronavirus and they get usually infected when they're about six to eight weeks of age, when their maternal antibodies wane, right? So when they are no longer protected from their moms. And yeah, so if you ever find a 16 week old coronavirus free kitten, please do let me know.

Dr. Sugerman: 25:03

If I remember correctly, I think if you vaccinate for, for FIV they actually will become positive on the snap tests. Is that correct?

Dr. Petra Černá: 25:12

Exactly. So the SNAP testing is another thing because FELV, we are actually detecting the antigen. So we are actually trying to look for the virus there. While with FIV, when we are doing the SNAP test, we are detecting antibodies. And currently, I don't believe the FIV vaccine is no longer available on the U.S. market.

Dr. Sugerman: 25:33

I thought so. Yeah.

Dr. Petra Černá: 25:34

But the cats, I think from the one study they could have tested positive for up to seven years after the vaccination. So those antibodies definitely can last for a very long time. So please do not panic if your cat was vaccinated in the past and tests FIV positive because it is very likely false positive if they were vaccinated in the past. So that's a great thing to remember as well. And I'm really excited because there are some places where they are developing. UC Davis just presented a really exciting research about mRNA vaccines like we have for COVID. So they are actually doing more research into looking at potentially mRNA vaccines for FIP in the future. It's years and years away, of course, but in preliminary studies in mice and it's so far is very exciting.

Dr. Sugerman: 26:21

Very cool. Yeah. I know that you know all about like how long it takes to get to like actually getting to make something.

Dr. Petra Černá: 26:27

Yeah. So this will be years away and a lot of money away, but yeah, I am very excited that someone's working on that too.

Dr. Sugerman: 26:34

Very cool. Awesome. All right. Was there anything else you wanted to share with us Dr. Černá?

Dr. Petra Černá: 26:38

No, just so great to be here again. And thank you for having me on today.

Dr. Sugerman: 26:43

Absolutely. Thank you. And again I think then next time we're going to be talking about osteoarthritis if I remember correctly. So arthritis in kitties, right?

Dr. Petra Černá: 26:50

Yes. We'll go from kitten vaccinations to senior cats and their pain.

Dr. Sugerman: 26:56

Exactly. All right. Well thank you again Dr. Černá, I'm super excited for our talk next time and we'll see you then.

Dr. Petra Černá: 27:03

Wonderful. See you soon. Bye.

Dr. Sugerman: 27:05

Bye. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Vetsplanation. We hope that you found this discussion on cat vaccines informative and helpful. Remember, keeping your cats vaccinated is crucial for their health and well being. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps us to reach more pet lovers just like you. Do you have any questions or topics that you'd like us to cover in future episodes? Make sure to drop us a message. You can do that on the social media pages. You can do that via YouTube. You can email us. Any of those things. We're more than happy to cover some of those topics that you'd love to hear. And don't forget to share this episode with your friends and family who might benefit from learning more about cat vaccines. Together, we can ensure that our furry friends stay happy, healthy, and safe. Until next time, take care, and we'll see you then.