If your cat needs a non-core vaccine, then there's probably a reason why your cat should get that. If your cat has a significant autoimmune medical condition or something that would make it unsafe to get vaccines, we may have conversations about that. Or if your cat is a sibling or has had previous cancer from an injection, we'd have serious discussions about that. But all in all, if your cat has a risk factor for a non-core vaccine, then we're going to recommend that vaccine.

Technically, yes, but that is even rarer. This has been known for years. The numbers haven't changed a whole lot in how common it is, although you'll see some, one in 1,000, 1 in 10,000. It does appear to have a genetic nature to it, but it is a rare occurrence. However, if it were your cat or my cat, I mean, who cares if it's rare. It's significant, and it's a big deal. It's a big problem, but it's not a reason to be afraid of vaccines. The benefits of vaccines far outweigh that risk. Still, if you have a cat that you know is related to a cat that had one of those cancers related to injection, then we would have a serious talk about whether or not your cat should be vaccinated as well if they're actual siblings. So the risk is there. It is pretty low.

I guess another thing to think about, too, would be the recombinant vaccines. I know we haven't talked about that a whole lot, but that's part of the reason why those came out. There are different ingredients in vaccines. An adjuvant is a common word that they use for extra ingredients, and some of them are designed to cause stimulation to further make the immune system react to the vaccine. Well, they aren't sure, and they do see some link potentially to that. But the more reactive a vaccine could be for a cat with a genetic predisposition, that might make that cat more likely to get a cancer response to certain vaccines.

That's the reason we talk about the recombinant rabies vaccine, the non-adjuvanted rabies vaccine, and leukemia vaccines that come in that form where we talk about the risk versus benefit of considering one of those vaccines as it may decrease the risk for cancer in some cats.

Technically, yes. Anybody, dog, cat, human can have allergic reactions to foods, medications, and vaccines. Thankfully, as time has gone on and science has progressed, there are much fewer vaccine reactions than there used to be. I would still consider it a relatively rare occurrence, but, yes, technically, your cat could. What I'd say is if you're coming to get your vaccinations done, ideally, try to schedule it when you might be around your cat for the rest of the day. If not, you might have somebody who could monitor the cat during that first several-hour window afterward to make sure that they're feeling okay and don't have any issues.

A reaction may also be considered pain or a little bit of swelling or something like that. And sometimes we'll see that, especially in tiny kittens. They may be a little sore after one of the vaccines, so you just want to watch for that sort of thing. It's not usually a big deal for them to be slightly off for the day or a bit quiet. I wouldn't call that a reaction. It's just a normal response to getting the vaccine and being here and being stressed. So it's possible, but it's typically not a huge deal.

Well, of course. If you want your cat to maintain their health, that's the point of certain vaccines is to maintain a certain degree of health, preventative medicine and protect them against certain diseases. Having a healthy cat is all the more reason to give them vaccines.

Non-core vaccinations do include the leukemia vaccine. That would be cats that get exposed to outdoor cats, or they're outdoor cats themselves. You can have a completely indoor cat, but if you have one that goes in and out, that cat could expose the indoor cat. That would be one of the ones that you would use. Bordatella vaccine is common for upper respiratory, boarding, grooming, and other high-density cat situations. Then there are rare instances, if any, for the most part, that FIP or FIV vaccines would be recommended. Those are very non-core.

The only one that's mandatory is the rabies vaccine. If you want to board or groom, though, certain facilities, including ours, have core vaccines that are considered mandatory, or else you can't partake in the boarding or the grooming.

Technically, no, they're not all necessary, especially those considered non-core, if you will. There are certain lifestyles that your cat may live and certain things they may be exposed to. But as far as the core vaccines, yeah, we consider those necessary for all pets unless certain medical conditions would go against that, but those are uncommon. And then back to the whole legality of rabies vaccine—that one is considered very necessary. As a matter of fact, it's a legal requirement.

First of all, we know exams are critical. Not that they necessarily outweigh some of the importance of vaccines, but there's a lot that we need to learn and remember that exams themselves are essential to your cat's health. That's what you're getting the vaccines for is for your cat's health. But as far as some other factors, there does need to be a certain legality of a client-patient relationship that we have to maintain to make recommendations, give medications, and do vaccines like that.

We need to maintain an exam, usually at least once a year, to keep that client-patient relationship. But then, more specifically for the individual cats, we want to make sure that they're well and healthy enough on that day to get the vaccine and make sure they don't have fevers, make sure there's no certain concurrent disease that would interfere with the vaccine function or the safety of the vaccine. We also want to know your pet's history through exams and things like that, so we know whether they have a disease that would make a certain vaccine potentially unsafe to perhaps change the protocol, do pre-meds, or other things like that. It’s not that we're just trying to be mean about it. There are many important reasons why we need to have that exam with vaccines.

Again, we'll recommend the best products for you. And then if you use them, you shouldn't have to do anything else in your home. If you do have a bad flea infestation, we’ll have you vacuum a lot, but really we just want to treat the pet.