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Vaccination Schedule for Cats

 
Josie F. Turner
By Josie F. Turner, Journalist specialized in Animal Welfare. July 19, 2017
Vaccination Schedule for Cats
Cats

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If you own a cat or you are planning to adopt one, as a responsible owner, you should be informed on many things. One of the most important is prevention against a number of serious diseases. This prevention will be achieved with adequate and regular vaccination.

What is really important is that according to the place where we live, certain vaccines will be mandatory and the periodicity will also vary. Keep reading this AnimalWised article to find out about the vaccination schedule for cats. Complying with this will ensure your feline's health is in good shape.

You may also be interested in: Side Effects Of Vaccines In Cats

What is the vaccine for?

Vaccines are substances created to help the body fight certain diseases. These substances are usually administered subcutaneously and contain the antigens necessary to create antibodies in our cat's organism. Depending on the disease we intend to fight, vaccines contain fractions of viruses, attenuated microorganisms, etc. With this slight contact of the disease, the immune system of our cat will create the necessary defenses to fight against a disease in case it presents itself.

The vaccinations that must be given to our cats can be compulory or not, depending on the geographical area in which we live. Likewise the frequency of vaccinating too. For example, it may be that there are specific endemic diseases in your area and others are eradicated. Therefore, it is our obligation as citizens of that area and as responsible owners of our pet, to discover which vaccinations are obligatory and when we should give them to our cat. It is as simple as going to our veterinarian and asking them to inform us about the vaccination schedule that we must follow. Since besides the obligatory ones by law, he or she can recommend some other voluntary vaccine that is really important for the health of our companion.

It is necessary that before vaccinating our kitten we will make sure that they are dewormed, in good health and that their immune system is mature enough. This is the only way for a vaccine to act and be effective.

As we can see it is really important to vaccinate our pets and for this reason AnimalWised also recommend that you get vaccinated every year, although it may seem unnecessary. In reality, this is something very basic and vital for the health of our feline and ourselves. There are some zoonoses which we can avoid with a simple vaccination.

Vaccination Schedule for Cats - What is the vaccine for?

From what age should we vaccinate our kitten?

The most important thing is to know that we have to wait more or less for the weaning process to end, since it is vital that our kitten already has a somewhat mature immune system. While the kittens are in the womb and while they are infants, some of the mother's immune defenses pass to the kittens and thus are protected for a while while creating their own system of defenses. This immunity that passes through the mother begins to disappear between 5 and 7 weeks of life. Therefore, the ideal time to vaccinate our kitten for the first time is at 2 months.

It is very important that as long as our kitten does not have the first complete vaccination, do not allow them outside or to interact with cats that are passing through our garden. This is because we cannot be sure of the level of defenses they have, until the first vaccination takes full effect.

Vaccination Schedule for Cats - From what age should we vaccinate our kitten?

What is the vaccination schedule for cats?

As we have said before, the vaccination schedule that we must follow is the one recommended by our veterinarian of confidence according to the area in which we live and factors like our cat's health.

It is vital that before being vaccinated our cat is tested for diseases such as feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency.

With this said, here we present a basic schedule for the vaccination of cats:

  • 1.5 months: we must deworm our kitten so that the first vaccination is possible later.
  • 2 months: leukemia and immunodeficiency test. First dose of trivalent, this vaccine contains the vaccine against panleucopenia, calicivirus and rhinotracheitis.
  • 2.5 months: First dose of the feline leukemia vaccine.
  • 3 months: Revaccination of trivalent.
  • 3.5 months: Revaccination of leukemia.
  • 4 months: First rabies vaccine.
  • Annually: From here, an annual vaccine will be made of each of the previously administered, since the effects must be kept active as they decrease and are lost over time. Therefore, once a year we will vaccinate our cat with the trivalent vaccine, the leukemia vaccine and the rabies vaccine.
Vaccination Schedule for Cats - What is the vaccination schedule for cats?

More info...

It is very important for the health of our cats that they are vaccinated annually, but above all it is mainly for the cats that go outside and make contact with other cats; of which we are often unaware of their state of health.

The trivalent vaccine protects against two of the most common respiratory diseases in cats, feline rhinotracheitis and feline calicivirosis, and the trivalent vaccine also contains the vaccine against one of the diseases that attack the digestive system and blood more severely, panleucopenia. The vaccine against leukemia is vital to the health of our kitten because if they get this disease it is very complicated and more often leads to death.

The rabies vaccine may seem unnecessary for where you live, but since it is a very serious zoonosis (it can be transmitted to humans), it is highly advisable to vaccinate cats that go outside.

There are other vaccines for domestic felines such as the feline infectious peritonitis vaccine and the chlamydiosis vaccine.

Finally, if we are going to travel with our cat to another part of ​​the world, it is very important that we inform ourselves if there are obligatory vaccinations for our cat in that country. We must discover the vaccinable diseases that are endemic to the area.

Vaccination Schedule for Cats - More info...

This article is purely informative. AnimalWised does not have the authority to prescribe any veterinary treatment or create a diagnosis. We invite you to take your pet to the veterinarian if they are suffering from any condition or pain.

If you want to read similar articles to Vaccination Schedule for Cats, we recommend you visit our Vaccination category.

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