Advice On Feral Kitten Vaccines

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We adopted a dropped-off cat years ago, being an outdoor garage kitty. As she (Bushy) was getting cataracts and was deaf, we decided to get a 5 WK old kitten(Ginger) from the neighbor when they found a home for the mother.
Being lonely, it cried a lot. My husband brought a small friendly barn cat (Ho-ho) from the main farm for her, bringing feline distemper with it. Ginger survived,[fever, vomit, diarrhea] pulling thru after being comatose a whole day.
Ginger was growing nicely, Ho-ho had a chronic cold with lots of nasty mucas. Eventually all 3 caught whatever it was, never getting over it. I was researching low-cost spay neuter and vaccine options, but with this problem I was hesitant to take em anywhere as it could spread.
When Ginger was half grown grandpa's gave our son a pup. He brought a respiratory illness, all my cat's died in 2 weeks. They had fever and were weak, rapid breathing, no vomiting. They died within hours of first noticing lethargy, less than a day sick.
I scrubbed out my garage with lots of bleach both times.
Now a feral cat had kittens in the hay in our barn (a 1st for us). We would like to tame some if possible, but what do I do about vaccinations? How soon can I get it done, how soon can I let them close to the dog? He's a herd dog, every day goes with my husband to round the cows up at the main farm. Looks like they have 2deadly viruses over there, that Rusty is likely bringing all the time.
Any suggestions on a very limited budget?

 

[Primula]

Please have the feral cat spayed when her kittens are 8 weeks old so she doesn't birth again.

I hope someone will come along & answer your interesting questions about which I know nothing.

 

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As to spaying the mama cat, we have never seen her. I think she must only come at night. The kittens look well fed. Found them day after Easter, still had eyes shut.
Now they creep, very wobbly. We don't even know how old they are.
I touched them for the first time, saw they have tiny teeth. Now to see if she moved them, due to human scent on her babies

 

[jcat]

This link has information on vaccination schedules, including the primary kitten series:
http://www.catvets.com/public/PDFs/PracticeGuidelines/VaccinationGLS-summary.pdf
Normally you can start at around 6 weeks. A local shelter or rescue that does TNR can probably give you tips on where you can get it done at low cost; some areas have "vaccination clinics/drives".

Since your dog "gets around", it would be advisable to prevent contact with the kittens until their immune systems have developed more fully and they've finished the full series of kitten shots. Things like internal parasites, ringworm, fleas, Bordetella bronchiseptica (kennel cough), and of course rabies can be transmitted from dogs to cats. The less they're exposed to at a young age, the better.

 

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Thanks!
Would a shelter keep them temporarily? I'm not at all familiar with how it works here(USA). I'm used to being 'adopted' by cats/dogs that came around back home and want to stay, never have bought a 4 legged pet.
I'm in unfamiliar territory when it comes to diseases that have wiped out all but the resistant cats at my husband's home farm.

[Dad-in-law says he's noticed the big healthy coons migrating south (we're in Ohio) as the rabies is spreading; that there's way less around these years. He attributed a lot of edge cornfield damage several years back to those coons. He told me about the same time they were thick was when his barn cats started dieing off. ]
Whether that's right, I don't know. I do know my research shows some of these deadly viruses survive in the wild up to a year, and bleach is one of the few products available to the public that can kill em.
Also not too long ago I read a shelter in our area was closed due to some deadly outbreak (distemper if I remember right) difficult to eradicate. No way I want to cause a problem!

 

[WaltS]

Our clinic will spay/neuter kittens at 3 lbs. They get distemper at that time, and usually when the distemper booster is due they are old enough for rabbies vaccine.

We too had an issue with distemper in our colony a few years ago. Lost 5 cats. Nursed one cat back from distemper. We were new to TNR at the time. When filling out the drop off form I never checked off distemper. Knew nothing about it and the clinic didn't say hey, you should get this. All of our cats get it now when being spayed/neutered at 3lbs.

 

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Thanks! I take it that weight is more of a determining factor than actual age? Maybe for medication dosage? I'm new to any of this, and have never had a pet spayed. We had our toms neutered, but our girls got birth control shots, which I can't find here.

 

[WaltS]

Thanks! I take it that weight is more of a determining factor than actual age? Maybe for medication dosage? I'm new to any of this, and have never had a pet spayed. We had our toms neutered, but our girls got birth control shots, which I can't find here.

I think so. Ferals can be malnourished, have parasites that stunt weight gain. I think the age scale for spay/neutering animals is best case judgment but the vet will always go by weight.