Question regarding FIP/Feline Leukopenia vaccine

franksmom

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I am about to get new kitten and have one 4 year old ragdoll at home. I am of course worried about diseases so I took my cat to the vet to make sure he was in perfect health. I was specifically worried about leukopenia after reading some horror stories and even though I think he was tested as a kitten I wanted to make certain he didn't have it so he couldn't pass it on to the new kitten. The vet recommended he get his vaccine updated as well, so I got that too. I thought everything was good because the test came back negative, and he seemed fine after the booster. But now I am concerned because I received some disturbing vaccine info from the breeder about the FIP/feline leukopenia vaccine- she says that 50% of cats get it from the vaccine. She does not vaccinate the kittens for FIP/feline leukopenia because of this risk. I am now super worried that my cat contracted it from the vaccine and will give it to the new kitten. Is there a possibility that an adult cat can contract leukopenia from a booster? Should I make the vet test him again to make sure (though I really don't want to spend another $100 on tests)?
 

Willowy

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There's no vaccine or test for FIP. . .do you mean FIV? Or do you mean the vaccine for the coronavirus that sometimes causes FIP? And panleukopenia is "feline distemper", so I assume in this context you're talking about Feline Leukemia (FeLV)? I'm going to answer based on FIV and FeLV, hope that's right :).

If so, the FIV vaccine is known to be ineffective and is no longer recommended, since it will cause cats to test positive for FIV forever after they receive the vaccine. So if he did receive that vaccine and you choose to have him tested again, remember that he'll always test positive but that doesn't mean he has it.

As for FeLV, I have heard of many side effects to the vaccine but never that a cat actually contracted FeLV from the vaccine. From what I can find, it's not really possible, as the virus is either killed or modified before they make a vaccine from it. I don't recommend vaccinating indoor cats for FeLV because of the side effects, but contracting the virus is not one of those side effects.

If you wanted to have him tested for FeLV again, you would have to wait 3-6 months for the test to be accurate :/. But I don't think that's necessary.
 
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franksmom

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Thanks so much for your reply and sorry for my confusion. On the sheet the breeder gave me she said not to give the FIP/feline leukopenia vaccines, and it may be a typo and she meant to write FIV? Or maybe it is the coronavirus one, I will have to ask.

 I had my cat tested for Feline Leukemia and I think another disease, maybe HIV- sorry I should have written it down. I think I just got him vaccinated for FeLV, but they took him in the back room to do it so I am not sure. I will have to ask the vet if they did give him the FIV vaccine as I stupidly just followed their advice without doing enough research on the subject.

I am probably over reacting I am just really worried that because the kitten hasn't had these vaccines, she will get it from my cat because he did have all the vaccines (I am not 100% sure if he did- I just gave him all the vaccines the vet told me too). On the health sheet the breeder mentioned it as a possibility that a vaccinated cat can pass the disease on, so I kind of freaked out now. Do you think he could pass these diseases on to the new kitten because he was vaccinated? Is that possible with FIV? I was unsure how this could be possible since as you mention the viruses are dead in most vaccines.
 
 
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