Vaccination Boosters Timeframe In Us

[Saf]

I'm in the UK and it's standard to have boosters every year but I've always felt that excessive and I read somewhere a while back that's it's becoming standard in the US now to vaccinate them when they're kittens, then a booster at 1 but after that it's every 3 years - is this right? This is what I would like to do but the only issue is finding an insurance company that won't negate any claims for health problems outside those covered by vaccines because I didn't follow the yearly schedule.

 

[DreamerRose]

No, I have my cats revaccinated every year. Rabies has to be done every year. If the vet gives them anything else, she doesn't mention it, so I don't know what they are. She may be doing it anyway. I just ask for the annual vaccinations.

 

[Willowy]

The current AVMA/AAHA recommendations for the FVCRP vaccine are what you decribe (kitten series, 1-year booster, then "no more often than once every 3 years"). So that means any American vet doing something else is going against their own association, which seems iffy :/. Maybe if you print off the recommendations your vet will see that it's approved and be willing to go with that? I'd link to it but most are pdfs which I can't link to on my phone, but if you google "AAHA feline vaccine recommendations" you should be able to find it.

Have you tried contacting every insurance company to ask about their policy on vaccines? I don't see why they'd refuse to pay for, say, a dental issue just because the cat isn't vaccinated yearly.

Also, if you're in the UK at least your kitties don't need the rabies vaccine. So you just have the FVCRP and FeLV to deal with .

 

[Saf]

The current AVMA/AAHA recommendations for the FVCRP vaccine are what you decribe (kitten series, 1-year booster, then "no more often than once every 3 years"). So that means any American vet doing something else is going against their own association, which seems iffy :/. Maybe if you print off the recommendations your vet will see that it's approved and be willing to go with that? I'd link to it but most are pdfs which I can't link to on my phone, but if you google "AAHA feline vaccine recommendations" you should be able to find it.

Have you tried contacting every insurance company to ask about their policy on vaccines? I don't see why they'd refuse to pay for, say, a dental issue just because the cat isn't vaccinated yearly.

Also, if you're in the UK at least your kitties don't need the rabies vaccine. So you just have the FVCRP and FeLV to deal with .

Thanks, I've googled and found the information. I'm getting both kittens neutered next week then I'll be looking for insurance and asking them to agree to what I want in writing. The trouble I might have is that I don't think we have an equivalent of the AVMA/AAHA - is that an organisation genuinely independent of big business? We have the Royal Veterinary College here, and my vet is actually an RVC teaching practice, and I've had cause to question their independence being untainted by commercial interests such as Pet Food companies, and insisting on yearly boosters also seems to have financial motivations. If you go 3 months over the year they make you start the course again with the double injection 3 weeks apart, despite the known risk of sarcomas, which I was worried my previous suffered once as she had a lump after the injection one year.

 

[drbobcat]

I am not an expert, but I understand that many experts dispute the AVMA/AAHA recommendations and believe that vaccinations in adult cats are unnecessary. If you do vaccinate, to avoid sarcomas at the injection site, use only live non-adjuvanted vaccines. If your vet disputes this last recommendation, find another vet.

 

[Zandalee]

I am not an expert, but I understand that many experts dispute the AVMA/AAHA recommendations and believe that vaccinations in adult cats are unnecessary. If you do vaccinate, to avoid sarcomas at the injection site, use only live non-adjuvanted vaccines. If your vet disputes this last recommendation, find another vet.

I totally concur. I am also amazed and happy to hear that there are vets out there whose patients mean more to them than the income they make from vaccination, which is ginormous. I had a woman from a country in Europe tell me about her dog that was undergoing cancer treatment. She was told by the dog oncologist that the reason her dog got the cancer on his lower back was because of a vaccine that was regularly given to dogs in that spot. He told her most vets no longer give them there because of this happening, so they now give it to them in the back leg because if cancer develops there the leg can be amputated. I heard this a couple of years ago, have looked for it again, and just cannot find it. Pet owners must learn to question every vaccine, as should parents because many are not only unnecessary, but harmful. If your cat is an indoor cat, why would it need a rabies vaccination? Our pets already have the deck stacked against them with all of the dodgy food, toxins and chemicals in their environment, and owners with health issues. Please think for yourself and question, research everything told to you by a doctor or a vet.