Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We got our stray in Aug. '09. W/ no prior hist. on her, we got the "big 3 " shots as rec. by our vet. But, like a dummy, I went in Sep. '10 & got the 3 again! I will NEVER again do this! Had I paid more heed to you guys & not the vet, I'd not be mad at me. Ok, sorry to rant but I now think "why did I do this?" & even Garden warned me vs this, yet I was dumb.
I hope & pray nothing comes of this for my girl, thus I will never again repeat this. She is indoor (unless runs out) but my roomate has a cat that goes out & who knows what it gets near. Thus I did it to "protect" my girl as told/cajoled by a vet but was I stupid? (yes...)
PS - Wait til you see what happens if you try to argue this w/ most vets (try it, you'll never hear the end...). Oh man do they fight you worse than a cat fights you when mad. They drive me nuts trying to listen to their "position", when too often $ is the reason.
Re: pet insurance. Hindsight is always perfect 20/20. If I'd paid premiums for the animals we've had over the years, we would have paid for serious illness treatments 10 times over just in premiums alone. We lost one dog to lymphoma. One had to have surgery for a hematoma in his lab ear (gotta love those floppy lab ears!), but otherwise is fine; one had an eye injury. Could it have been worse? Sure. But I don't want to pay that money out in advance "in case' something happened. Most of the illnesses in our purebreds are linked to heredity, and insurance will deny coverage for anything they can show is due to a genetic predisposition. Many of these diseases are serious and are common knowledge so insurance doesn't even have to make an effort to prove it. Besides, who can afford to fight a denied claim. My understanding of those plans I've looked into in the past is that they don't pay the entire bill anyway, just a percentage of it, and they don't pay for routine care - annual checkups, vaccinations, fecals, etc.
Lottamoxie, what companies do you know that have decent pet insurance coverage? I'm willing to reconsider my position on this.
AKC recently started offering pet insurance, and it may be worth looking into. In a piece about budgeting for your pet they also discuss insurance, for anyone who is interested. I haven't checked it yet. American Kennel Club - AKC eNewsletter
Oh, Ulri, how awful that your state will not exempt a sick cat from vaccinations. That is just downright wrong!
Well, as I said, there are currently (as of 2010) 14 states that grant the exemption, which leaves...what...36 states that DON'T grant it...
But that doesn't surprise me at all, as you know, GOE , I am a deeeeeeep digger when it comes to research on the internet, and from all that digging I already know how completely different states/counties/municipalities treat any issue concerning felines and other non-human animals.
There are states that consider ferals downright a nuisance, there are states that consider ferals their outdoor home domesticated animals who need to be taken good care of, and there is everything inbetween, just an example.
But I've bookmarked that website because I noticed it provides very up to date information not only on rabies laws, but also latest research and anything vaccination related.
We got our stray in Aug. '09. W/ no prior hist. on her, we got the "big 3 " shots as rec. by our vet. But, like a dummy, I went in Sep. '10 & got the 3 again! I will NEVER again do this! Had I paid more heed to you guys & not the vet, I'd not be mad at me. Ok, sorry to rant but I now think "why did I do this?" & even Garden warned me vs this, yet I was dumb.
I hope & pray nothing comes of this for my girl, thus I will never again repeat this. She is indoor (unless runs out) but my roomate has a cat that goes out & who knows what it gets near. Thus I did it to "protect" my girl as told/cajoled by a vet but was I stupid? (yes...)
PS - Wait til you see what happens if you try to argue this w/ most vets (try it, you'll never hear the end...). Oh man do they fight you worse than a cat fights you when mad. They drive me nuts trying to listen to their "position", when too often $ is the reason.
Movintime, I agree with you on the $$$$ conventional vets see first. I feel one has to do as much research as possible on all vaccinations, and then decide what to do.
Around here where I live, most cats are indoor/outdoor, barn cats, former ferals, strays, ferals, and a few indoor only who were also former strays.
We are in chicken farm country, go figure...the local vets know that, the majority of cats they treat are outdoors, they also know that most cats won't be dragged to the vet office annually for any updates on anything.
There is lots of TNR happening here, also on large scale (hundreds at a time), and the vets know that all those outdoor cats and barn cats, who might not be up to date on all sorts of possible and impossible vaccinations , many have never been vaccinated , and all those cats are not lying around the fields full of distemper, leukemia, FIV, and what have you.
What I'm saying is: IMO it's easy to say "if your cat is indoor only never vaccinate" and leave it at that.
If your or your roommate's cat goes outdoors, do some research and thinking of how that outdoors looks like. Do they have lots of contact with other cats (normally they stay away from eachother), do they share food off the porches regularly, is rabies from wildlife a high risk in your area (but rabies vaccination is the LAW in most states, so that is an exception anyway) , is it true that for example adult cats are immune to leukemia (unless they have already contracted it as kittens) or is that a myth brouight upon by holistic vets, is there a bad case of distemper among your neighbor's cats....etc.
As an example: when I had a couple of feral toms tnr'd a few years ago they both checked negative for leukemia but positive for FIV, the operating vet did not euthanize them because after neutering they are not likely to spread the FIV virus, since just like HIV, that virus is hard to spread, and in cats usually only through deep bite wounds and passing on to kittens at birth, it is not spread by just sharing a food bowl or through the air.
Had they checked positive for leukemia they would have euthanized them, since both toms were far from becoming indoor only and secluded from other cats for the rest of their life. And leukemia spreads alot easier than FIV.
My own two former ferals who now live with me were also tnr'ed but not checked for either FIV or leukemia, at the time the vet said it makes no difference since they will outdoors again anyway.
Both are still alive and well, they could be positive or negative for anything, or become infected with anything every day, the leukemia vaccination is next to the rabies vaccination the most dangerous for the cat and is questionable whether it really immunizes, and as I said many vets say adults are immune, like they are immune to also distemper IF they were outdoors all their lives.
My cats never have contact with other cats outdoors, other than the risk of being biten by a tomcat, there is only one I know of right now, haven't seen him in a while, want to get him "fixed" asap, my neutered male runs away from him, my spayed female is his friend, and they accept eachothers company/territory, my cats don't share food bowls with other cats, and so on and so forth.
So even if your cat goes outdoors or has contact with other outdoor cats, I would think through her own individual risks and decide from there.
As I said, statistically even feral cats don't have a higher rate of disease than indoor only cats, it's just different diseases (FIV vs. obesity, etc.), and in rural areas with mostly outdoor cats they don't all lie around dead and diseased from horror illnesses. They get hit by cars more often than indoor only, or meet a coyote or wolf or snake, or whatever you have where you live.
Rabies vaccination is the exception, depending on a) the law in your state/municipality, and b) the occurance of rabies in your area in bats, wild dogs, coyotes, foxes, racoons, etc.
Oh, and another thing: before you consider any vaccination yes or no for any cat or dog or human and the pros and cons, do your thorough research on what exactly IS a vaccination/immunization.
Is the (in this case) cat possibly already immunized by nature so to speak, was he/she born outdoors and survived all the kitten diseases before you picked her up as an "unvaccinated" adult, was the cat born in a kennel or rescue with close contact to lots of other animals, and so on.
There are dog breeders who will only vaccinate one puppy of the litter (do they call it litter in dogs...) and let that puppy "vaccinate" his siblings.
On a side note: when my parents, sister, and I first moved to the U.S. in the early 60's some vaccination was required that isn't anymore, I believe it was smallpox. My father had an exemption because he had never been vaccinated for anything and was already an adult, and so the risk of him being exposed to smallpox through vaccination or contact with his freshly vaccinated family was too high, he would become ill with smallpox, and we were not allowed to have contact for several weeks after us kids and our mother were vaccinated.
25 indoor cats in one regular-size house? Yep, a cat hoarder.
I have a friend who has 12 cats and she is a hoarder, along with being a cat hoarder. I've never seen the inside of her house, but if the inside of her 2 cars are any indication... :-O She's always talking about how some of her cats pee on everything, including the kitchen counters and up the wall, on her clothes, etc. And she swears she has enough clean litter boxes around. Her house is 3,000 sq ft.
We had 6 cats in an RV (300 sq ft), while on a temporary assignment. We tried to keep it under wraps for fear animal control or the RV park would cause problems. Then my coworker goes and brags to everyone at work about how neat and fresh smelling our place was - the only clue we even had cats was the fact that the furry pillows blinked.
So - you never know. It all depends on the person. My husband is the housekeeping nazi. Everything is always in order. Although he's the one that brings the cats home, he's not going to let them ruin his pristine home.
I found his records. He was given two of those multi-disease shots before age 5 months. There's nothing I can do about it now. I did get him the 3yr rabies shot since it's the law here. Hopefully he'll never get another shot.
Rusty and Phaedra bird watching early last month. Phaedra is telling him that the goldfinch looks plump and juicy.
While searching the net for something completely different I found this homeopathic vet's website and his recommendations for vaccinations. Although I don't entirely agree with his feline diet recommendations, don't know what a cat is supposed to do with that many veggies, I do agree with his vaccination protocol or rather I'm always delighted to find a veterinarian who talks a bit outside the box and not just money, of course he is nowhere near where I live
Charles Loops, DVM - Homeopathic Veterinarian - Vaccination Information (http://www.charlesloopsdvm.com/vaccinations.html - broken link)
While searching the net for something completely different I found this homeopathic vet's website and his recommendations for vaccinations. Although I don't entirely agree with his feline diet recommendations, don't know what a cat is supposed to do with that many veggies, I do agree with his vaccination protocol or rather I'm always delighted to find a veterinarian who talks a bit outside the box and not just money, of course he is nowhere near where I live
Charles Loops, DVM - Homeopathic Veterinarian - Vaccination Information (http://www.charlesloopsdvm.com/vaccinations.html - broken link)
That's a great website! By the way, he does a great deal of his consultations by phone, with much success. See his home page:
Charles Loops, DVM - Homeopathic Veterinarian - Holistic Veterinary Care (http://www.charlesloopsdvm.com/index.html - broken link)
It's worth looking into it further!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
, I am a deeeeeeep digger when it comes to research on the internet, and from all that digging I already know how completely different states/counties/municipalities treat any issue concerning felines and other non-human animals.
) and let that puppy "vaccinate" his siblings.
Rusty's records...
