[Kitty]

Do you get your pet vaccinated each and every year? I get reminders from my vet about Lukemia and FVP vaccines for my cats. Rabies vaccines, also.

I've read in various online publications that these vaccines are not necessary for strictly indoor cats and could actually cause more harm than good. Just like the vaccines that are being questioned for humans the pet vaccines are now coming under scrutiny.

My cats are all totally indoor pets. Never set foot outside. Do they need the whole barrage of vaccines just like outdoor pets do? What's the protocol for them?

[mrsD]

We only do Rabies. In fact there is a new adjuvant free one at the new Vet... which is easier on the cat. Many cities require the rabies vaccine. But for indoor cats never going out? The only risk would be if bat got in and they caught it and it was one of the 25% carrying rabies.

The Leukemia one does not work...our vet doesn't use it.
Also once a cat is vaccinated for the Leukemia, it tests positive forever after. So if the cat REALLY gets it, the vet cannot tell and treat accordingly. So our new vet does not offer this vaccine. The actual disease is not that common, in the first place.

Once the cats are a year old, their distemper one doesn't need boosters its been found. In fact feline distemper vaccines are made from cat kidneys and cause autoimmune kidney disease.
Our new vet only uses adjuvant free vaccines now, but many vets do not.


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The concept of vaccination is controversial because of vaccination induced sarcoma. This is becoming more common now and I know a friend's cat who died of this. An indoor cat that didn't need any vaccines at all!

Type in-- vaccination induced sarcoma in cats -- into Google and read the articles. It is pretty awful.

[Kitty]

My cats have all had one rabies vaccine and one distemper vaccine. I'm not planning on getting anymore boosters. I've read in more than one place about the sarcoma. I can't imagine the need for yearly boosters...especially for indoor only cats. I think part of it's a money-making thing for the vet.

[winic1]

What you should really consider is how much of a chance is there of your cat getting exposed to other animals.

Ours are "indoors only", but they have a cat door out into a screen porch out back. Which butts up against the woods, separated from the start of the trees by a 3 foot wide gravel path.

Stray and outdoor cats can and do come through the yard and path, and the more obnoxious toms try to attack right through the screen. (we have to patch all the pulls and tears periodically.)

Raccoons come right up to the screen also. In our area, there is a big rabies problem among raccoons especially. Once, a raccoon got through the screening (pulled up a corner on one of the doors) and actually made it into the house, as we had the door from the house into the porch open for fresh air (why not, the porch is entirely closed in, right? Ha!). Also, skunks, oppossums, squirrels, various other rodents...... And rabies is so contagious that a cat could indeed catch it through a screen. If a rabid animal ended up spitting some saliva through the screen onto our cats, that could be enough, as well as to transmit it to us, also.

So we vaccinate. Seen several of my father's cats die of the leukemia, it is not fun. (Mom used to take in cats for the local animal welfare, especially the non-adoptable ones, they always had about 6 with them at a time.)

Our first two, we got as kittens and they lived to 19 years old, each. The one who passed last year, we adopted at least 9 years old, when she was a rescue cat who had been a stray for at least 6 months, then ended up passed around a bit for a year before we took her in, weighing 18 pounds and looking like a fur-covered beach ball. We slimmed her down a bit to 14 lbs, and she lived another 6 years with us. Now we have two 4 year olds. Who, thank you for reminding me, are about due for their shots. But I will ask the vet about the better versions.

[Kitty]

My cats never go outside. Not even in a screened in area. If they did I'd probably consider the vaccines but since they don't I really don't think they have any chance of acquiring any of the conditions the vaccines supposedly prevent. I'd be sure to ask my vet about the adjuvant free vaccines, though.
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[mrsD]

We have had an outbreak of rabies in skunks... just published last week... 5 miles from here.

We always get the Rabies vaccines. I don't think the others are safe enough or necessary enough to balance the harm they do.

Cats can get rabies from bats too. Where we live in the summer, 25% bats tested positive for rabies. Just picking up a bat in the mouth, can transmit the disease (from the fur when bats groom themselves), and also humans can catch rabies from bat droppings in barns and other buildings where the bats have gotten in.


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The safest rabies vaccine for cats is the PureVax brand(ajuvant free), but it has to be given yearly.

Our late Tippy, had two severe vaccine reactions to Rabies (with adjuvant) 3 yr.
I won't use that type again.

[kicker]

Actually a a bat did get in my house. Our house is next to a county forest and one day a small bat was lying on a step inside. Alone with my 8 year olds, I threw a towel over him, picked up the towel and him, and released him outside. That was years ago, luckily he made no one sick. Only time in 10 years this ever happened, but it did happen.