Pet Vaccinations & Microchipping in Townsville

The simple answer is YES!

The diseases we use core vaccines to prevent are feline panleucopaenia (Feline Parvovirus ) and the cat flu viruses (Feline Calicivirus and Feline Herpes Virus – 1 ). These diseases can be fatal and are always debilitating. The risk of adverse effects from vaccination is very small. Therefore a risk/benefit analysis is very straight-forward!

The immune system is complex, but essentially there are 3 main mechanisms of resistance to disease.

Innate immunity or inherent resistance, which is unfortunately of little help against these important diseases, even in the best fed healthy animal.

Antibody mediated immunity, induced by exposure to viruses and by vaccination. These antibody levels can be measured in a blood sample, but this is costly and does not provide the whole answer as far as protection level against natural disease is concerned.

Cell mediated immunity which cannot be measured in a blood sample and is a vital defence mechanism induced by vaccination and natural exposure.

Vaccination protection has two important aspects.

Protection of the individual – modern vaccines provide excellent protection against feline parvovirus, and substantially lessen the effects of cat flu, although these flu viruses are impossible to eliminate. Cat viruses are complicated!

Herd protection – this is a forgotten aspect of vaccination. Essentially, if more animals in a population are vaccinated, the disease risk is less because the quantity of virus in the environment and number of diseased animals decreases. In fact, if all susceptible individuals are vaccinated the disease risk reduces to nil. Amazingly, smallpox in humans and rinderpest in cattle have been eliminated from the planet by vaccination programs.

We are never going to get to that utopian state with infectious cat diseases due to their complex biology. The reason why some unvaccinated cats do not get infections is because their owners are relying on herd immunity provided by those responsible owners who do vaccinate!

In human medicine, we are seeing the consequences of decreasing uptake of vaccination – the incidence of measles and whooping cough in some communities is increasing and tragically there have been some infant mortalities from preventable diseases.

The fact is that some vocal individuals have exaggerated the risk associated with vaccination and seem to have forgotten the fact that these core diseases will cause severe disease in most infected cats.

There is always a small risk associated with any mediation or vaccine, but let’s put this in perspective. The situation in Australia is analogous to that in the UK, where in a 5 year analysis from 2005 to 2010 there were an average of 18 adverse reported reactions per 100,000 doses of vaccine sold.

When you consider that many of these reactions are mild lethargy, inappetence or mild swelling at the injection site, it reinforces the fact that vaccination is extremely safe.

We still recommend annual vaccination because cat parvo & flu is endemic in Queensland and more recent strains are even more virulent than those we have seen previously.

There is a lack of studies involving extended vaccination interval in the “field” situation (ie real life outside the laboratory) in endemic areas and world experts are still divided on the wisdom of extended interval vaccination.

It is also important that we give a thorough appraisal of your cat’s health status on a yearly basis, as this provides the opportunity to detect any problems before they become serious and may extend your pet’s life by many years.

It is important to ensure that your cat is healthy and likely to have an efficient immune system capable of responding effectively to vaccination.

Yes. Young kittens are at a critical stage until 16 weeks of age.

They are born with an immature immune system and have passive immunity which is protection from a temporary supply of antibodies from their mother’s placenta and milk (if mum has been vaccinated!). Vaccination from 6 to 8 weeks of age with 3 vaccines at monthly intervals will give optimum protection during this critical time.

We have vast experience in the practical application of vaccines and their impact on animal health, so we recommend an annual health check and vaccination against the important infectious diseases of cats.

Other infectious diseases such as feline leukaemia (FeLV), feline immunodeficiency ( FIV) & feline coronavirus (FIP) are very complex and advice should be given on an individual animal basis.

At the end of the day, we know that what we do is as safe as possible and works!