Vaccinating Your Cat

Cat vaccination is the no.1 health defence in protecting your cat or kitten from many serious and even fatal diseases. Vaccinations make these diseases easily preventable, and may save you significant cost should your cat fall ill.

We are happy to talk with cat owners about which vaccines are suitable for your cat or kitten, also the schedule you should follow.
Sometimes people don’t realise cats need annual boosters to keep some vaccines current, as well as kittens require more frequent schedules to gain immunity.

Here are some of the frequently asked questions you may have about vaccines.

Why Are They Important?

Vaccines assist a cats own immune system in building defence to disease. This is most commonly done via introducing a mimic of the disease-causing virus or organism and this teaches their body in advance how fight it off, or reduce the effects should it ever catch the real virus in the future.

What Are the Common Cat Vaccines for New Zealand?

  • Cat Flu
  • Feline Enteritis
  • Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)

Are There Optional Cat Vaccines?

There are many option vaccines and your vet may recommend additional vaccines such as Feline Chlamydophila or others based on things like:

  • Age
  • Medical history
  • Environment
  • Overseas Travel
  • Lifestyle

When to Start Kitten Vaccinations

We would typically start a vaccination schedule between 6 and 12 weeks. Before this a Kitten gains protection from its mothers’ milk, so if your Kitten is not able to have a mothers milk please speak with your vet as early as possible to discuss the best approach.

Kitten Vaccination Schedule

A general vaccination schedule for kittens is:

  • 8-9 weeks: 1st core vaccinations
  • 12 weeks: 2nd core vaccinations

Your cat will also require annual booster vaccinations.

Are vaccines safe?

Vaccines are extremely safe with only rare negative reactions. If your Cat does experience any reaction, call us to discuss. These rare cases would most likely show as:

  • Fever
  • Sluggishness
  • Loss of appetite
  • Facial or paw swelling and/or hives
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhoea
  • Pain or swelling around the injection site
  • Collapse, difficulty breathing, and seizures (anaphylactic shock)

Not unlike humans, mild symptoms can be ignored as your body processes the vaccine, and for anything more severe give us a call.

Scheduling an Appointment for Cat Vaccinations

We keep the common vaccines in stock, so call us for a regular check-up be it a new Kitten or Cat and we will include this in our initial consultation.