What Shots Do Cats Need?

Video Transcript

"Now we are going to discuss what vaccinations cats need. Every state requires different vaccinations and rabies vaccinations at different intervals so check with your state as far as rabies vaccination is concerned. A vaccination is preventive medicine and what it is doing is building immunity of the cat's body toward viral infections. There are several different types of vaccinations that we use especially for outdoor cats. The first we always talk about is rabies vaccination and rabies vaccination is to prevent the viral infection from rabies that is generally seen in the wild cat population and the wild life population such as raccoons and skunks, bats, things like that. Rabies vaccination does vary from state to state as far as how often they have to receive that. These vaccinations are given under the skin generally once a year and are very effective at preventing rabies. Another vaccination that we give to cats depending on their age and if they are going to be indoor/outdoor is distemper which is essentially an easy term of upper respiratory infections in cats. This is what prevents that. This is rhinotracheitis casey and panleukopenia. Those are three different viruses that cats get and can get that can be devastating to them so this is a great prevention to keep your cats healthy and to rent those diseases. The third one that we very commonly give especially to outdoor cats is the feline leukemia vaccine. Feline leukemia is a virus that can be contracted through bite wounds, fights, and sexual behavior. Essentially this type of virus is one of those that can be deadly if they contract it. They can contract it and have it for a while and they can give this to other cats and then eventually they can succumb to the disease. Rabies vaccination is to prevent rabies which again is seen in the wildlife population more than anything else and that is a fatal disease but it can be very very well prevented. All these vaccines are generally drawn up and are liquid form and are given under the skin depending on how often that can be once a year to every three years. Also when they are kittens they have to be boosted, generally one vaccine followed by another one two to three weeks later and generally followed by a third one depending on which vaccine is used."