Do you own a kitten? It’s Immunization Awareness Month, and your kitten needs her vaccines to live a happy, healthy life. Here, your Cherry Hill, NJ veterinarian tells you about the core batch of immunizations that your kitten needs:
Distemper
Distemper is a contagious viral disease that is relatively common amongst cats, and it can cause serious symptoms like loss of appetite, dehydration, depression, vomiting, diarrhea, high-grade fever, and worse. In most cases, distemper is not fatal; however, it’s much, much easier to prevent the problem in the first place with the distemper vaccine.
Calicivirus
The calicivirus is an upper-respiratory virus and can cause ulcers, blisters, and even pneumonia. Like distemper, it’s highly contagious. Unlike distemper, though, calicivirus isn’t curable and must be dealt with on a symptomatic basis. For this reason, the calicivirus vaccine is essential to include in all kittens’ core vaccination batch.
Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis
Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, or FVR, can be treated if it affects a cat. However, any cat who is infected becomes a carrier for life. Even if they beat the disease, they can pass it on to other healthy cats even if they aren’t showing a single symptom. The FVR vaccine is key to preventing the spread of this dangerous virus, so make sure it’s been included in your kitten’s early vaccination batch.
Feline Leukemia
Feline leukemia is incurable, and it’s very easily spread through direct cat-to-cat contact, sharing of food bowls, infighting amongst cats, and other pathways. It’s also possible for an infected mother to transmit the disease to her kittens during the birthing process. Prevent the leukemia virus from affecting your feline friend by having her vaccinated against it early on in life.
Rabies
Everyone’s heard of the rabies virus. It’s especially dangerous because of its potential to be fatal, as well as the possibility for transmission to humans. Kittens should receive the rabies vaccine as part of the core batch; they will need booster shots on the vaccine every three years or so.
Keep in mind that these are only the core vaccinations recommended for most kittens. There are also non-core vaccines out there that may be beneficial for your cat depending on exposure risk, environment, overall health, and other factors. Be sure to talk to your Cherry Hill, NJ vet to find out exactly what vaccinations your kitten needs and plan a schedule for having your cat’s vaccinations updated.
