Being your cat's advocate...

[Wyldthingz]

I am running across many threads that have me concerned. I am hearing vets that insist on giving other vaccines together, vaccines to sick animals, and treatment that are neither needed or asked for and owners. It human health care this is called "causing harm." Treating unnecessarily.

Just as in human health care, we need to advocate for our pets. We can't just let veterinarians tell us what to do without a good explanation. When you get a new cat that learning curve is overwhelming but it is up to us to ask, do the research, and get the answers from the vet. If they don't have the time to explain things to us, then you have the right to go to another vet. Too much vet care is by the tecs and the vet doesn't see the patient until the end. Please don't support these places. The ones that are run but "organizations" are the worst, Banfield, etc. Their vets are required to follow a protocol and must preform by contract, stick to their way of treating, I.E. making money for the organization by implementing as many vaccines, treatments, products as possible.

Know your rights as a pet owner that you can legally DECLINE any treatment.
Be careful of information off the internet. Make sure the research comes from a reliable source, not hearsay, or health myths that have been passed about and propagated as fact.

I was very lucky to work for many years with a very wise vet. She wasn't afraid to question the system and when it doubt, she would do the research to get the best answer, and she is NOT afraid to say "I don't know- let's find out. "

We all need to do the same for the sake of our pets who have no way to question anything we do to them, good or bad.

 

[Marissa]

In my contract for one of my boys, I saw that FVRCP was not to be administered at the same time as a rabies, (he was only due for his rabies so we didnt have any reason to combine his) in the past we had given those two together to some of the cats, my vet didnt see any problem with them being paired. Are there any reasons why they should be separate or does it really matter?

 

[Wyldthingz]

Yes, vaccines given together are much harder on the immune system. They can be given together but ideally, it is better not to do it. You think your vet could explain that simply enough? They all know it but it is easier to just kill two birds with one stone and deal with the animal once.
Which rabies did your cat get? The dog rabies?
Many vets don't differentiate because the cat specific rabies has less of an incident in vaccine sarcomas (very aggressive cancerous tumors). They would have to order two kinds of rabies vaccines instead of one- it is all about convenience, saving money, and not what is best for the animal.

 

[Aviceen]

There is definitely no evidence that supports that giving those two vaccines simultaneously is of any real benefit to the animal. As most of you may already know, a vaccine is just a modified version of that which it is aiming to protect against. Vaccines work by forcing the animal's body to mount an immune response. In other words, antibodies are created and stored shortly after the injection. When the animal comes in contact with the active form of that disease, they can fight it off without showing any major signs of distress or sickness.

More than one vaccine at at time is generally safe for a healthy animal. But vaccines can sometimes overload their little systems making them appear tired or a little lethargic for several days following the injections.

 

[Marissa]

We never asked the vet about the vaccines being paired at the same time, it just seemed normal so no obvious reason (so we thought) to ask questions until I noticed what the contract said, this is the first time I thought about it to ask, so I guess that's an example of making sure to keep check on what the vet is doing/giving to our pets. As for the rabies, I had assumed that it was for cats, only based off of not realizing some vets give the dog version to cats. I will make sure to ask that next time though. Very good to know.. Guess you learn something new each day thank you much

 

[Wyldthingz]

Most people don't know about the rabies, many vets just give the dog one.

 

[admin]

Also, when getting a rabies vaccine for your baby, be sure to ask if it is killed or modified live. I just learned that lesson the hard way.

 

[Marissa]

Also, when getting a rabies vaccine for your baby, be sure to ask if it is killed or modified live. I just learned that lesson the hard way.

Ill be sure to ask that also next time, ugh now I wish I had asked. How did you find out the hard way ? :-/

 

[admin]

By not asking and finding out after...now I have made it clear that all rabies shots must be killed...modified is ok, but I don't like it for rabies.

 

[Marissa]

Oh ok good, I was worried something bad had happened