Do Kittens Need Vaccines. Here’s What You Need to Know

This is Dr. Andrew Jones. In this edition of NRA Secrets, I'm going to be discussing what vaccines your kitten's gonna need. Hello you guys, welcome back to my channel. For those of you who are new, welcome. In today's video, we're featuring a wonderful new little kitten. Her name is Abby. So we're filming here in the kitchen because this is where little Abby here is liking to hang out with her newly adopted uncle Magus, who's in the background. He's been in some of the videos. So one of the big questions I'm often asked is, you know, what vaccines should I be getting for my kitten? You may have heard about concerns about over vaccinations, about, you know, concerns around certain things that can happen if your cat is given too many vaccines, you know, such as feline fibrosarcomas, thoughts around autoimmune disease, and there's now links around kidney disease and vaccines. Never mind things like allergic skin disease, inflammatory bowel disease. So what are the vaccines that your kitten is going to need? What age should you be starting at? Well, in my opinion, I think the earliest you need to be giving your kitten a vaccine is preferably eight weeks. In some cases, it could be a little bit later, even 12 weeks is the first vaccine. And I think they only need a series of two vaccines. If you're going to do it at 12 weeks, follow up with a booster at 16 weeks and four weeks later. And I think in the majority of the cases, that's all you're going to need. Are you a funny little kitten? There are core vaccines. They're the ones that are considered the most common viruses your cat can potentially get. The vaccines that seem to be more effective. And those are the ones that I'm advising that you consider giving your kitten. If I were to have a kitten, like little Abby here or my kitten, this is what I'd be giving her. So she's now almost 12 weeks, which is a great time to give her her first vaccine. And the core vaccine is FVRCP. So that's Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, one of the respiratory viruses. Feline Calicivirus, another common respiratory virus, or the two viruses, the most common cause of the cat flu. And then the third core part of the part of those vaccines is called Feline Panleukopenia or Feline Distemper Virus, a much more serious infectious disease that we still see today that is fully preventable by vaccine. So those are considered the core vaccine, the most common diseases potentially that your kitten can get that are preventable by vaccine that are also effective. What I would do now would be giving her that booster now. She's at the age of 12 weeks. And then I'd be following that up with that same vaccine being boosted again at 16 weeks. Another vaccine that by many veterinarians is considered a core vaccine is the rabies vaccine. That one's slightly different. So if you live in an area where rabies, for instance, is endemic, you know, it's in the wild animal population, you know, such as the skunk population, and you're going to have an outdoor cat, then potentially they're at risk of getting rabies. So then you want to consider having that rabies vaccine. In some areas, it's mandated by state law that your cat is vaccinated for rabies. You've got an outdoor cat, well, then they're going to need to be vaccinated for rabies. But if you're in an area such as where I live, where rabies is not considered endemic, we don't see animals with rabies in our area, we haven't seen it for, you know, many, many, many years. It's not, rabies is not a real risk for our animals. Even though I have an outdoor cat, I will not be vaccinated for rabies. A couple additional points around vaccines for our kittens. First of all, when your veterinarian does do the vaccine, you want to first make sure they're not doing up in here between the shoulder blades. We want them to do preferably at the tail base here, or on the right and left lateral sides of the legs. So we're looking at the rear legs. The main reason we're trying to avoid in between the shoulder blades is there's a condition, a disease called fibrosarcoma. It's a type of cancer that has been linked to vaccines, pushy vaccines given up in here between the shoulder blades. And if that's the case, it's really difficult, in many cases impossible, to remove that cancer if it happens. There are a whole host of other non-core vaccines. One such as feline leukemia virus, I don't advise you give that. One such as FIV virus vaccine, I don't advise you give that. One such as FIP vaccine, another serious infectious disease, the vaccine isn't proven to be very effective or helpful, I don't advise you give that. Some of the other ones I would point you towards against. There's vaccines now for Giardia, vaccines for Chlamydia as well too. Little Abby here is going to be an outdoor kitten. She's going to be exposed to other cats that have infectious disease. Makes sense to have her vaccinated with the FVRCP, the two, the Corvap vaccine. Now at 12 weeks, a booster at 16 weeks. After that, I think she's going to have more than adequate immunity, likely for the rest of her life. So I think one of the big things I want to sort of get across to you guys is the point of vaccines was to prevent infectious disease in the first place. So, you know, if you've got a kitten such as little Abby here, who's going to be a strictly an indoor cat, and if I was to have 100% strictly indoor cat, I would get them no vaccines. Your kitten and your cat will not get any of those diseases unless you bring another cat into your house. So in many cases, I really think we're giving far too many vaccines, too many cats, too many kittens, and far too often. There's no real justification now to be doing things. All those other associated vaccines that I've discussed about doing these yearly boosters, yearly vaccines, in spite of what many, you know, many veterinarians may be telling you guys. There's no real, there's no real medical basis to it. You can go ahead and do some of your own research now. These big organizations such as the AAFP, American Association of Feline Practitioners, for instance. I mean, they're advising those Corvap vaccines and that's it. Thanks little Abby for being in today's video. She's been pretty tolerant, just kind of had to the camera around to be where she wants to be. She's super, super cute. So first of all, you really have to give her a thumbs up by clicking the like button on the video. She's found a new spot to hang out.