What are the contraindications to vaccinations for cats?

Feb 26,2024
5Min

Under normal circumstances, it is best to take a newly purchased cat to the pet hospital for a physical examination before entering the house, and to get vaccinated before returning home. Healthy and normal pet cats can be vaccinated about a week after they are successfully weaned. At the same time, there are contraindications for vaccinating cats.

Vaccine immunization is something that every cat should do after birth. It can prevent the occurrence of some serious infectious diseases. However, the vaccine is also a weak virus that prompts the cat to produce antibodies. Therefore, when the cat’s own immune resistance is abnormal, injection Vaccines will have the opposite effect, so after the cat is born, the condition of the cat must be observed first, and healthy cats can be vaccinated.

When injecting vaccines, the age, health, constitution and nutritional status of the animal should be considered. Do not take a bath within a week before the injection. The doctor should take the temperature of the cat before the injection to ensure that the cat is healthy before the vaccine can be injected. You cannot take a shower after the injection, and you must complete the first-year immunization process. After each injection, the cat’s spirit and appetite excretion should be closely observed for any changes.

Under normal circumstances, before vaccination, the veterinarian should conduct a clinical physical examination of the cat, including body temperature, respiration, heartbeat rate, physical examination and medical history inquiry. The normal body temperature of kittens is 38 to 38.5 ℃, and that of adult cats is about 38 ℃, but it should not exceed 38.7 ℃, unless individual cats have just come out of a stuffy car, the body temperature may be slightly higher. The physical examination mainly observes whether there are eye secretions and nasal discharge, whether the color of oral mucosa is abnormal, whether there are proliferated blood vessels in the conjunctiva, whether there are vomiting, not eating, diarrhea, etc., whether there is a history of infectious diseases, and whether there is contact with sick cats. Pass.

Generally speaking, cats should not be vaccinated under the following circumstances:

1. Generally, cats cannot be vaccinated when they are less than eight weeks old. Young pets should consider the interference of maternal antibodies and should be vaccinated according to the vaccine instructions. Generally, when a cat is twelve weeks old, the maternal antibodies in the body have dropped to non-interfering levels. The last vaccination against most infectious diseases should be at twelve weeks of age or later to make the pet protective. Although elderly cats may have various antibodies in their bodies, their titers may be low and insufficient to resist diseases, and they still need to be vaccinated according to the immunization schedule.

2. Cats with poor physical fitness and malnutrition cannot be vaccinated.

3. Cats cannot be vaccinated when they are sick. Vaccination at this time may aggravate the condition due to vaccine reactions.

4. Due to the strong reaction after injection, attenuated vaccines are generally not suitable for injection into pregnant female cats, especially pregnant female cats cannot be injected with feline panleukopenia (cat distemper) vaccine. This vaccine can infect the fetus through the placental barrier, leading to stillbirth and miscarriage. , premature birth or birth of a malformed fetus with cerebellar hypoplasia. If pregnant female cats are vaccinated, they can receive inactivated vaccines.

Newly purchased cats should be checked at the animal hospital or kept in isolation for seven days to ensure their health.Vaccination can only be done under certain conditions. Cats need to be vaccinated against rabies when they are three months old. The chance of cats getting rabies is small, but once they get it, the mortality rate is 100%.

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