Vaccinating your cat is one of the most important things that you can do as a responsible and caring owner to help your cat live a happy and healthy life.

Animals are born with passive immunity passed on through their mother’s milk before birth (these are known as maternally derived antibodies). These antibodies protect the newborn from the diseases against which the mother was vaccinated, but only until around 12 weeks of age. This is why it’s important to have regular vaccinations from an early age to ensure continued protection against these diseases.

Vaccines provide antibodies against the most common and contagious, life-threatening diseases that your cat will come across during their lifetime. Many of these diseases either have no cure, or would involve long, expensive and often unsuccessful treatments for your cat.

WHAT DISEASES DOES THE VACCINE COVER?

Our "core" (essential for health) vaccination course provides protection against potentially life-threatening diseases including:

• Cat Flu
• Feline Infectious Enteritis
• Feline Leukaemia Virus

We can also vaccinate against Bordetella bronchiseptica (feline equivalent of kennel cough) for protection if your cat needs to stay in a cattery and Rabies if you are planning on taking your cat on holiday abroad.

WHEN TO VACCINATE

The vaccination course includes a full health check with the vet and lots of advice about caring for your cat.

The initial vaccination course for kittens consists of 2 injections given 3 weeks apart. Kittens usually start vaccines at nine weeks of age with a second injection at twelve weeks. The protection provided by these vaccines starts at the approximate time that the immunity passed on by your pet’s mother runs out.

Your kitten needs to be kept away from sources of infection (i.e. going anywhere where un-vaccinated cats have been) until two weeks after the second injection.

We prefer you to have had your kitten for at least for a week before starting vaccinations, to ensure that they have a chance to settle in with you and are not incubating any illnesses.

Every year your pet will require a booster vaccination to keep the immunity level sufficiently high. If you miss booster vaccines by too long, then the course will need to be restarted with 2 vaccines at an additional cost- so make sure not to let them lapse!