Feline How-To Manual: Preventive Care: Vaccinations, Serologic Testing, Spaying and Neutering ~ Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.

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Any health care links located here are NOT to replace a veterinarian visit; please take your cat to a vet immediately at any sign of odd behavior or any symptoms of illness or injury. Call your vet and describe your cat's symptoms with any of your concerns about the cat's well-being. Your veterinarian may discover changes in your cat's health that you have overlooked. It is always better to err on the side of caution.

Preventive Care: Vaccinations, Serologic Testing, Spaying and Neutering

Although the number of households with cats is now greater than the number of households with dogs, less than half of those cats receive regular veterinary preventive care. Popular opinion has placed a lesser value on the life of a cat than on a dog, whose companionship is a bit more obvious to some. Why spend money on it when you can "just get another cat"? And even if a cat guardian loves his or her cat, many are ignorant of even the minimal steps that could be taken to control preventable diseases, let alone the advanced medical services that are available. All this is true, despite the high profile cats have in our society through the millions of dollars spent on cat food advertising, cat magazines, cat shows, and stores devoted to the plethora of cat paraphernalia.

Because you are on this page, presumably you're already aware of the need for preventive health care for your cat. The above facts should serve as a reminder as to why you take the steps you do and as a reference so that you can educate others about important cat health issues.

Vaccinations

When a kitten is born, he doesn't have an active immune system with which to fight infection. This leaves the kitten vulnerable to diseases that adult cats would take in stride. When a kitten nurses for the first time, he receives immune protection from his mother in the form of antibodies, present in the "first milk" or colostrum. This type of immunity is called passive immunization. The antibodies in colostrum are rapidly absorbed into the kitten's bloodstream and distributed throughout the body. The absorption of antibodies can take place for only a few short hours after birth. After that time, additional colostrum will do no good; the antibodies are simply digested along with everything else and cannot be absorbed. That's why it is so important that newborns begin to nurse as soon as possible after birth or Caesarean section, so that they can absorb as much of the colostral antibodies as possible during that brief window of opportunity.

Once the antibodies are circulating inside the kitten's system, they go about the business of fighting off germs. Antibodies don't last forever though, especially those that are transferred from the mother. These antibodies are depleted or used up through attrition, so that over several weeks the amount of mother's antibodies declines to insignificant and ineffective amounts.

As the mother's antibodies are depleted, the kitten's own immune system begins to shapen. At about eight weeks of age, the kitten's immune system is sufficiently ready to be challenged by the first inoculation against the common respiratory viruses of cats. Because the residual antibodies from the mother will interfere with the development of a strong response to that vaccine, kittens should be given boosters every three to four weeks until they are 16 weeks of age. It is impossible to predict just when the mother's antibodies are sufficiently used up, and when the kitten's immune system will respond appropriately to the vaccine. A series of boosters is necessary to insure that the kitten's immune system has been stimulated to produce adequate amounts of its own protective antibodies.

Unlike kittens, healthy adolescent and adult cats are fully capable of responding to a vaccine the first time it is given. If the initial kittenhood vaccinations have been delayed until after four months of age, these cats should receive two inoculations, approximately three to four weeks apart, against most of the common cat diseases. The same rule of thumb should be applied to adult stray cats whose vaccination status is, of course, unknown. The first inoculation will simulate an immune response. The second inoculation imparts a stronger and more long lasting response, a sort of memory to the system. Keep in mind that although older cats do not have to worry about maternal antibodies interfering with the first inoculation, one inoculation is not sufficient to produce adequate protection. They must have the second one that results in the long lasting effect.

After the initial series of vaccination, cats should receive booster shots once a year in order to keep the memory of that immunity strong. Cat viruses are much more stable than human flu viruses, and annual vaccinations are usually adequate to protect them, unless the cat is severely stressed.

As a cat ages, so does the immune system. The immune response can wane, leaving the older cat vulnerable once again. Annual vaccinations keep the immune response strong, and are an important part of geriatric care.

There are cats who become ill with these diseases even after vaccination. The cat may not have received an adequate number of boosters, or there may have been a large amount of maternal antibodies to interfere with the inoculation series. No vaccine will protect 100 per cent. A cat can come in contact with a particularly powerful or virulent strain of a virus that overwhelms the immune system. Or the immune system can be diminished due to stress associated with boarding, moving, inclement weather, new members of the household, poor nutrition, immunosuppressive viruses, or other underlying diseases. Compared to unvaccinated cats, cats who have been properly vaccinated will develop only a mild form of the disease during a "vaccine break." Some cats will carry a virus in their body, undetected and without causing disease, until some stress lowers their resistance. Vaccinations may be ineffective in these cats.

The table below lists the common diseases against which cats are vaccinated. Your vet will recommend all or some of these vaccines, depending upon your cat's risks of contracting one of them in your area. Even if your cat is totally indoors, he should be properly vaccinated against feline viral rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, and panleukopenia which are highly contagious, and rabies which is highly fatal.

VACCINE	INITIAL	MAINTENANCE
Panleukopenia (Distemper)	2 doses, 4 weeks apart beginning at 8 weeks of age.	Annually. Special vaccine required for pregnant cats.
Calicivirus	Same as panleukopenia.	Annually.
Rhinotracheitis	Same as panleukopenia.	Annually.
Chlamydia	Same as panleukopenia.	Annually.
Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP)	2 doses 4 weeks apart beginning at 16 weeks of age in high risk households, shelters, and catteries where virus is endemic.	Annually.
Feline Leukemia Virus (FIV)	2 or 3 doses 4 weeks apart only after a negative FeLV test.	Annually.
Rabies	Dose at 3 months of age, then 1 year later.	According to local laws. Precautionary after every wound of unknown origin, every bite wound from animal with unknown vaccination history, and every bite from animal with lapsed vaccinations.

Serologic Testing

Mosts vets recommend routine serologic testing of all kittens and newly acquired adult cats for feline leukemia virus infection. Kittens and cats who test negative should be vaccinated.

Leukemia virus vaccines have improved tremendously since their introduction by a single manufacturer in the early 1980s. Although laboratory evaluations have not proven them to be as effective as hoped, out in the real world under natural exposure situations, they do seem to afford substantial protection. The initial side effects, mostly pain on injection, have diminished, too.

Even if your cat stays totally indoors today, that may change at some time due to accidental escape. Almost all boarding kennels and vet hospitals require vaccination prior to admission to prevent accidental transmission through contact.

Serologic testing for feline immunodeficiency virus is becoming more routine. There is no vaccine available at this time; however, infection with this virus will affect the immune system and knowing the immue status of the cat may influence some decisions that you might make about your cat's lifestyle. You may choose to keep this cat indoors to lower the risk of injury and illness. Although the virus is only transmitted through bite wounds and not casual contact, you may choose not to have any other cats. At this time, it is unknown how FIV affects the lifespan of an infected cat. It is clear that many cats will live for years with the infection before it becomes a problem clinically, if ever.

Internal Parasite Control

Kittens should have their feces examined for parasites twice, once at nine weeks of age and again about a month later. Thereafter, cats who spend any time outdoors should have a yearly fecal exam. Fecal parasite exminations are also a routine step in diagnosing the cause of vomiting and diarrhea in kittens and cats.

Feces are examined for parasites in one of four ways:

Direct observation will identify some tapeworms and heavy roundworm infections. Such kittens or cats may eliminate a number of mature adult worms in the feces or vomitus.
Direct smear observation is used to identify some protozoal parasites like Giardia. For this test, a swab of stool is applied to a glass slide with a drop of saline (salt water) and examined for organisms.
Fecal flotation test is the most common method of stool analysis.
Baerman analysis is done to identify larvae from lungworm parasites.

The treatment for internal parasites will depend upon the parasite itself, the age of the cat, and other existing conditions.

Spaying and Neutering

There are no accurate statistics stating how many unwanted animals are euthanized each year. There simply isn't a committee or group established to keep records from every shelter or animal control facility. ASPCA of New York estimates that up to 10,000,000 animals were destroyed in 1998. Add to that figure the unknown number which died from disease, accidents, abuse, neglect, and starvation and what results is a tragic magnitude of needless waste and suffering.

As pet owners, our responsibility is to prevent this suffering by spaying and neutering our pets. The myth claiming that neutering causes cats and other animals to become fat and lazy is untrue. Too much food causes obesity. "Having one litter" will not make a cat more affectionate or better pet. You will not be depriving him or her of any inborn "need" for procreation by spaying or neutering your cat. You won't be depriving them of anything at all.

Male cats, by convention are neutered at about eight months of age. Many vets and humane shelters in the last few years have started altering kittens as early as 6-12 weeks and for good reasons. The kittens recover very quickly from the surgery and seem to have less discomfort, although most older male cats don't demonstrate much discomfort anyway.

Neutering your male cat usually involves castration. The scrotum is antiseptically prepared for surgery and an incision is made over the testicles. The testicles are removed from the scrotum and the blood supply and spermatic cords are tied. The incisions are not sutured. Despite this being a rather unsanitary area of the body, infection after this procedure is very rare and recovery is rapid.

An alternative procedure to castration is vasectomy, and unlike neutering, has many disadvantages for both the pet and guardian. For this procedure, the scrotum is also prepared antiseptically for surgery. An incision is made and the spermatic cords are identified, tied and cut. The testicles remain in the scrotum and continue to produce testosterone. The cat will continue to perform all the objectionable male behavior: territorial urine spraying, roaming, fighting, and the arduous pursuit of females in heat. The cat may develop prostate tumors and infections, tumors of the testicles, penis, and anal area, and suffer from stress.

Females are conventionally altered at six months of age, but as with males, early age altering is more beneficial to owners and the cats. At six months, or sometimes earlier, females will begin to have "heat" or estrous cylces. Because some cats will not exhibit any behavioral signs of estrus the first time around and yet be entiredly capable of becoming pregnant, females should be confined indoors.

The female altering procedure is an ovariohysterectomy, a "spay." This is far from an innocuous, minor procedure. It involves an incision that enters the abdominal cavity. The ovaries are identified and withdrawn through the incision. The blood vessels that nourish the ovaries come directly from the aorta, the largest artery in the body. The ovarian arteries must be securely tied off and severed. Additional sutures are placed around the blood vessels that supply the Y-shaped uterus before both the uterus and the ovaries are removed. Then the incision is closed in several layers. Your cat will probably have dissolvable sutures in the skin layer.

Your cat will most likely begin to move around normally and have a normal appetite and habits as early as 24 hours after surgery. Don't be fooled by this rapid return to normal. Confine your cat indoors with limited activity. She has additional healing to be done on the inside.

How-to Articles in This Series:

Article   1: How to Choose a Vet
Article   2: Hospital Admission of Your Cat
Article   3: Preventive Care: Vaccinations, Serologic Testing, Spaying and Neutering
Article   4: Preventative Care - Dental Care, Flea Control, and Grooming
Article   5: Cooperation - Restraint Procedures and Trimming Claws
Article   6: Keeping Records
Article   7: Care in the Sick Room
Article   8: Keeping Watch - Your Cat's Vital Signs
Article   9: Nutrition for the Cat
Article 10: Feeding the Cat - Including Newborn Kitten Feeding
Article 11: Medications and Prescriptions
Article 12: Basic Nursing 101
Article 13: Managing Bandages and Splints
Article 14: Before and After Surgery and Dentistry
Article 15: Pregnancy and Delivery
Article 16: Euthanasia

Page URL: http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/howto3.html

Resource References:
Caring for Your Sick Cat Carol Himsel Daly, DVM and veterinary consultant
Cat Doctor, Mark Evans, B Vet Med MRVCS
Cornell Book of Cats, Cornell Feline Health Center, Cornell University