To all my crazy cat ladies out there – I APPRECIATE YOU!

Don’t get me wrong, I love all animals, but cats…

There’s just something about those fuzzy little gaffers that really brings out the Elmyra Duff in me and I’m here for it!

I have a blog post up where I address puppy vaccines so it is only fair that I make one for my kittens and kitten lovers!

Baby cats need vaccines too so listen up.

More often than not you are either finding a baby cat or you know someone that found a baby cat that needs a home, and you are suckered into keeping it. And I don’t blame you! How can anyone resist that sweet, little innocent face, big bright eyes, and the tiniest, wimpiest little meow you have ever heard?

Seriously! How can you resist?

So of course you brought home a baby cat, but now what do you do?

Well, I would first recommend you go buy a litterbox and some litter for that little gaffer and watch the kitty instincts in all their glory!

That’s probably a little disgusting but really, it is pretty neat that they just know that a litterbox equals the bathroom. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Next, let’s get to some of the serious stuff – Vaccines!

Kittens need vaccines too and similar to puppies there will be core vaccines and what I like to call ‘lifestyle’ vaccines.

First up, those core vaccines.

• DRCC
• Rabies

DRCC. So what does that stand for. This vaccine is protecting your kitties from distemper, rhinotracheitis, calici, and chlamydia. Again I won’t go into details about these specific diseases in this post, but if it is something you are interested in leave a comment below and I can definitely work on putting it together for you all.

This vaccine would be kind of be the equivalent to the puppy DHPP vaccine in regards to protocol. So that means the vaccination times will be the same as described in the puppy post.

So a little refresher.

Kittens should be getting their first booster around 8 weeks, and then they will need additional boosters every 3-4 weeks until 16 weeks of age. That would put us at 8, 12, and 16 weeks of age.

Again, those vaccines started at 6 weeks of age… we technically don’t count those as part of the ‘official’ booster series because of the maternally derived antibodies (MDA) that are still in play. MDAs can prevent an appropriate immune response to the vaccines. So if your kitten happened to get a vaccine at 6 weeks of age it is more likely that they will have a total of 4 boosters, instead of the typical 3, to ensure they are fully protected.

Rabies! The other kitten core vaccine. If you read through the puppy vaccines then you can apply the same protocol for our kittens. Rabies is still around and kitties that are outdoor explorers are definitely more at risk compared to our indoor kitties. Anyone who has owned a cat knows most of these goofs are trouble makers, so if there is danger out there they will find it!

Your kitten will get one rabies vaccine booster as a kitten, and when they are in for their follow up a year later it will be a 3 year booster. Pretty straight forward for this one. They do need to be at least 12 weeks of age for this vaccine though.

And that covers our core vaccines, but what about the lifestyle vaccines for kittens?

Well this is a little different than our puppies.

We also have two to consider:

• FeLV
• FIV

The first lifestyle vaccine, FeLV, is for feline leukemia virus.

Leukemia? Wait, what? I know, you are probably thinking, ‘Isn’t that cancer?’ Well, no. Not in this case. This is still a virus; however, it is considered an oncogene that can cause a variety of tumors in our kitties with the most commonly seen being lymphoma and leukemia. So it can lead to cancer.

This disease is quite easily spread mainly through saliva, but other bodily fluids (blood, tears, urine, milk, etc) can also lead to transmission.

So why is that important?

Because for those kitties that are exploring, socializing, having sleep overs at kennels, this vaccine is for them!

This one requires two boosters, one at 8 weeks and then the second one at 12 weeks which is good for 2 years from date of vaccination. There may be some variations so check with your vet to ensure the length of documented immunity.

The final lifestyle vaccine that I will cover is FIV.

Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. F.I.V. Sound familiar?…

HIV. Yep, you can think of FIV as the feline version of this disease.

This virus progressively disrupts normal immune function. This disease is not as easily spread as feline leukemia virus since it requires bite wound transmission. So if your kitty is a regular Mike Tyson and out picking fights with other kitties, this vaccine if for them.

It is also recommended for new baby cats coming into a household with a FIV positive kitty.

This one is also a two booster vaccine, but unlike the FeLV vaccine it does require yearly boosters.

Now, although that all seems pretty straight forward there is a little caveat I should add.

FeLV/FIV testing.

I recommend that all baby cats are tested, especially the ones that are found or rescued with little known history.

This is for a couple reasons.

One, if they are already positive for one of these diseases then their vaccine recommendations will change being that vaccinating them will be of little value.

Two, if they are positive you will want to take appropriate precautions if you already have other cats at home or if you are planning to continue collecting more kitties.

And three, once they have been vaccinated the test results can be skewed forever which means you would have a positive result regardless of true infection or vaccine.

And that covers the basics for kitten vaccines and all I have to share for now! Hopefully you all made it to the end and I answered some of the questions you had!

If not drop a comment below and I can add more content that will be useful to you and everyone out there that loves cats!