annual vaccinations
Annual vaccinations are NOT necessary and may be harmful to your cat. This has been known for many years. It has been published in every journal, every website, every place that any vet might look. Virtually all vet schools and professional organizations have changed their vaccine protocols in the last 7 years, and this fact is widely published. You’d have to live under a rock to be a vet and not know that vaccine recommendations have changed.
IMHO, there is no longer any excuse for any practicing veterinarian to be recommending routine annual boosters, other than laziness and/or greed.
The FVRCP (distemper/upper respiratory) vaccine is a great vaccine. It produces effective, long-lasting immunity. How long? Estimates currently range from 5 or 6 years to LIFE. Nobody—not vet schools, not immunologists, not the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP,
http://www.aafponline.org/pdf/guidelines_vaccine.pdf ), not nobody, not nohow—recommends that vaccines be given annually as a matter of routine. Every expert agrees that a vaccination program should be tailored to each individual animal’s age, health, and lifestyle. Even for "high-risk" cats, AAFP recommends that the FVRCP vaccine be given *no more often* than every 3 years, and even that is probably way more than they need.
What's the problem? Just this:
Every vaccine given to an animal causes the animal’s body to produce antibodies to proteins found in the vaccine. This, of course, is how vaccines protect you—you’re supposed to produce antibodies to the virus! However, it has been discovered that there are other proteins in vaccines. It turns out that the filtration process by which vaccines are made isn’t perfect, and proteins from the serum the vaccine was cultured in can leak into the vaccine. They get injected right along with the virus. Naturally, the animal produces antibodies to those proteins, too. The immune system cannot distinguish among proteins you *want* antibodies to, and those you *don't*! Some of the proteins that antibodies are made to include red blood cells, collagen (the framework of skin and connective tissue), thyroid, albumin, and many others.
In the case of the FVRCP vaccine, it is grown in a culture of feline kidney cells, therefore the cat will make antibodies to feline kidney cells. Unfortunately, the cat also has kidneys of its own. These antibodies react to the cat’s own kidneys, causing a low-grade inflammation. Every booster causes more and more antibodies to be made, causing more widespread inflammation.
Guess what causes chronic renal failure in cats? Chronic low-grade inflammation!
Yes, I’m serious. Every distemper booster your cat gets increases its risk of developing chronic renal failure. What a foolish, unnecessary risk for a cat living indoors, whose risk of actually getting distemper is virtually zero!
Now, a vet might justifiably say, “well it says on the label, booster annually.” Of course it does. If it said “booster every 2 years,” the vaccine manufacturer would sell HALF as many vaccines. Why would they do that? The label recommendation carries no legal force, and vets are absolutely not required to follow it. Don't let any vet tell you otherwise.
There is not and never was any scientific justification for giving vaccines annually. It was an arbitrary choice thathas been perpetuated because, for all these years, it has made *boatloads* of money for both vaccine makers and veterinarians. This particular information was published in a major veterinary textbook, basically the veterinary "Bible", in 1992.
Rabies, of course, is required by law in many jurisdictions, and you should follow the law with respect to this vaccine.
Since this is the second time today I've faced this question (no, it's not just you guys!), I guess I'll have to break down and put an article about it on my website, LOL! I'll let y'all know when it's up. There's a lot more to cover!
Cheers,
Dr. Jean
