Dr. Walt's happy tails: Vaccinating your indoor pet

Dear Dr. Walt: I have a question concerning vaccinations: must I get my 2-year-old cat vaccinated against rabies, distemper, leukemia, etc.? When we got him as a kitten at the veterinarian's, he had been dewormed, vaccinated, and fixed. Since then, he has been kept strictly indoors and has no other contact with dogs or cats. I am leery of all these injections and their possible effects on his system. Since ‘Henry' doesn't go out nor have contact with other animals, must we still get him vaccinated? Why inject chemicals into his system when they may not be necessary?

You ask some good questions, questions that the veterinary profession is working hard at solving as well. Issues pertaining to vaccination – both the frequency and type of vaccines used – have become a “hot topic” of debate in both the veterinary and pet community. Because the duration of protection following vaccination isn't well researched, the veterinary community has, up until now, adopted an annual vaccination policy to coincide with the annual rabies vaccination. Only rabies vaccinations have a well researched and known duration of immunity allowing the frequency to be better defined; for most rabies vaccines the manufacturer's recommendation is for every three years except in endemic areas (areas where rabies is really prevalent such as Ontario) where yearly vaccination for rabies is recommended. Rabies revaccination is mandated by provincial law – you have no choice on this one!

Vaccination can result in many different outcomes and, fortunately, the most common outcome is also the most beneficial to our animals – protection against disease. The advent and implementation of vaccinations have had a tremendously positive impact on the health and welfare of our pets through the reduction of many infectious diseases that were often fatal. Examples include distemper in dogs and cats, parvovirus in the dog, and let's not forget the invariably fatal rabies, which has been dramatically reduced in both animals and people!

However, untoward reactions to vaccinations do occur. The most common is an allergic reaction that can present in varying degrees of severity from a mild restlessness, itchiness and hives to facial swelling and, in more severe cases, anaphylactic shock. These reactions are unpredictable and once a pet's predisposition is identified, these reactions can be controlled through altering the vaccine used, its frequency, or by the concurrent use of medications to control the reaction. These reactions are similar to more commonly known reactions including penicillin or nut allergies. Fortunately they are rare.


Page 1 of 2 -- On page 2, learn what other risks vaccinating your pet could pose.