Vaccinating Your New Kitten

By Rebeca Rambal

Your veterinarian will recommend that your kitten come back in two to four weeks for a second dose of FVRCPC and a second FIP and FLV vaccine. If he was wormed at his first visit, he will receive a second treatment. If your kitten is at least 12 weeks old, he will also get his first rabies shot at this visit.

Your kitten needs to come back a third time between the ages of ten to sixteen weeks. He will get a third FVRCPC shot at this time. If your kitten was too young to get a rabies vaccine at the last visit, he will get one this time.

When your kitten has gotten his third set of FVRCPC inoculations, he is home free until he reaches a year of age. At one year old, he will need another FVRCPC vaccination and another rabies. If he gets his second rabies shot within a year of the first, he will then be safe for three years. The FVRCPC needs to be given every year, however. If your kitten got vaccinations for FIP and Feline Leukemia, he will get booster shots for them at his one year visit to the veterinarian.

Vaccinating your new kitten is safe, but some cats do have side effects on occasion. Feline Leukemia vaccinations can sometimes be the cause of a form of cancer that may develop at the site of the injection. This is the main reason many veterinarians do not recommend the vaccine if cats are not at risk of contracting it. Some vaccines may create tumors at the injection site. Most of the time, these tumors can be surgically removed before they spread through the cat's system. This is a very rare side effect; the risk of your cat catching the disease the vaccine prevents is much higher than this side effect. If you notice a small lump forming at the injection site, let your vet know. These lumps are usually a sign of a simple reaction to the vaccine, but in rare instances, they can develop into a tumor.

Vaccinating your new kitten will help keep him or her healthy by preventing many diseases that may be debilitating at best or fatal at worst. It is easy to protect your cat against these dangers to their health with a few short trips to the vet. Do yourself and your cats a favor and protect them with vaccinations.

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