How safe is the rabies vaccine for cats? The answer is complicated but I will try and reduce it to a simple, sad story today. You have to be a bit cynical about cat vaccinations these days because the more you read about them the more you see the inherent dangers in them. The big issue is over-vaccinating cats and how that can damage their health. Remember, vaccinations are about risk and reward.
Before I start, I will remind myself that in the USA, state and city statutes establish the requirements for rabies vaccinations. In other words rabies is such a serious illness that the law requires that cats are vaccinated against it. At the base of this page I set out briefly the recommendations for rabies vaccinations in the US.
Tigger’s Story
This is a story about Tigger. He was two years old at the time. He is a rescue cat. It is presumed that he may have received a rabies vaccination at the rescue centre from which he was adopted but this is unclear in the story.
Tigger’s owner, Ms L, is unsure whether he was vaccinated when very young at the rescue centre but he certainly was vaccinated by a veterinarian when he was placed in a veterinarian run boarding cattery. It is unclear why the vet carried out the vaccination without checking whether Tigger had had one earlier. In short this lax approach may have resulted in Tigger being over-vaccinated.
The consequences of the rabies vaccination were catastrophic. It almost killed Tigger. He was ill, highly anaemic, for a year and he almost died on two occasions.
What had happened was the rabies vaccination had prompted an autoimmune response in which Tigger’s white blood cells attacked his red blood cells causing him to be catastrophically anaemic – the white cells were killing the red ones until the red blood cell count was horrendously low. For a year, Tigger suffered from severe anaemia.
Other symptoms were thirst, jaundice, a craving for indigestible objects (pica) and an eruption of red blisters on his skin between the eyes and ears.. [note: vaccinations can also cause cancer at the site].
He saw three vets and the third, as I understand it, administered a cure which was a single dose of sulphur 30C (you can buy it on Amazon!). This completely cured him and he was back to normal to a state that his owner had not seen in him in for a year. He was jumping around again as normal. A blood transfusion was unnecessary.
The story really is about the dangers of the rabies vaccine. It is also about whether a cat needs a booster rabies vaccination because it is argued that one vaccination will last a lifetime. There might be different rules regarding boosters between humans and cats. Not infrequently there are different standards between humans and cats on similar health issues.
This leads us to discuss, very briefly, the law and veterinarians’ recommendations. People should check the law themselves in the state or county where they live. However, there are three types of rabies vaccines. And the way they are used varies depending on the type of vaccine. There is a recombinant, nonadjuvanted canary pox vectored, and killed adjuvanted. All three are injectable.
The recommendation is that kittens receive a single dose of killed or recombinant rabies vaccine at eight or 12 weeks of age depending on the vaccine. Adult cats with an unknown vaccination history should also receive a single dose of killed or recombinant rabies vaccine. For the recombinant vaccines, boosters are recommended annually. For the killed rabies vaccines, a booster is required at one year and thereafter three years using a vaccine approved for three-year administration. I have quoted directly in parts from a renowned book on feline health care for the sake of clarity and certainty.
As I read the recommendations, it would seem that they could if followed have caused the severe illness suffered by Tigger in the story above. Therefore, there may be an issue concerning the law regarding rabies vaccinations and whether they should be amended and whether veterinarians should be more amenable to vaccinating less often provided they stay within the law.
The source for recommendations: Cat Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook.
Hi Eva. Nice that you are still around.
I AM CONCERNED ABOUT ‘Feline Injection Site Sarcoma’
Hello again Michael*
Eva
Thanks. I am neither, just an informed cat owner. Reading vet websites, blogs, etc. skeptvet is one blog I used to read, this is where I found out about the 3-year Purevax, when he replied to one of my comments. I asked why hasn’t it been approved yet, and he or she replied that it was and referenced Merial press release, also said that (s)he is using it. There was pretty interesting discussion there at the time with some vets commenting, it was a couple of years ago. You can learn a lot by reading vets’ discussions. E.g. that the cost of 3-year Purevax is a major issue as it’s priced at over 3 times the regular one, and sold in batches of either 12 or 24 (I don’t remember) so many vet practices don’t buy it because they don’t think enough people will be interested. Then some vets don’t like 3-year vaccines because they think people wouldn’t come every year for checkup. I commented then that it’s unethical. One vet had a major issue with it too.
I also read some other websites e.g. AAFP, Cornell, some websites vet use such as vet handbook or something like it. Research papers as well if I find them when looking for something – sometimes they are difficult to read, but often just reading abstract and conclusion is enough, also scanning the rest of it. I ignore all websites when someone sells something; sometimes I prefer articles that vet write for other vets. This one is a good description of FISS though it was published before 3-year Purevax became available — notice that he says other injections e.g. steroids and antibiotics can also cause FISS. In another article, someone even mentioned that unless there is a real need why antibiotic injection is needed as opposed to pills, choose pills:
http://todaysveterinarypractice.navc.com/vital-vaccination-series-feline-injection-site-sarcoma/
I do the same with human medicine by the way. I also never confuse being informed which is what I am with being an expert which is what vets and doctors are. But it always helps to know more.
God, that is awful – a catalogue of errors leading to death.
You sound very sensible and caring.