Reaction to vaccine?

Hi,

In January '03 I got my cat Bandit his booster. The next day he wasn't
well, very weak, etc. He ended up spending four days in the vets and his
red blood cell count was really low. The vet insisted at the time it was a
coincidence and not related to the booster. I was nervous about getting his
booster again so I have put it off until now. I brought him to the vet on
Monday evening for his booster, reminded the vet of what happened last time
but he again insisted his illness was nothing to do with the booster. So,
yesterday morning (Tuesday) Bandit obviously wasn't well and went back to
the vet. He gave him an antibiotic injection and said he didn't want to
give him cortisone cos it would counter the booster. He has no energy and a
very high temperature. I brought Bandit back to the vet today cos there was
no improvement. He got a cortisone injection today. He's still pretty much
the same, although he is eating a little and drinking lots of milk. I have
to bring him back tomorrow morning but I'm concerned the vet still doesn't
think it's related to the booster and is delaying the proper treatment.

Has anyone else any experience with a cat having a reaction to a
vaccination? It seems obvious to me his illness is a reaction to the
booster. A quick note on Bandit - he's a small four year. He's very skinny
although he eats like a horse! He's normally very active but at the moment
the only time he moves is to eat or use the litter tray. Except this
afternoon he saw a butterfly and managed to jump six feet and catch and eat
it!!!

Thanks

Siobhán

SK,

What was the vaccine? Was it for distemper?

Rhonda

SK wrote:

Hi,

In January '03 I got my cat Bandit his booster. The next day he wasn't
well, very weak, etc. He ended up spending four days in the vets and his
red blood cell count was really low. The vet insisted at the time it was a
coincidence and not related to the booster. I was nervous about getting his
booster again so I have put it off until now. I brought him to the vet on
Monday evening for his booster, reminded the vet of what happened last time
but he again insisted his illness was nothing to do with the booster. So,
yesterday morning (Tuesday) Bandit obviously wasn't well and went back to
the vet. He gave him an antibiotic injection and said he didn't want to
give him cortisone cos it would counter the booster. He has no energy and a
very high temperature. I brought Bandit back to the vet today cos there was
no improvement. He got a cortisone injection today. He's still pretty much
the same, although he is eating a little and drinking lots of milk. I have
to bring him back tomorrow morning but I'm concerned the vet still doesn't
think it's related to the booster and is delaying the proper treatment.

Has anyone else any experience with a cat having a reaction to a
vaccination? It seems obvious to me his illness is a reaction to the
booster. A quick note on Bandit - he's a small four year. He's very skinny
although he eats like a horse! He's normally very active but at the moment
the only time he moves is to eat or use the litter tray. Except this
afternoon he saw a butterfly and managed to jump six feet and catch and eat
it!!!

Thanks

Siobhán

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 00:28:30 +0100, SK wrote:

Hi,

In January '03 I got my cat Bandit his booster. The next day he wasn't
well, very weak, etc. He ended up spending four days in the vets and his
red blood cell count was really low. The vet insisted at the time it was
a coincidence and not related to the booster. I was nervous about getting
his booster again so I have put it off until now. I brought him to the
vet on Monday evening for his booster, reminded the vet of what happened
last time but he again insisted his illness was nothing to do with the
booster. So, yesterday morning (Tuesday) Bandit obviously wasn't well and
went back to the vet. He gave him an antibiotic injection and said he
didn't want to give him cortisone cos it would counter the booster. He
has no energy and a very high temperature. I brought Bandit back to the
vet today cos there was no improvement. He got a cortisone injection
today. He's still pretty much the same, although he is eating a little
and drinking lots of milk. I have to bring him back tomorrow morning but
I'm concerned the vet still doesn't think it's related to the booster and
is delaying the proper treatment.

Has anyone else any experience with a cat having a reaction to a
vaccination? It seems obvious to me his illness is a reaction to the
booster. A quick note on Bandit - he's a small four year. He's very
skinny although he eats like a horse! He's normally very active but at
the moment the only time he moves is to eat or use the litter tray.
Except this afternoon he saw a butterfly and managed to jump six feet and
catch and eat it!!!

Thanks

Siobhán


My cat was definitely unwell after her last rabies shot last year. She
is supposed to get it every three years. When she gets her other shots,
she feels kind of puny for a day or so. MLB

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 00:28:30 +0100, "SK"
wrote:

Has anyone else any experience with a cat having a reaction to a
vaccination? It seems obvious to me his illness is a reaction to the
booster. A quick note on Bandit - he's a small four year. He's very skinny
although he eats like a horse! He's normally very active but at the moment
the only time he moves is to eat or use the litter tray. Except this
afternoon he saw a butterfly and managed to jump six feet and catch and eat
it!!!


My cat had a bad reaction to his distemper shot, given between the
shoulder blades. He developed open lesions, and it was pretty nasty.
No generalized symptoms of illness, however.

I did some lite research on this topic when that happened. The animal
vaccines industry is highly unregulated. It does not appear that
vaccines are systematically tested prior to being sold. Instead,
their safety is determined by adverse effect reports once they are in
the market.

However, most adverse effects never get reported, even if the result
is a dead cat. After all, no one keeps or requires systematic records
relating to animal health incidents or animal mortality. The
statistics thus make the vaccines look quite safe. The large number
of anecdotal reports strongly suggest otherwise. Not long ago there
was a heartbreaking story in this group about a lady who got two
bengal kittens who became ill after vaccination. One died, and I
believe the other was returned to the breeder, who could provide the
special care it required.

I think vets are guilty of accepting the statistics without
considering this fatal flaw in the statistical method. Also, they
don't want to admit that they did something to cause a pet to become
ill.

Charlie

Charlie Wilkes wrote:
However, most adverse effects never get reported, even if the result
is a dead cat. After all, no one keeps or requires systematic records
relating to animal health incidents or animal mortality. The
statistics thus make the vaccines look quite safe. The large number
of anecdotal reports strongly suggest otherwise. Not long ago there
was a heartbreaking story in this group about a lady who got two
bengal kittens who became ill after vaccination. One died, and I
believe the other was returned to the breeder, who could provide the
special care it required.

I think vets are guilty of accepting the statistics without
considering this fatal flaw in the statistical method. Also, they
don't want to admit that they did something to cause a pet to become
ill.

Charlie

It is my opinion that you are being a bit dramatic, Charlie.
I would love to see the material that you gathered this information from!

I work for a low cost spay/neuter & vaccination clinic, and we give virtually
100's of vaccinations a week. And we have not experienced ONE bad reaction --
certainly not resulting in death.

Of course -- some animals can simply be allergic. It takes at least 2x to
determine it to be an allergic reaction.
99.9% of animals who are allergic to vaccines will only show side effects on
the second dose.
And if that is the case -- simple drugs are administered before (or after --
if the customer does not notify that the animal is allergic -- which has
happened quite a few times!) the vaccine is given and all is well again.

That is of course, vaccines that we buy from specific companies that we trust
that go by specific state laws.

Not everyone may have the same things that we do.


Vaccines aren't all that bad ;-)

Last year, one of our cats became ill for a couple of days after
getting his shots (rabies, distemper and feline leuk?). This year, I'm
going to have them administer the shots one at a time--spaced over a
couple week period.

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:00:52 GMT, "Katie G via CatKB.com"
wrote:


Charlie Wilkes wrote:
However, most adverse effects never get reported, even if the result
is a dead cat. After all, no one keeps or requires systematic records
relating to animal health incidents or animal mortality. The
statistics thus make the vaccines look quite safe. The large number
of anecdotal reports strongly suggest otherwise. Not long ago there
was a heartbreaking story in this group about a lady who got two
bengal kittens who became ill after vaccination. One died, and I
believe the other was returned to the breeder, who could provide the
special care it required.

I think vets are guilty of accepting the statistics without
considering this fatal flaw in the statistical method. Also, they
don't want to admit that they did something to cause a pet to become
ill.

Charlie

It is my opinion that you are being a bit dramatic, Charlie.
I would love to see the material that you gathered this information from!

There's a lot out there. Here are a couple of links to get you
started:

http://www.blakkatz.com/vaccination.html
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/petvacc.htm

I work for a low cost spay/neuter & vaccination clinic, and we give virtually
100's of vaccinations a week. And we have not experienced ONE bad reaction --
certainly not resulting in death.

That seems unlikely. No one denies that that adverse reactions occur
at a rate of several per thousand for some feline vaccines.

What seems more likely is that you don't learn of adverse reactions.

Here is my cat a few days after his distemper shot:

http://www.geocities.com/wilkes_charlie/lesion.htm

The distemper shot is said to be among the least likely to cause an
adverse reaction. He lived as a barn cat before I found him, and
these were probably the first vaccinations of his life. The vet
thinks he is about six. He is an indoor cat now and I am through
vaccinating him.

Charlie

Charlie Wilkes wrote:
Here is my cat a few days after his distemper shot:

http://www.geocities.com/wilkes_charlie/lesion.htm

The distemper shot is said to be among the least likely to cause an
adverse reaction. He lived as a barn cat before I found him, and
these were probably the first vaccinations of his life. The vet
thinks he is about six. He is an indoor cat now and I am through
vaccinating him.

Charlie

That's pretty gruesome. I had heard that adjuvant-free vaccines given
on the legs were much safer than the neck which is where your cat got
its shot. I am thinking of the rabies vaccine which is really federally
mandatory. The adjuvant free is only good for a year but does not cause
the rare but deadly cancer problem. I don't know if adjuvant free
vaccines other than the rabies are available. It's been a while since
my cat has had shots just to be on the safe side. No need to overdo it.
But she will get another rabies shot. And since there are wild cats
nearby, I will need some more shots for her, but I'm taking it easy
with the shots. The adjuvant free vaccines are more expensive.

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 04:30:44 +0000, Charlie Wilkes wrote:

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:00:52 GMT, "Katie G via CatKB.com"
wrote:


Charlie Wilkes wrote:
However, most adverse effects never get reported, even if the result is
a dead cat. After all, no one keeps or requires systematic records
relating to animal health incidents or animal mortality. The statistics
thus make the vaccines look quite safe. The large number of anecdotal
reports strongly suggest otherwise. Not long ago there was a
heartbreaking story in this group about a lady who got two bengal
kittens who became ill after vaccination. One died, and I believe the
other was returned to the breeder, who could provide the special care it
required.

I think vets are guilty of accepting the statistics without considering
this fatal flaw in the statistical method. Also, they don't want to
admit that they did something to cause a pet to become ill.

Charlie

It is my opinion that you are being a bit dramatic, Charlie. I would love
to see the material that you gathered this information from!

There's a lot out there. Here are a couple of links to get you started:

http://www.blakkatz.com/vaccination.html
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/petvacc.htm

I work for a low cost spay/neuter & vaccination clinic, and we give
virtually 100's of vaccinations a week. And we have not experienced ONE
bad reaction -- certainly not resulting in death.

That seems unlikely. No one denies that that adverse reactions occur at a
rate of several per thousand for some feline vaccines.

What seems more likely is that you don't learn of adverse reactions.

Here is my cat a few days after his distemper shot:

http://www.geocities.com/wilkes_charlie/lesion.htm

The distemper shot is said to be among the least likely to cause an
adverse reaction. He lived as a barn cat before I found him, and these
were probably the first vaccinations of his life. The vet thinks he is
about six. He is an indoor cat now and I am through vaccinating him.

Charlie

That looks like more like a scratch infection. Almost like from barbed
wire. Any possibility? MLB

On 27 Jul 2005 21:48:25 -0700, "
wrote:

Charlie Wilkes wrote:
Here is my cat a few days after his distemper shot:

http://www.geocities.com/wilkes_charlie/lesion.htm

The distemper shot is said to be among the least likely to cause an
adverse reaction. He lived as a barn cat before I found him, and
these were probably the first vaccinations of his life. The vet
thinks he is about six. He is an indoor cat now and I am through
vaccinating him.

Charlie

That's pretty gruesome. I had heard that adjuvant-free vaccines given
on the legs were much safer than the neck which is where your cat got
its shot. I am thinking of the rabies vaccine which is really federally
mandatory. The adjuvant free is only good for a year but does not cause
the rare but deadly cancer problem. I don't know if adjuvant free
vaccines other than the rabies are available. It's been a while since
my cat has had shots just to be on the safe side. No need to overdo it.
But she will get another rabies shot. And since there are wild cats
nearby, I will need some more shots for her, but I'm taking it easy
with the shots. The adjuvant free vaccines are more expensive.

Yes. That is because the biological component of the vaccine is more
expensive. Producers maximize the use of cheap adjuvants to minimize
the required dose of biological material.

My cat is not going to be exposed to any infectious diseases unless I
introduce another cat to the household, in which case I will have to
plan accordingly. I am not willing to expose him further to the risk
of virus/adjuvant mixtures backed by about as much clinical data as
19th Century patent medicines.

Charlie

Charlie