Vaccination
Why Should My Pet be Vaccinated and How Does the Vaccination Work?
Vaccinations are given to our pets to prevent them contracting well known and feared infections with various viruses and bacteria that may otherwise prove fatal.
Prevention is better than cure!!!
Vaccination is the way we stimulate an animals' immune system to become resistant, or immune, to particular infections. A vaccination consists of part of a modified or killed virus or bacterium.
It is prepared in such a way that the body's defences recognise it as a threat and react as if it were a real infection by producing antibodies.
This process takes time though so the purpose of vaccination is to prepare the immune system so that if ever exposed to the real infection the antibodies are already on hand to start fighting the infection straight away.
The body needs to be reminded of its enemies from time to time as antibody levels decrease over time so to keep these levels up to a level that will prevent infection we booster this immunity with a booster vaccination.
Diseases That We Commonly Vaccinate Against
Cat Flu
Runny eyes, sneezing, anorexia, eye ulcers, mouth ulcers, loosing weight and ill-thrift are some of the signs we associate with cat flu. Cat flu can cause loss of an eye if an ulcer causes perforation of the cornea or sometimes death as young animals will often become debilitated and dehydrated.
Feline Enteritis
A viral disease that causes a horrible debilitating diarrhoea and immune system depression can often cause death in young animals.
Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLv)
A viral disease that is spread through mating, biting/fighting and even sharing food bowls. This disease causes depression of the immune system in young-middle aged cats. It is considered to be a 'young cats' AIDS' as the virus allows the cats immune defences to be lowered and allow opportunistic infections to occur when a normal healthy animal would fight them off. It is also associated with intestinal tumours. This will eventually lead to the demise and death of the cat involved. Once infected a cat is a threat to all its local cohorts.
We cannot yet vaccinate against Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) - the cat version of HIV. This is a disease spread by mating, biting/fighting and sharing food bowls.
We strongly recommend neutering your cat as this reduces the chances of being infected with Felv and FIV greatly as there is no mating post neutering and biting/fighting is greatly reduced.
Further Information on Vaccinating Your Cat
Please contact us for advice on vaccinations and a health certificate for your pet.