Animal Welfare Professionals

My local shelter vaccinates every cat at Intake. I have been doing the same with the trapped kittens I take into foster care. Now I just talked to a cat rescuer in Europe, and she was shocked about that practice. She said, if cats carry the FP virus, vaccination would make them sick. Over there, they place cats in quarantine, and only after a week of no signs of illness they vaccinate. Experts, please educate me.

Any animal 4 weeks of age or older should be vaccinated on intake. This includes cats with URI symptoms as well (see attached guideline). It is safer for the cat and for the other animals in your shelter that everyone be vaccinated and boostered in 2 weeks (kittens should be vaccinated every two weeks until they are 20 weeks - but ideally should not remain in your shelter for that time). Keeping cats out of the shelter is number one, and if they do enter the shelter getting them out to their live outcome opportunity or foster home as quickly as possible is in their best interest.

Attached are some easy references from the ASPCA as to who should be vaccinated and how often.

Attachment(s)

Vaccination Recommendations for Shelter Cats_ASPCA.pdf   83 KB 1 version

Vaccination Decision Table_ASPCA.pdf   90 KB 1 version