HI Kristen -
I don't mind at all!
We implemented Nasal vaccines in our bottle baby nurseries at a few shelters in AZ a few years ago, starting at about 2 weeks and continuing every 2 weeks until we begin their official parenteral kitten series at 6 weeks. We initially did this to prevent panleuk after we lost our entire nursery a few times. It worked so well and we also saw a huge decrease in URI incidence. We began giving every cat a nasal on intake last year and have noticed a significant increase in the continued/sustained health and a decrease in length of stay. Generally our intake vaccine is nasal, boosters are parenteral. I am a huge fan! We are all foster based so they come to a medical intake appointment initially and then come back every 3-4 weeks for vaccines. Our neonate fosters have extra nasal vaccines on hand to give them every 2 weeks.
RE: Doxycycline - for chronic we do at least 3 weeks if signs of bacterial component and continue 1 week past cessation of symptoms. I've had a few that responded pretty quickly and have had a few others that I did 4-5 weeks on. One of my long time fosters got 5 weeks and has never relapsed. She had some nasal turbinate damage so still has loud nasal sounds but no discharge. She received the treatment 2 years into her chronic status and that was two years ago. We had tried everything else but had not tried long duration.
I absolutely agree! I am a fan girl myself! I go to all of his lectures! I used to read his papers and Dr Pedersens when I was a kid! I appreciate their contributions to cat medicine so much!
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Samantha Brown
President/Founder
Living the Dream Rescue
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-24-2023 08:11 AM
From: Kirsten Cianci
Subject: Intranasal Vaccinations to kittens?
Hi Samantha:
That is really interesting information. I hope you don't mind a few more questions!
*Intranasal vaccine at intake: any specific age? Or all kittens' first vaccine regardless? We have a lot of kittens that go out into foster. In that case, would you use the parenteral vaccine first, and then the intranasal when they come back to the shelter to stay?
*Doxycycline - at the first sign of a bacterial component to URI? That tends to be our first-line antibiotic when we get to that point, and I'm wondering if we're just stopping meds too soon. Did Dr. Lappin recommend a specific duration of therapy that then seemed to make a difference long-term? And doxy for your long-term URI cats - again, how long did you treat?
*P.S. Full disclosure: When I was in private practice, I used to stalk Dr. Lappin lectures every chance I got! :)
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Kirsten Cianci
Palmetto Animal League
Ridgeland, SC 29936
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-24-2023 07:54 AM
From: Samantha Brown
Subject: Intranasal Vaccinations to kittens?
Hi Kristen -
I talked to Dr Lappin about this research at Western States a couple years ago. I have tried it in rescue and have seen less than 50% of chronic URI resolve, mostly in kittens to be honest. It has worked better in cats affected for less time. However, our long time chronic URI did not resolve and inflammation associated with dental disease/stomatitis did not improve. We found the greatest improvement with preventing the chronic status from occuring by using nasal vaccines at intake. During that conversation he also talked about using doxycycline in these cats and I have found that to be most helpful in the long time chronic URI cats. Hope that helps!
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Samantha Brown
President/Founder
Living the Dream Rescue
Original Message:
Sent: 03-24-2023 06:50 AM
From: Kirsten Cianci
Subject: Intranasal Vaccinations to kittens?
Hi Ronnie!
I'm now following your thread because I actually have a different slant on your question: we've been thinking about shelter use of the intranasal vaccine as a treatment for those with "chronic" URI - those that seem to keep relapsing, or have had symptoms for 3 weeks. That vaccine would just be the FVRC, without the panleukopenia portion.
So I'm also wondering how many people have used the intranasal vaccine, and what kind of results they did or did not see!
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26269455/
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Kirsten Cianci
Palmetto Animal League
Ridgeland, SC 29936
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