Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi everyone.  We will be in our second year of TNR starting in May.  Our plan is to follow up with year one colonies, do an inventory with colony caretakers and if any new cats or kittens are identified we will spay or neuter them. My question is how is everyone following up with the rabies vaccines for the cats from year one.  Are we supposed to retrap everyone and vaccinate again? Please advise with best colony caretaker practices.  Thank you.

#CommunityCatManagement

------------------------------
Jennifer Herne, LVT
Akwesasne Animal Society
------------------------------

In my experience (working for orgs with TNR since 2018), no one really has a blanket policy to re-trap cats with the intent just to vaccinate for Rabies. I personally do not follow up with Rabies vaccine for outdoor cats, unless they have a caretaker who really wants to and can help trap the cat(s). A cat who has already been trapped is (typically) a LOT harder to get in a trap again.

Luckily, a lot of recent studies on titer testings (blood testing for antibodies from vaccines) seem to show that Rabies vaccines are usually in their blood a lot longer than 1 year, anyways!

------------------------------
Erin Dams
Community Relations Coordinator
Roanoke Valley SPCA
Roanoke VA
------------------------------