I am considering getting a Maine Coon kitten. I had thought I wanted one right at twelve weeks, but have found two that are 16 weeks old. I am considering taking one home, but am wondering about vaccination recommendations. They have both had the FeLV & FIP shots. I have seen several things that recommend they NOT have the FeLV & FIP vaccinations. I am now confused if these shots are really beneficial - especially the FIP (a friend of mine had a cat get sick after receiving this). If the shots are not recommended, should I be concerned that they have had these shots put into their system?

T

-- Anonymous, February 21, 1999

Answers

I would recommend against getting the kittens. I am definately against the vaccination of FIP. There still is no proof that they do any good. As a matter of fact, cats that had been vaccinated and were exposed to FIP, all died. Out of the study group that was not vaccinated 80% died. And furthermore, a healthy cat will not get FIP when exposed. If the immune system is working properly, they will not get the disease. I have had the bad luck of having a cat die of FIP at the age of 14 months. I found out later that both his parents had been vaccinated for FIP. If I had known, I would not have bought him. At the time, we had a litter of 6 week old kittens. We had 3 breeder cats and 2 pets. None of the other cats ever showed any signs or got sick and they were all living together, so there is no doubt as to their exposure to it. We closed the cattery for 6 months and had complete bloodtests done on all the cats. They were all fine. And this is over 2 years ago and all the cats are still doing fine.

The FeLV shot, I will not give them to my kittens because it takes a big toll on the system. My kitten buyers are welcome to have their kittens vaccinated when they are at an older age, but still, never together with a booster vaccine. A cat is very susseptible to stress and it weakens the immune system. So when it has to handle stress and a lot of vaccines at the same time, I believe (and so does my vet) it can have nasty consequences on their system. A vaccine is a nice thing, but please be aware of over vaccination.

Please talk to your vet, or better yet, talk to multiple vets and try to find out their opinion. If you want to, I can look up the study on the FIP test. I think it is even on the internet somewhere. I can't really remember. All this stuff was sent to me 2 years ago.

It may well be that these kittens will be fine, but having this many shots at such a young age takes a big toll on their immune system.

Sincerely,

Anita Wray

-- Anonymous, May 20, 1999