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Here at Mill Road Vet Clinic we aim to provide the best treatment possible for your beloved pets. Over the last few months we have been working on a revised cat vaccination protocol to bring us in line with the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) vaccination recommendations, and the New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) vaccination recommendations.
Currently, we are recommending vaccination for Feline Panleukopenia Virus (FPV), Feline Calicivirus (FCV) and Feline Herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1) every 3 years (with Felocell-3 vaccination), along with a yearly health check. The immunity to FPV is very long-lasting – at least 3 years. Several studies have confirmed that the immunity to FCV and FHV-1 is less robust and is only partial.
Both the 2015 WSAVA vaccination recommendations and the 2017 NZVA vaccination recommendations now recommend in addition to 3-yearly Felocell-3 vaccinations, that annually on the alternative years, “high risk” cats are vaccinated with a vaccine containing just the cat flu viruses (FCV and FHV-1). The vaccination we will be using is called Ducat. A high risk cat may be defined as an animal that regularly visits a boarding cattery, a cat that lives in a multicat household, or a cat that lives in an indoor-outdoor household. Most cats in New Zealand are classified as high risk as almost all of them are allowed access to the outdoors.
We have written the following example, and included a table to help to simplify the information:
- If a cat was given a Felocell-3 vaccination at 3 years of age, they will not receive another until 6 years of age.
- But they will receive Ducat (for cat flu viruses) at 4 and 5 years of age.
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3 years of age
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Felocell-3
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4 years of age
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Ducat
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5 years of age
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Ducat
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6 years of age
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Felocell-3
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7 years of age
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Ducat
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And so on ….
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We will be recommending this protocol for all high risk cats from now on. We have had communication from at least two boarding catteries in Whangarei that they are now requesting yearly cat flu vaccinations, so this will also ensure that there will be no shock rejections from the catteries for inadequate vaccinations!
Please do not hesitate to call us if you have any concerns/questions. Alternatively, you are able to access the WSAVA vaccination guidelines at www.wsava.org. Click on “guidelines”, then “vaccination guidelines”, and if you scroll down, this should bring you to a link to WSAVA Vaccination Guidelines 2015. You can also access the 2017 NZVA vaccination guidelines at www.nzva.org.nz. Scroll over “for the public” in the top menu bar, then click on “our policies”. Click on “companion animal health and welfare”, then “Vaccine use in NZ cats and dogs”.
Kind Regards
The Team at Mill Road Vet Clinic
09 437 1101
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