6-8 Weeks
10-12 Weeks
14-16 Weeks
16 Months
Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis Calicivirus (FVRCP)
Every 1 to 3 thereafter pending of risk level
Feline Leukemia
Annual if outdoors activity
Rabies
Every 3 years if living in Utah. Each state may have different requirements.
Deworming
Every 6 Months
Feline Leukemia/FIV Testing
6-8 Weeks
- Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis Calicivirus (FVRCP)
- Deworming
- Feline Leukemia/FIV Testing
10-12 Weeks
- Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis Calicivirus (FVRCP)
- Feline Leukemia
- Deworming
14-16 Weeks
- Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis Calicivirus (FVRCP)
- Feline Leukemia
- Rabies
- Deworming
16 Months
- Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis Calicivirus (FVRCP): Every 1 to 3 thereafter pending of risk level
- Feline Leukemia: Annual if outdoors activity
- Rabies: Every 3 years if living in Utah. Each state may have different requirements.
- Deworming: Every 6 Months
Remember The Magic Date: 14 Weeks!
Kitten vaccines are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to stimulate your pet’s immune system to produce antibodies (the “good guys”) to fight the viral antigens (the “bad guys”) like herpes and other viruses.
Timing is KEY to these early vaccines and here is why:
- New mothers naturally produce colostrum (the mother’s first milk), and as long as she was properly vaccinated, her kittens will receive “maternal antibodies” by means of this colostrum.
- For up to 14 weeks, these maternal antibodies serve to protect the kittens. After this, the antibodies start to lessen and the kitten’s own immune system will begin responding to infections.
Because of this, we recommend vaccinating kittens at:
- 8 weeks, 11 weeks and 14 weeks of age to ensure adequate protection and immune system development.
What if your kitten is older than 14 weeks and has not received any vaccines yet?
- If your cat is older than 16 weeks of age, we recommend 2 FVRCP and Feline Leukemia vaccines 3-4 weeks apart to provide adequate protection.
What about vaccines after the kitten shots?
- Your cat will need a 1-year booster of the FVRCP at 1-1 ½ years of age depending on when the last kitten vaccine was administered. This is to ensure that your pet has an appropriate immune response when exposed to these infections. After the booster, your pet will then be placed on a 3 year protocol.
What about other vaccines?
Rabies must be given to your pet at 14-16 weeks of age, and then administered as a Rabies booster at 1-1 ½ years of age (for the same reasons as listed above for the FVRCP).
After this booster, your pet will then be placed on a 3 year protocol. However, if you do not get the 1-year booster during the appropriate time interval or go beyond the 3-year interval, by law, we must start over with a 1 year protocol for your pet’s Rabies vaccine.
Rabies is REQUIRED BY LAW. Unless your pet is sick or has extenuating circumstances, every pet must be vaccinated for Rabies at our clinic.
Puppies and kittens are more likely to be infected with intestinal parasites, which in turn can be passed to humans.
We strongly recommend deworming since 3 weeks of age and continue treatment every 2-3 weeks until 12 weeks when your pet will start taking a monthly deworming medication.
Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is contagious among cats. Unlike many other viruses that enter specific cells in the body and destroy them, FeLV enters certain cells in a cat’s body and changes the cells’ genetic characteristics. This permits FeLV to continue reproducing within the cat each time infected cells divide. This allows FeLV to become dormant (inactive) in some cats, making disease transmission and prognosis (outlook) difficult to predict.
Like FeLV, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is also contagious among cats, and a cat can be infected with FIV for many years without showing any clinical signs of illness. Although FIV is not contagious to humans, FIV has some similarities to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and has been used to help researchers better understand HIV.
We recommend testing as soon as possible. The test is performed during your visit, it only takes 3 drops of blood and the results are ready in 10 minutes.
