When we vaccinate your kitten, we are doing a complete physical exam. We're making sure to the best of our ability that that kitten is healthy. And again, vaccines ... we're asking the body to respond to that. And so if you vaccinate a kitten that is not well or that is sick, then their immune system is fighting off that sickness. And so when you give a vaccine, it can't mount a proper immune response. We're checking the kitten’s temperature. We are doing a full physical exam to ensure that they're healthy enough to take that vaccine.

Great question. In an ideal world, your kitten wouldn't be exposed to other cats until they're fully vaccinated, which would be two weeks after their last set of shots here. That would be around four and a half to five months old. Now, can they go outside and be monitored? Sure. But they're going to be at higher risk until they're fully vaccinated.

If your kitten misses a vaccine, then let's just catch back up where you are. It is vital to get boosters on a specific timeline and a particular schedule because that's how the vaccines are labeled and recommended to give. But if you do miss that, then we're just going to boost that immune system right where your kitten starts back.

Yes. Great question. I'll just start by saying that when we give a vaccine to a kitten, we ask the kitten’s immune system to respond to that vaccine and mount a response so that if they're ever exposed to that disease, they can fight it off. That being said, some are over-reactors, and the immune system may overreact. That would be one of those side effects that are not common but can be seen. And then the lesser side effects would be just injection site soreness or tenderness. They might be a little lethargic. You can think about how you feel if you run a fever. You just don't feel well. You feel a little crummy. Sometimes that can happen for a day or two after their vaccines.

Every three weeks until they're around four months old.

The non-core vaccines are more what we would call a lifestyle vaccine. Some might say the Leukemia vaccine is a non-core vaccine, but kittens are the most susceptible. If they're going to be strictly indoors and they're never going to see another cat, then that wouldn't be something we would continue to recommend for your kitten as they get older. There are other vaccines that, depending on their risk, we might recommend depending on your situation. Bordetella is a respiratory vaccine that we do consider. We recommend it for all cats because we feel like it keeps them safe and they get fewer respiratory diseases, but it is not a core vaccine.

The core vaccines are vaccines that are required for all cats, no matter what their lifestyle is. And so for our kittens, the core vaccines would be what we call our FVRCP, which is initials for the feline upper respiratory or respiratory diseases. Panleukopenia. Calicivirus. And rabies, of course, is another core vaccine.

We recommend that all kittens receive the Leukemia vaccine because kittens are the most susceptible to that virus. It's highly contagious from cat to cat. If they start out as being an indoor kitty, like we just said, some cats aren't happy doing that. You might find that later either your lifestyle changes or their lifestyle changes, and they go outside, so we want to make sure that they are the most protected they can be.

Some will have different answers to that question. I believe that they can be safely outside, but of course, there's more risk outside—you can't argue that point. But I believe that if they want to be outside, they can be happy and healthy. And, of course, there are certain preventative measures and vaccines that we can recommend to help keep them healthy.

Some of our kitties that we try to make indoors aren't happy inside. We can see here, especially when we see many behavioral issues that are just as important as medical issues, and behavioral issues turn into medical issues because of that stress on the body. And so if they're happy inside and they have enough environmental enrichment, then perfect. But if they like to be outdoors and have that indoor/outdoor life, I think sometimes it's kind of that happy medium or best life for them.

We generally recommend that around five to six months old for our females. Most people want to spay them before they have their heat cycles because that can be somewhat annoying to go through. And then for our males, if they are indoors, they can tend to mark their territory or spray. And so that's a big thing that we want to help prevent that behavior with neutering.