Usually, the vaccines are safe, but with anything in life, nothing is 100%. Sometimes we do see decreased appetite or lethargy for about 24 hours. On very rare occasions, we see more severe vaccine reactions that need treatments. However, 99% of the time, it's just a little bit of lethargy. Sometimes the injection site hurts a little bit for 24 hours, but that's really it.

Yes. We do want to vaccinate them for basic protection against any viruses that we have vaccines for. Also, kittens and cats can sometimes escape outdoors, where they may come in contact with other cats. We want to make sure that they're protected. So we do recommend boosting those vaccines, even through adulthood. Additionally, if they ever go to boarding facilities or a groomer, they will need those vaccines to be protected.

Usually, we start at eight weeks of age. We don't want to start before six weeks because the kittens may still have some protection from maternal antibodies. At eight weeks of age, we usually start with the FVRCP vaccine, and they usually get three to four of those throughout their kittenhood. With feline leukemia, we start a little bit later and they get two doses of those. But as I said, we usually don't start before eight weeks of age.

For kittens, the core vaccines are FVRCP, which contains some upper respiratory viruses and also an intestinal virus. We also consider feline leukemia a core vaccine in kittens because we want them protected, and they should get at least two of those vaccines, regardless of whether they're going to be indoor cats or outdoor cats in the future. With adult cats, if they're indoor only and we start seeing them as adults and we don't have a vaccine history, we usually skip that vaccine, but we want our kittens to be protected. Another core vaccine is rabies, which is required by law in most of the states in the U.S. and is one of the most important vaccines we can give.

Let them set their own activity level. However, it's safer to keep them indoors as predators could pick them off as they get slower with progressing pregnancy. They will usually set their own activity level.

Transitioning your cat to kitten food one to two weeks before they start giving birth is a good idea. However, do it slowly to avoid causing stomach upset.

Let her do her thing. Cats are wonderful mothers and will usually do what they need to do. Your job is to make sure everything goes according to plan and to recognize if there's a problem. Watching live birth videos on cats and dogs may help you understand what to expect and what's normal.

I recommend one exam to confirm pregnancy and get an estimate on the number of kittens to expect. It's also helpful to discuss what to expect during the birthing process as it can be messy. If your cat has been pushing for over an hour and nothing is happening, it's necessary to get her to a veterinarian, regardless of the time.