If my cat is vaccinated, is it safe to be around other animals that are not vaccinated?

Yes, that's the purpose of vaccines—so cats can be exposed and have no risk. Even if your cat had a tussle with a raccoon or something, and that raccoon had rabies, if your cat is vaccinated, they will be able to mount an immune response and not get rabies. So that’s why it’s essential to keep up on it.

No vaccine is one hundred percent guaranteed. And so, I would always recommend that you limit contact to hanging with pets that you know are healthy and are protected in all ways, whether that's with vaccinations or good heartworm and flea and tick prevention. We want to minimize the risk to our pets to keep them as healthy as possible for as long as possible. So, I would do that in their associates and playdates as well.

That's a great question. With core vaccines like rabies and the FVRCP, if your cat is vaccinated, the protection there will be excellent. So the answer to that is yes. The leukemia vaccine is also highly effective, but ideally, the information you would need would be the other cat’s status. If you have another cat that you're bringing into the house, they must have a leukemia and feline AIDS test done before understand if they are positive because that will potentially put your cat at risk. With that said, the leukemia vaccine is very effective, so most of the time, we are pretty comfortable with that. Still, it’s vital to understand the status so that you can help control environmental exposure.

I'd say yes and no. For the most part, the vaccines are very effective, and probably if your animal was around an unvaccinated and even sick other cat, chances are they would be okay. But vaccines aren't 100%. Not everyone’s immunity is not the same. So I'd say, why take that risk? Ideally, I would just have your cat associate with other vaccinated cats when appropriate, if possible.

If you have a young kitten going through their booster series, they may not be fully protected yet. It is not advisable to have them around adult cats with active diseases or upper respiratory infections until the kitten is completely immunized. Typically, a kitten is considered protected two weeks after their final booster and can be around other cats. Adult cats that receive vaccinations are generally just boostering their protection and can be around other cats. However, when in doubt, keep them separated.