Does my kitten need vaccinations even if I keep them inside?

This is a question we get often. And my answer to that is, as a kitten, if they're strictly indoors and they have zero contact from other cats outside, and when I mean zero contact, you don't leave the windows open with a screen, you don't have a screen door where they can go up and maybe another kitten can come out and sneeze and get some respiratory aerosols into their eyes or face, or hiss. They don't go outside to the backyard and back in—they're strictly indoors. Then what we do recommend is get them caught up on their kitten vaccinations, we get them their annual vaccinations, and then we can hold off. If they have any possibility of going outside, regular vaccinations at least annually should be required.

Absolutely. First of all, rabies is required by law, so you have to have that one. Feline leukemia is important because once in a while a cat could get out, even though your intention was for them to be inside. And the feline distemper combination, that's upper respiratory, so that can be carried in actually on other clothes. You may have another cat, someone may bring a cat over, you may go over to someone else's house who has a cat who's sneezing. So even though you have an indoor cat, you definitely want to keep your cat up to date on vaccines. Plus sometimes they get groomed or you have to board them, and then they are around other cats that you weren't thinking about originally.

Yes, we recommend core vaccines for your kitten because... I'll just tell you a personal story. My cats are indoor cats. My son left his door open, and a bat flew in, and my cat killed the bat. I think about 15% of bats in California carry rabies—maybe even higher than that. If my cat had not been vaccinated for rabies, we would have a potentially challenging situation on our hands. And cats get out all the time. We want them protected with the FVRCP and leukemia.

I recommend it, even if they're indoor only. If you ever bring another cat into your home in the future, or if they were to get outside, or your situation were to change down the road, we want to make sure that we set their immune system up right. I recommend that all kittens get those core vaccines.

Absolutely. Rabies is required by law. Here's the problem. Suppose somebody comes into your house and your cat has never been vaccinated for rabies, and let's say they accidentally stepped on its tail, or they were in a rocking chair and rocked over his tail, and it turned around and bit them. If it's not been vaccinated for rabies, you are legally responsible for making sure that the cat is impounded, at your expense, for ten days through animal control because your cat's not been vaccinated. So again, it is that serious. I'm sure the cat's not showing any signs or symptoms of rabies, but it's just the law, and it's to protect us more than to protect your cat. It's really to protect us because we can get rabies from rabbit animals, dogs and cats included, and it is a life-threatening and deadly disease. If you get rabies, you're going to die.

The other consideration would be the feline distemper vaccine. Even if your cat never goes outside, unfortunately, we can bring in the feline distemper and give it to a cat. The feline distemper virus is very similar to parvovirus in puppies. Parvo is a highly contagious, life-threatening disease if you're not familiar with parvovirus. It's really an ugly death for puppies. That virus is very similar to distemper in cats. Unfortunately, if somebody goes to a dog park and picks up the parvovirus from other dogs on the sole of their shoe and comes back home and goes into a house, they can potentially expose their own cat, and it can be a life-threatening disease. I highly highly recommend every cat, indoor or not, to get the rabies vaccine, as required by law, and also the feline distemper vaccine.

Yes. I still recommend vaccines, and I even give my own cats vaccines yearly, even though they are indoor cats. They could still be exposed to different viruses and diseases. Again, rabies is required by law, so that's also recommended for indoor cats.