Kitten Vaccine Schedule: What You Need To Know

When to vaccinate a kitten the first time?

Because you want to have a healthy cat throughout its life, you are strongly advised to protect it against serious diseases by vaccinating it. To be effective, vaccines must be given at a specific time in the kitten's life, and be renewed at given frequencies.

This article below presents everything you need to do to effectively vaccinate your little hairball.

Everything happens on the first visit to the vet!

Once your baby feline arrives home, one of the first and most important things to do is check his health, and administer treatment as a cure (if he is sick) or as a preventive measure. (to protect it from possible diseases).

Basically, a visit to the vet is essential as soon as your kitten arrives, as soon as possible.

Indeed, during the first visit to the veterinarian, a health check of your little animal is established. If diseases are diagnosed (for example affection by parasitic worms, fleas, ticks,…) a treatment will be prescribed to put your hairball back on its feet. Also note that the first visit is also an opportunity to make sure that your kitten does not suffer from any serious illness, considered as a crippling vice.

Finally, if your kitten is old enough to be vaccinated, the first visit to the vet is also an opportunity to have this protectivetreatment administered and preventiveto baby kitty.

The primary kitten vaccination

Although it is not compulsory in France, the vaccination of your cat is strongly recommended to you, in order to protect it from various serious diseases. It must be done as soon as possible, whether your cat is destined to remain a house cat or a cat living in the great outdoors.

So, when to vaccinate kitty for the first time?

You must vaccinate your kitten as soon as possible. But, in the first weeks of life, the kitten has a still immature immune system and has maternal antibodies that could render a vaccine ineffective.

Thus, the primary vaccination of the cat must take place from the age of 8 weeks for diseases such as coryza, typhus and leucosis. On the other hand, for rabies, it is necessary to wait until it is at least 12 weeks old.

Diseases against which you must vaccinate your little feline

Being very contagious, coryza and typhus are the 2 main diseases against which you must vaccinate your cat. In addition, depending on your cat's lifestyle, if for example he lives in a house with a garden where he is used to going out and is likely to be around other animals, you will also need to vaccinate him against leukosis.

Finally, if you will often have to leave French territory with your little animal, a rabies vaccine will be required.

Do not forget throughout the life of your little feline to make the reminders of vaccines!

When your kitten is vaccinated for the first time, you will be given a notebook in which all the animal's next vaccines will be recorded. You will also be given an immunization schedule, showing you the vaccine recall dates.

Regarding the vaccine booster shots, all you need to remember is that 3 to 5 weeks after the primary vaccination, a booster shot will be necessary. After this 2nd vaccination, all vaccine booster shots will now be carried out every year, a health cost to be taken into account.