QUESTION

My cat is about 11 years old. When we take him to have his booster for cat flu and enteritis, he takes really badly with it and is not himself for days afterwards. My question - is it vital that he has these boosters especially considering that he doesn't have a great deal of contact with other cats and never stays in a cattery? Is the stress of having the vaccination worse than the jab itself? Alan

ANSWER

Dear Alan
There is currently a lot of discussion regarding booster vaccination in both cats and dogs. It is likely that, in the past, some pets were boostered more than was strictly necessary. Intervet, one of the leading vaccine manufacturers, now advise revaccination of cats according to their lifestyle. Consequently as far as you're cat is concerned, taking in account age and lack of contact (including never boarding of course) it is probably not necessary to boost protection annually.

Andrew Geldard