Cat Vaccinations

Cat Vaccinations can kill. Obviously they are for the benefit of the cat (often a kitten) as they protect the cat from harmful infection. But a quick look at how they work informs us as to why a vaccination can have the opposite effect.

Another word for vaccination is immunization. Vaccination works by priming the body's immune system and making it more effective. This is done by injecting the disease for which immunization is sought into the body. That sounds crazy but if the injected pathogen (bacteria or viruses) is live but weakened or dead then they do not make you get the disease but simply trigger your immune system to make it more ready and able to deal with the infection should it come along.

Sometimes however a negative reaction can take place. This after all should not surprise us as kittens are quite fragile and we are injecting them with a virus!

I don't know of the numbers of cat vaccinations gone wrong but they are probably low but significant enough to take note of. Cats can get cancer from vaccines or simply catch the disease from the vaccine. Vaccines can induce life long health problems and kill. These are not that uncommon. A lot of discussion has taken place as to where to inject the vaccination to minimize cancer in the area or minimize the danger from vaccine induced cancer. I am using the word "can" here as clearly most often the benefits of cat vaccinations far outway the detriments.

Why are cat vaccinations routinely given then? Vets recommend a yearly booster. Well if I was being a bit cynical, I'd say a factor was money, the pharmaceutical companies and bread and butter income for the veterinarian surgeries . Vets make a lot of their income from vaccinations and they are in business. When you mix health with the need for profit you don't always get the the right answers.

Most cat keepers follow the vets advice as they don't know better - fair enough. The next time your at the vets ask him/her how many bad reactions cats have to vaccinations. I'd also stay around the vets surgery after a vaccination to make sure all is well. If not you can go back quickly.

In my opinion an older cat doesn't need boosters if she has had vaccinations for many years.

Here is some more on cat vaccination recommendations.

Source:

1. Wiki (on vaccinations)
2. Breeders (on negative effects)
3. Myself from general knowledge
   

From Cat Vaccinations to vaccination recommendations

Lynx Point Siamese Cats

Lynx Point Siamese Cats - photo jade-rabbit

In the cat world you will find a wide range of appearances of any one type or breed of cat. In the example of the Lynx Point Siamese Cats the range will be particularly wide because there is more than one type of marking called "Lynx Point" and more than one type of cat called a "Siamese Cat".

There are officially 2 types of Siamese Cat (and a spectrum in between). One the one hand you have the Traditional Siamese, now called a Thai by The International Cat Association (TICA), the only American association as far as I am aware to register what is the original Siamese cat. Siamese cat history is interesting for its development to the Modern Siamese (or contemporary Siamese). The modern is skinny with a pointed head and the Traditional has a look that we expect to see in a cat (more rounded and normal). In between we have the classic look.

The cat above is traditional in conformation and very handsome. As for the pointing you can see more photos on pointing generally by clicking on this link. There are at least two different types of Lynx pointing (a) seal lynx pointing which is the classic seal point broken up by the tabby gene. You can immediately see the lynx point because of the classic "M" marking on the forehead and (b) blue lynx pointing, which is a dilute form of the lynx. When black is diluted by a modifier gene it becomes blue. The tabby markings become more dilute as a result and a little blue. The pointing is obviously softer.

The cat above has the lynx markings, totally undiluted. I suspect that he/she is not one of the classic purebred Lynx Point Siamese Cats (wrong? - please tell me) but a fine cat nonetheless. As I said at the beginning there is a wide a range of cats that do not fit the breed standards and wouldn't win prizes but are great cats.

Photo copyright Helmi Flick

Above: This cat is not a Siamese (guess that is obvious) but is shown here to illustrate the Seal Lynx point pattern. You can see the same marking on the legs and face as the cat heading this post. The body color though is more inline with the breed standard I suspect.


Lynx Point Siamese Cats to Home Page

Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in Bengal cats

Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in Bengal cats in something that has only now (somewhat late in the day) come to my notice. I have just seen an article on Tufts website referring to the Sept. 2007 conference. This posting is not a "knock the Bengal Cat" post. I love all cats. The natural instinct for breeders and those involved in the cat fancy is to be quiet about problems. This is natural to protect business.

The problem of HCM in Bengal cats would seem to have been dealt with quietly. Breeders realize, though, that it is for the best in the long term to discuss the difficult subjects, openly. They do in fact discuss breeding issues on forums such as Yahoo Groups. It is essential to do so for the welfare of the cats. It is not compatible with good cat breeding (an ethical approach to breeding) to knowingly or recklessly breed cats that might have an inherited disorder that shortens the life of the cat and has a negative impact on their welfare and/or the breed generally.

It is with surprise and sadness that I have discovered that the Bengal cat breed suffers from two heritable disorders. I have made posts on the first disorder, HCM. Read this for basic information on HCM and this for HCM and the Bengal Cat. PRA also affects Abyssinian cats.

The other is what Tufts calls is a "novel" version of this disease. As I understand it "novel" means distinct or unique to the Bengal Cat as this disease affects other cat breeds. This disease is caused by gene mutation. Different genes in the Bengal cat have mutated to those in the Persian cat, which has a version that starts early in the cat's life and the Abyssinian has a version that is "late onset".

Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in Bengal cats is mid term so it starts neither early or later in the life of the cat. The Tufts speaker said that in at least 10 Bengal cats the mutated gene can be traced back to a common ancestor 3-6 generations earlier.

I presume that there is ongoing work on this. I have not heard of Bengal Cat breeders talk of this disorder except once. Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in Bengal cats causes the cat to go blind I understand. Ask about this when adopting a Bengal cat (or indeed a Persian or Abyssinian).

Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in Bengal cats to Bengal cats


Retinal Atrophy
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is a group of genetic diseases seen in certain breeds of dogs and, more rarely, cats. It is characterized by the bilateral degeneration of the retina, causing progressive vision loss culminating in blindness. The condition in nearly all breeds is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait (the section in grey is a Wikipedia® verbatim copy of a part of a larger article)

There have been 2 studies (there may have been more subsequently). One took place in Sweden, the other England. The Swedish cats inherited the disease through an autosomal recessive gene the English cats a autosomal dominant gene.

The English type has been classified as rod-cone dysplasia. This type of PRA has an early onset of severe vision loss. It is caused by a defect in the gene for cGMP-phosphodiesterase, which leads to retinal levels of cyclic guanosine monophosphate ten times normal (the section in grey is a Wikipedia® verbatim copy of a part of a larger article)

The Swedish PRA disease can progress slowly allowing the cat to adjust and masking the condition as cats do so well in using other senses (see blind cat and blind cat dignity). The disease caused severe vision loss.

Cat breeds affected: Abyssinian, Bengal


Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in Bengal cats - Wikipedia
Click on this link to see the Wikipedia® License src: Wikipedia® published under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version, November 2002 Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA - - no other conditions to the license are added.

Maryland cat rescue

Feral cats (not in Maryland!)- photo copyright ~Sage~ reproduced under a Creative Commons license - thanks.

Maryland cat rescue is fairly active it seems -well done Maryland people.

Important - A lot of the Maryland cat rescue centers (the majority) can be found through Petfinder which operates nationwide. Petfinder provides the listing software so the adoptable cats are listed on the Petfinder website. You can go to their website and search from there. Some of the rescue operations are not affiliated to Petfinder (it seems to me) and these are listed here:

Alley Cat Rescue - A really nice website - concern and thought radiates from it. A nice Maryland cat rescue organization. This site has been written by a really nice woman in my estimation. I am not sure how they operate but their website tells us all about what they do. I am guessing but they are probably a network of volunteers so their is no central facility (if I am wrong please leave a comment). They do run an adoption program at the local PetsMart. There are 10 PetsMarts in the area! The nearest to the ACR postal address is this one (Google Maps opens). ACR details:

Alley Cat Rescue, Inc.
P O Box 585
Mount Rainier MD 20712
Phone: 301-277-5595

The Partnership for Animal Welfare - {PAW} - There postal address is:

The Partnership for Animal Welfare, Inc.
P.O. Box 1074
Greenbelt, MD 20768
(301)572-4PAW

This is not too far (about 10 k) from ACR above. PetsMart also host their adoption shows. There are a lot of PetsMart stores and these host the adoption shows: Rockville, Bowie, Silver Spring, Kentlands, and Columbia. Petco also host: Beltsville and Ellicott City.

Alley Animals - based in Baltimore, Maryland. They need part-time help! Call Alice at 410-823-0899.

Animal Rescue Inc. - this is an operation that has facilities of its own and is a relatively large organization it seems - they employ people so there must be reasonable good funding coming in. They are located in two places, Putty Hill, Baltimore (link to Google map) - this is a cattery and just off route 83 near the MD PA border.

Cat Rescue of Maryland (CROM) - This looks like a small operation but valuable nonetheless. They have a postal address but it seems no dedicated premises.

Maryland cat rescue more organizations:

Howard County Cat Club - they advertise their adoptable cats through a portal website (I guess for greater visibility) 1-800-Save-A-Pet.com.

Lucky Cat Rescue - Based in baltimore - MD - they work with Petco at Tollgate Shopping Center, 615 Belair Road, Bel Air, MD 21014 and at Golden Ring Plaza, 8640 Pulaski Hwy, Rosedale, MD 21237. (the links open to Google maps).

Rude ranch Animal Rescue Center - they have their own facilities and are located at Annapolis. This looks a well established center.

Safe at Last - run by Bonnie Jo Yuspa - from what appears to be her home (well done and brave you). They are in demand but please make arrangements by appointment only. The address:

Safe At Last, Inc.
4303 Danlou Drive
Baltimore, Maryland 21207

That's the list of Maryland cat rescue operations not affiliated to Petfinder.

Maryland cat rescue to Persian cat rescue

PETA killing cats

There was an article in a newpaper recently (forget where) which said that the need to kill (the sanitized word is "euthanized") trapped feral cats was unnecessary. The problem is not that there are too many cats to re-home through the rescue centers but that there were not enough volunteers involved and therefore not enough "outreach" to facilitate the re-homing process.

It seems that there are enough homes for stray domestic cats just not enough systems in place to deal with them. PETA is killing cats because they say they have too. They are being criticized by some for doing this and are seen as being hypocritical. I am not sure where the truth lies save that there is too much killing (about 4 million cats a year it seems - a massive number - we should be ashamed) and too much irresponsibility.

PETA actually have got this wrong. Killing cats is short-termism. It solves nothing in the long term. It is poor thinking.  It perpetuates the overproduction of cats. We need to deal with the overpopulation of cats and feel the burden of it. Then we will be forced to deal with the problem at source: irresponsible people! This is a people problem not a cat problem so why kill the cat?