Mudpie's Vaccination Scare...and What We'll Do Differently Next Time

August is National Immunization Awareness Month, a time to shed light on one of the most important aspects of being a responsible pet parent. While it can be a controversial subject prone to much debate there is no doubt about the importance that vaccines play in our lives.

According to the American Veterinary Medicine Foundation:

“Pets should be vaccinated to protect them from many highly contagious and deadly diseases. In some cases (rabies, for example), vaccinating your pet can also protect you from disease. If an unvaccinated pet develops one of these diseases, treatment can become very expensive and many of these diseases can be fatal, even if your pet received prompt and appropriate treatment. Rabies vaccination is required by law in many states and counties.

“Not all pets should be vaccinated with all available vaccines. “Core” vaccines are recommended for most pets in a particular area because they protect from diseases most common in that area. “Non-Core” vaccines are reserved for individual pets with unique needs. Your veterinarian will consider your pet’s risk of exposure to a variety of preventable diseases in order to customize a vaccination program for optimal protection throughout your pet’s life. Talk with your veterinarian about your pet’s lifestyle including its expected travel to other geographic locations and/or contact with other animals (such as exposure at kennels, obedience classes, shows, and dog parks) since these factors impact your pet’s risk of exposure to certain diseases. For older pets, make sure your veterinarian is aware of any previous adverse reactions to vaccines.”

The purpose of this post isn't to tell you what to do about vaccinating your pets. That's a personal decision to be made following consultation with your vet. This is the story of a scare we had following Mudpie's most recent vaccination in early December 2016, and what I learned from it to make her safer the next time around.

Scary Times

I had been receiving reminders in the mail since the summer that her vaccinations were due but since her annual wellness exam isn't until December I'd been putting it off to do all at once. While being a cat blogger has given me the opportunity to research and learn so much about caring for our feline friends, it has also given me more things to worry about through that knowledge, and in the weeks leading up to her appointment I found myself reading more about injection site sarcomas than I probably should have.

Photo credit: depositphotos/kaninstudio

I adore our vet and feel comfortable asking questions and sharing my concerns, so when appointment day rolled around I was quick to let him know that I wanted to take as conservative an approach to vaccines as I possibly could. Since Mudpie is an "only child" and strictly an indoor cat he completely agreed with me but state law does dictate that he needed to give her a rabies shot. I took this opportunity to express my concerns about what I'd been learning about injection site sarcomas. His reply was that in 22 years of practice he had only seen 2 instances of a vaccine related sarcoma, to which I gently replied that the year before when I asked him how common a saddle thrombus is in cats he told me that he usually saw one per year. Guess who that "one" was in 2015? My cat.

The rabies vaccine was administered and we were told if she had any problems with it to let them know, and soon we were on our way. Through the next couple days she thankfully didn't have any adverse reactions and before long through the busyness of the holiday season the visit was completely forgotten.

Then on the night of December 28th I was running my hands down Mudpie's sides and felt a hard lump at the injection site. I have no idea if it had been there all along and I had just never touched the right spot, all I knew was it was there now and panic set in immediately. I kept running my hands over it hoping I was mistaken, that it was just her hip bone or something, but over the next few days there was no denying that it was there and no matter how much I touched it I wasn't going to make it magically disappear.

I consoled myself a bit in reading online that sarcomas don't typically pop up that quickly, and that mild swelling is a common side effect, but I was still a bundle of raw nerves and on January 3rd I emailed the vet's office to let them know what was going on. I was advised of the same thing - that it is very common to develop a small bump at the injection site after getting vaccinated - but if it changes in size or shape or doesn't go away within a couple more weeks to let them know.

Photo Credit: depositphotos/ckellyphoto

By that weekend I started feeling cautiously optimistic that the lump seemed to be getting smaller, while still trying to push away the lingering fear that some cruel twist of fate was going to take another young cat away from me long before her time. Then, almost exactly two weeks after contacting the vet (and 6 weeks after the vaccination), the lump was gone and a huge sense of relief followed.

What We'll Do Differently Next Time

I count my blessings every day that it was a false alarm (although I still run my hands over that spot on a regular basis), yet it scares me to death that she had such a strong reaction to the rabies shot and I won't be taking the risk again. The next time around (thankfully this was a 3-year vaccine so she's set for awhile) we will be doing things differently.

1) I will be asking for the non-adjuvanted Purevax 3- year vaccine manufactured by Merial. This is one thing I hadn't informed myself about ahead of time and I was upset to learn my vet isn't offering it at this time. An “adjuvanted vaccine” contains a substance that enhances the body's immune response to an antigen and purposely causes inflammation at the vaccine site in order to alert the immune system to its presence. While safe in humans and dogs, it has been implicated in causing injection site sarcomas. That risk is much lower with the use of “non-adjvuanted" vaccines. They are a bit more expensive and I'll probably have to wait for my vet to order it, but to keep Mudpie safe I'll go through any additional inconvenience.

2) If any other vaccinations are recommended in the future I will be requesting a titer test which measures the amount of antibodies in the bloodstream, offering an approximation of an animal's immunity to a disease. If a cat's titer levels are adequate indicating she is still protected against any future exposure, revaccination isn't needed. (Unfortunately most jurisdictions won't accept a titer test for rabies antibodies in lieu of a vaccine.)

3) I'll always make sure that injections are administered as low on the leg as possible. In a worst case scenario, legs can be amputated, whereas a tumor on the hip or between the shoulder blades will be much more difficult to completely remove.

While vaccinations are an important part of protecting our pets (and ourselves), making sure they're administered in a safe and responsible manner is just as crucial. YOU are your cat's best advocate. Take time to do some research and discuss with your vet the best vaccine protocol for your pet, and after the vaccinations have been administered be extra vigilant about any adverse reactions. Your pet is counting on you to make the right choices for them!

Has your pet ever had scary side effects from a vaccination?