Re: nasal vaccines

[Wheezercat42]

You're right.  Cats can get FIP from the vaccine - and one who's mildly sick from a vaccine can give full blown FIP to other cats in the family.  I've been there.   On 4/5/02, I bought an 11 week old brown marble Bengal kitten (Kohana).  His breeder was the manager of the pet shop I'd just gotten hired at.  I'd heard of a lot of bengals turning up with FIP and was thrilled to find out he'd been vaccinated against it.   Three months later, Kohana hadn't gained an ounce of weight, he'd been queasy off and on for the whole time I'd had him - and a week after he came here, a 3 week old kitten (Dillon) who had been born here (his mother came here pregnant to have and raise her litter and I was planning to adopt them all out) turned up with a nasty sinus infection - runny eyes & nose, so badly congested that I had to use a vaporizer on him to help him breathe - and the infection didn't respond to meds.  When Dillon was 16 weeks old (7/9/02), I took him to my internal medicine vet to get another opinion.  My regular vet said he thought it was allergies, but wasn't sure, and he'd also said that it looked like several different diseases, but he had none of the key diagnostic symptoms of any of them.  The internal medicine vet told me that he normally wouldn't look at a kitten and tell the owner that it had FIP, but he was going to with me.  Dillon had the rough, scruffy coat common of FIP kittens, and the vet said that in his case, he had the dry type and it had apparently settled in his sinuses.  I've been actively doing rescues since '93, had brought in litter after litter from all kinds of backgrounds, and, aside from bringing in a kitten with FeLV on 12/29/99 and letting him have run of the house for 6 weeks before I found out he had it (and having him give it to 6 of my 25 - then all negative- guys), I'd never run into anything serious.      When Dillon was 8 months old, he died from FIP, and by then, I'd lost 2 others - Omaste (a 2 year old) and Patches (a 5 year old), and 5 other kittens (including Kohana) had their growth stunted significantly.  Two, Rommie and Aleshane were 6 months old at the time Kohana arrived and they never grew another ounce.  Another, Serena, was 7 weeks old when Kohana arrived, and she quit growing when he got here (I weigh all kittens in my care at least once a week until they're 8-10 months old and then I weigh all my cats every few months when I treat for fleas to make sure none have sneaked in).  It took her almost 7 months to reach 4 pounds, and now, at almost 3 years, she's finally up to about 6 1/2-7 pounds.   None of our FIP related problems happened before I brought in a kitten who had been vaccinated for FIP and made mildly ill by the vaccine.  I stopped all arrivals and living departures from the day Dillon was diagnosed in 7/02 until I risked bringing Legolas in (who was FeLV+ when I brought him in) in 6/03 - and I only risked bringing him in because he wasn't going to be living with any of the guys who'd been in direct contact with any of the ones who got sick or died with FIP, and the last one to die from FIP died in 11/02, and the last one to have symptoms suspicious of FIP had become symptoms free in 9/02.  After Legolas did well here, I brought in 2 more to the FeLV group on 11/7/03 and 11/15/03 and I risked bringing an adult into the negative group on 11/6/03, and when she stayed healthy, I risked a kitten on 11/30/03 - who also stayed healthy.  After the kitten stayed healthy, I considered our experience with FIP to be over and began doing rescues again.    I will never give an FIP vaccine or allow another cat or kitten to come here who's had one - unless it has been at least 6-12 months since they got it.  I found out, just before Dillon died that Kohana's breeder - who was sooo proud of having a registered cattery - had only been breeding cats for 1 1/2 years and gave FIP vaccines to make them "more marketable".  She also advised me to give Kohana another FIP vaccine when he was first suspected of having a mild case of FIP.  According to the research I did, that would've given him the full blown disease and he would've died from it.  She used to breed schnauzers for the pet shop she managed, but switched to cats because they didn't take up as much room as dogs.  She also kept her breeder cats caged, and the kittens didn't leave caged life until they went to new owners.  They went from cages at home, to cages at the shop, to a home setting.  It took Kohana and his sister (who didn't get sick from the vaccine - I got her a couple weeks after I got Kohana - before I knew we had a problem here) a couple months to settle down to home life, and almost a year to become affectionate with people.   In a message dated 1/18/2005 10:30:31 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: If these vaccines are or FIP 95% of the vets where I live refuse to give them. They believe that the vaccine has given FIP to the cats   Where there's Life, there's Hope Kathy "If you can't be a good example -- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." Catherine-