Rabies Vaccine Follow-Up: You Commented, We're Answering

So first, I want to address some of the things that were said about me.

Several people immediately labeled me anti-vax or, and said that I was uneducated and anti-vaxxer.

One commenter said the podcast was a pathetic way to get views and interaction, and said, "No, I won't listen to stupidity." And I'm thinking, "Well, how do you know it's stupid if you didn't even take the 20 minutes it required [laughs] to listen to it?" And, uh, that's the part that gets me, because that episode never said everybody must vaccinate their cat, and it didn't say nobody who has an indoor vac- cat should get it vaccinated.

It was simply a discussion about rabies, vaccination, risk, lifestyle, laws, and some of the things cat owners should consider when making decisions.

In fact, one of the reasons I do this podcast is because I want people to have enough information to ask better questions, and I still believe that's a good thing.

But calling someone stupid doesn't strengthen your argument.

It just makes it harder to have a conversation.

And yes, one commenter actually said, "I'm not a sheep to the system." Okay, you're not a sheep.

I'm not asking you to be one, but I am asking you to think, and that's the whole point.

Here's one of the comments I wanna talk about, and this particular statement appeared more than once.

Quote, "This vaccine will kill your cat." Now, here's where I wanna be very careful because there is a tiny bit of truth buried inside that very dramatic statement.

Vaccines can cause adverse reactions.

Severe reactions, including anaphylaxis, can occur, and yes, in extremely rarely cases, a vaccine-associated reaction can be fatal.

So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that vaccines are completely risk-free, because they're not.

But saying, "This vaccine will kill your cat," is a completely different statement.

Evidence just simply doesn't support that.

There was a very large study looking at more than a million vaccine doses in nearly half a million cats, and they found adverse events in roughly half of 1% of cats.

And most of those things were like, you know, lethargy, fever, vomiting, or localized site injection reactions.

Severe allergic reactions are much rarer.

The AAHA cites anaphylaxis at roughly one to five cases per 10,000 vaccinations.

So can a vaccine cause a serious reaction? Yes.

Can a cat die from a vaccine reaction? Extremely rare, but yes.

And does that mean that the rabies vaccination will kill your cat? No.

And this is an important distinction because I don't wanna dismiss someone who says, "My cat became terribly ill after a vaccine." That experience is real.

What we can't automatically conclude from the timing alone is that the vaccine caused the illness.