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My 7-year-old cat had an infection that was easily resolved with antibiotics. He apparently had a scratch and it became infected. He was predominantly an inside cat, however, followed me everywhere (inside and outside). I took him to our vet on Thursday (7/27/2017), they shaved him and cleaned out the area. He was given injections of antibiotics, pain meds, and rabies meds. He wasn't gone from the house more than an hour. When my husband returned home, I quickly opened his cat carrier ...he ambled out of it and slowly, but awkwardly walked into the living room towards the couch. By the time he reached the couch, he couldn't jump up. I picked him up and realized that his hind legs were not moving. I was devastated! I called our vet, but didn't receive a response back. By the morning, it was apparent that his hind legs were paralyzed. I stayed up with him all night to ensure that he was comfortable. We rushed him back to the vet ... only to be met with a lack of compassion and a blame game. Needless to say, we rushed him to Cornell University Vet Center. An MRI would have cost over $3,000 ... sadly, I didn't have the money. We were forced to put our Max to sleep. I am SO devastated at my loss. He was like a child to me.
Has anyone had any experience (I'm hoping not) with their cat becoming paralyzed after receiving a Rabie injection. Thank you for your support.
Posted by Lorna (San Anselmo, California) on 08/31/2017
I, too, lost my indoor only 8 year old exotic shorthair cat a year ago to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He was on the kitchen floor one morning in distress because he couldn't move his hind legs and I rushed him to the vet only to find that his heart had thrown a clot, paralyzingly his hind legs and was failing. He had to be euthenized immediately. He had never been given any vaccines except the mild upper respiratory 3 in 1 booster and had a checkup two weeks prior to the heart incident. There was no murmur but the vet said he most likely had inherited an enlarged heart.
Posted by Alyanna Ocampo (Las Piñas City, Philippines) on 04/28/2017
My 1 year old cat just got his very first anti rabies shot 3 days ago. Since then she has been meowing loud and lying down all day more than usual. Im not sure if its the side effects or she's sick.
I have used homeopathic THUYA on several pets with good results. Both were used a long time after the vaccines. One was lethargic and not eating for weeks, I thought I would lose him. After many vet calls and visits I tried Thuya. Twenty minutes later he was up playing and ate his food. For pets I dissolve the pellets in water and use a dosing syringe. I have a book "Homeopathic Care for Dogs and Cats" It recommends some other treatments depending on symptoms.
I had to give the rabies vaccine to my 7-month old Ragdoll kitten in order to travel with him. He is normally a very calm kitty who plays enough to stay active and hardly ever causes mischief. An hour after the vaccine he started acting completely crazy. He would go from sitting calmly to dashing up and down the house. It was like he was seeing things. He would attack and pounce on the empty air and then try to find whatever it was that he thought he had seen. He never used to be aggressive with me and now he is more prone to scratching me. Lastly he never used to meow unless he needed food and now he meows all the time for no reason. This has been going on for a week and he threw up which has never done before. Vomiting is a common effect of the rabies vaccine but I haven't seen anyone else mention or notice their cat's active ness or aggressive behaviour to have increased.
Please research carefully before doing this vaccine, there are clearly too many cases of unusual and even fatal side effects.
My 8 yr old Cat, I adopted, from the Animal Shelter, was seen by a Vet 2 days before I adopted her, I brought her home and she seemed fine, except the pupils of her eyes were dialated, and it seemed strange to me, then I connected the dots and realized this was all from her rabies shot, she received 2 days before I took her home, she was fine, and then in about 2 days she became sleepy, sneezing and coughing alot, walks very slow, and all she wants to do is sleep all day, she is eating and drinking a little, but she has a hard time breathing. kinda worried about that, it's been 12 days since her rabies shot.
Posted by Mom2twinz2 (Hot Springs, Ar) on 01/04/2017
Rabies Vaccine killed my cat
Went in for unusual bleeding/bruising in belly dec 5. Blood count ok. Told to come back dec 10 for re-check and to update rabies. Day after Christmas, dec 26, she's falling over, peeing in the floor, can't focus. Took her to vet. They did blood count, her hematocrit had dropped from normal 40's to 12.9!!! WTF! A week in ICU, a blood transfusion, up to 19 hct then back to 11.1 hct. Time to bring my baby home. She died in my arms tonight after fighting for her life for two nights at home. And she struggled for a couple of hours, fighting deaths door. She was my daughter's baby for 11 years, and my best friend and constant companion for the last 2 plus years.
I am so sorry to hear this too. It is sad and tugs at my heart. Maybe the dose was wrong for the age and weight?
Another thing that is possible...they may have eaten something that turned toxic because of the vaccines.
In the 70's I had two cats that I had dipped for fleas. They both became toxic because they had eaten some of a fern I had in my apartment prior to being dipped. I was fortunate that I was able to get them back to the vet for treatment and then had to hand-feed them back to health.
Today with changing ingredients in our pet food supply, binders & fillers in medicine/vaccines, any combination could be harmful and I feel should be questioned.
Our cat had his one year rabies shot this afternoon.. tonight about 6 hours later..he won't use the litter box, blows out his nose at it. We tried to put him in it and he acted like it was water. Then he pooped and went pee on the bath mat.
Posted by Lori Johnson (Olympia Washington) on 07/11/2016
I too was forced to give my cat the rabies vaccine. Our state requires it. He is a white cat, which white cats are more sensitive to things than non-white cats. Both him and his white sister had reactions to kittens shots so I was reluctant to allow them to give him a rabies shot. 2 weeks after the shot he was lethargic and two days after that he stopped eating. Took him to the vet and all his blood work was way off. He went unconscious and was twitching. It was the most horrible thing to witness. He had to be put to sleep. I will never allow his sister to ever get a rabies shot. They can lock me up and fine me, it won't happen. Yes I know it's a rare occurrence but that doesn't matter one bit when you lose your baby.
Posted by Suseeq (Sydney, Australia) on 07/12/2016
Lori, I am sorry for your loss. I only give my pets vaccines in the first 2 years of their life then no more. I don't believe in putting chemicals in their body I know you have rabies there in the US so it's probably unavoidable, but your loss is sad.
I took my 8 year old cat in for her rabies and distemper shot. A week later, she is moving very slowly. Seems to want to sleep a lot, is hiding from me. I'm worried. I found this site, thought I would add my story.
I am so sorry for the death of your pets. Has something changed with the rabies distemper shots? 3 years ago she had no problem that I can remember.
My 7 month old kitten died last week after receiving his rabies booster. Immediately after the injection he started vomiting. The vet administered the anti injection but the kitten continued declining. They tried cpr 3 times but he did not recover and died.
The wonderful Theresa from Minneapolis, MN has been helping pet owners and their beloved pets around the world on Earth Clinic since 2013.
About Theresa
Theresa from Minneapolis was born and raised in the inner city, always wishing she had been raised on a farm.
Her love for creatures great and small began at an early age, starting with caterpillars - which continues to this day, along with an interest in all insects and 'creepy crawlies'.
Theresa's interest in pet health started with a bird keeping hobby at age 14, where she learned from another hobbyist that the simple addition of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in a bird's drinking water kept fungal infections away; she was able to share this with her avian vet who in turn prescribed it to her own clients; Theresa was surprised to learn that she could teach her vet a thing or two. This important lesson - that each of us can be a teacher - was a turning point for Theresa, and fueled her quest for the knowledge held in lore, and remedies passed by word of mouth. That quest for knowledge continues to this day, as new and old remedies alike are explored. She may not have experience with a particular issue, but she will research it to the best of her ability and share what she finds freely, in the hopes that you can heal or improve your pet's health.
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This past summer I rescued kittens from my yard from a momma kitty having her third set. I trapped her and got her spayed. I ended up keeping the 5 kittens because the local shelters were all full. I adopted out 3 of them and still have two because there is such a glut of kittens out there this year, they say because we had a mild winter.
They are almost 6 months old now. They had not received the Rabies vaccine yet so I brought them to a low cost, in a pet store, weekend "clinic" of sorts to save money. Three days after the rabies and FVRCP were given, one kitten started walking funny. It seemed he did not have full control over his rear legs. He could lift them, but not control them on the way down and they would make a flop sound when hitting the floor. He could get up and go the the food, water and litter box. He did not vocalize anything. He purrs and plays, but he chooses not to move around so much. He can get up and down the stairs. Two days later, he seemed to be walking normally, but then two days after that he was walking funny again, but there was no flop sound anymore, as if he was compensating somehow or it was just a little better. We brought him to the vet who said it was neuromuscular. The sugar was normal, so it is not diabetes. They did not do an x-ray but based on palpation determined that it was not a skeletal malformation of some kind. They did, however, tell my husband to have him retested for Feline leukemia which he already tested negative for to the tune of 48 dollars which infuriated me.
The cost of an MRI for a cat is approximately 2000 from what I looked up online ...
The sibling female kitten started to have similar although less severe symptoms a week and a half after the vaccinations. She shows some weakness in just the left rear leg, but does a little hop when she moves that she did not do before.
These kittens were perfectly fine for the entire time I have had them, since they are 8 weeks old. Is there any way to know that this problem is from the vaccines? I really cannot spend 2000 on an MRI.
From the paper work, it looks like they had RabVac1 and the FVRCP Ch.
I am wondering if I should try to treat with prednisone and/or antibiotics? It is too much money to get a diagnosis and even then you may not get an answer ....
Our cat was given Pfizer's Vanguard Rabies vaccination and went into anaphalactic shock. She threw up about 25 times and had copious diarrhea, but because the vet called Pfizer and Pfizer said that they'd never heard of an adverse reaction to the vaccine, our vet assumed she was simply traumatized by her vet appointment. It wasn't until her face swelled up that we decided Pfizer had misrepresented the truth, and it took two very expensive appointments (including an emergency appointment at two in the morning) to stabilize her. I'm certain that Pfizer has heard of other adverse reactions to this vaccine (after all, _I_ have, and I'm no clinician), so to me they're responsible for our cat's delayed treatment and suffering.
large cat started haveing lose stools with blood & musis other than that happy & fine took to vet had him checked out vet said he was healthy & ok than they gave him a rabies shot about two days after that he started down hill within 20 days he could not eat or drink with in that peroid. I took him to see another vet I was told that it was too late he could not be a hero today. Cat could not eat drink or breath. Swollen limpnods and thyroid, throut, water sounding lungs could not even hear cat breathing-had to put him down to stop the pain.
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