Rabies Vaccine

Rabies is a fatal viral disease that can infect all mammals—including dogs, cats, and people—and is certainly not something you want to risk or mess around with. It’s transmitted to other animals via a bite, and kills tens of thousands of people every year worldwide.

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While canine rabies has been mostly eradicated in North America, an infected animal can still infect other dogs, cats, cattle, horses, people, and domestic animals. Making sure you get a rabies vaccine for cats in your home is the best way to protect everyone—including your furry friends. Doing so also helps prevent the re-emergence of rabies.

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In most domestic species, the incubation period is generally between 3 to 8 weeks, but can be as short as nine days or as long as a year or more. The virus attacks and replicates in the nervous system, causing the clinical signs of rabies.

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There are two forms of rabies: the excitatory form (sometimes call the “furious” stage) and the paralytic form (also referred to as the “dumb stage.”) Not all animals experience both stages, and symptoms can vary.

 

Symptoms may include:

• Vicious, erratic behavior (the classic form)

• Foaming at the mouth

• Heightened sensitivity to visual and auditory stimuli

• Weakness

• Paralysis

• Death from respiratory failure

 

Once symptoms appear, rabies generally results in death in 3 to 8 days. There is no treatment for rabies. The good news is this disease can be easily prevented via a rabies vaccine for cats.

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Generally, kittens receive their first rabies vaccine at or after16 weeks of age, which stimulates the immune system to make antibodies. A second single dose of rabies vaccine is administered one year later regardless of the age of the cat, and then every three years thereafter.