So I have been doing my research on vaccinosis, and have a question for you all.

My cat (the one I talked about moving with) thinks she's a lioness. She's 8 years old, indoor/outdoor cat and you'd think she's still 6 months, and feral. She looks great, but she's the best damn hunter I've ever seen.

I've always gotten all her annual vaccinations the week I get the little reminder card in the mail. But it's because of her hunting! She's caught many birds (sparrows, hummingbirds, pigeons), an infinite number of mice, grasshoppers, moths the size of sparrows that I didn't know existed until I got her, lizards, and even baby opossums! Yes, she brings them in the house. Nothing like looking under your bed with a 'possum face looking back at you! It's even a household joke that she's going to come in the door one day with the neighbor's toddler.

She doesn't really eat them though, she just plays with them! It's really sad actually. I usually rescue them but sometimes we're not so fortunate. She has a number of toys and we play with her all the time, so I'm not sure if she's bored or if she really just loves to catch things.

Back to the vaccines.. I've always gotten them all for her because I have no idea what kind of diseases she is exposed to from these animals, and I have never wanted to take any risks. But with vaccinosis in mind.. I'm wondering if there are vaccines that are unrelated to wild animals that she doesn't need? I'm pretty unfamiliar with how cats get the diseases they're vaccinated for. Any input? Even more suggestions on where to find more info would be great. Thanks in advance!!

Most experts on cats I know tell me to separate your cats from the feral cats around to avoid nasty things like rabies, FIV, Leukemia, cat scratch fever, pseudorabies, etc. You can read more about them here: http://www.catcustomer.com/veterinary/

To be honest this question to me is a little silly. It's a little like someone stating that they are going to let their dog roam the neighborhood and wondering what shots or wormer they need. The answer is if you're going to give the minimal amount of restriction of movement a little vaccinosis is a minor blip on the radar of problems that your pet might run into. Personally I'd vaccinate for everything I could and say a little prayer before sending kitty out into the wide world that is out to eat/trap/run over/shoot her 8 year old behind. The life of a feral cat isn't a pretty one and 8 is pretty old for an animal left to her own devices, and personally if it were me and I valued my pet enough to even be wondering if I was overvaccinating her I'd build an outdoor cat habitat then consider the question.

I said feral more to emphasize the way she catches things, not because she actually lives the life of a feral cat. We don't have a single stray cat that I know of in the neighborhood I live in. There are two other cats I've seen during the day and night, in the 18 years I've lived here, and I know which houses they belong to. I'm not saying there aren't any, I'm just saying it's likely I would have seen them. I never wanted her to be an indoor/outdoor cat, but this is at my mom's house and she has a dog door for the dog and I can't stop her from leaving. Though I'm 99% positive that we don't have any traps or guns in this suburban Southern California city, I do know the dangers of the outside world. She by no means is left to her own devices. She doesn't even spend half the day outside. She sleeps with me all night. Could she go outside while I'm asleep and I don't know it? Sure. But she's always there when I fall asleep and there when I wake up. If I had the knowledge and the resources in which to build an outdoor cat habitat, I would. It's already something I've considered and something I'd like to do when I move out.

That said, I'll continue vaccinating, thanks.

As a side note, I'm not doubting she shouldn't be outside. Like I said, I never wanted her outdoors anyways. I was 13 when I adopted her. My family isn't full of animal people, and I'm generally the only one with more than basic animal knowledge. At 21, having no other pets in my life besides the dogs, I don't know a whole lot. Until earlier this year I'd never heard of vaccinosis, and at this point I was wondering if, with my given situation, vaccines did more harm than good. I felt I was an exception to the no vaccines rule, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask.

It's always ok to ask. To be honest if I had housecats I would probably not vaccinate them at all, after all the environment they live in is almost 100% controlled.

Sorry if I stated this a bit strongly, I have a certain disdain for loose cats both feral and domestic. I take a great deal of care to not let my dogs run loose in the neighborhood pooping on other people's lawns. This isn't just because I like my neighbors and the same consideration but because I value my dogs and don't want to see them eaten by coyotes, eagles, owls, or run over by a car. Yet for some reason with all the effort of putting in a nice vegetable garden and an electric fence every year I'm dealing with cats using my garden and flowerbeds as a litterbox. I also used to feed the wild finches until I realized I was just creating a niche environment for the neighbor hood cats to dine upon my favorite song birds and even hummingbirds, so the bird feeders went away.
So usually in the spring for the last couple years I start trapping cats and turning them into the local shelter, I don't do the trap, neuter release thing because we have wild animals here that will fill that niche if given the opportunity and I just want the poopers gone. Just this year for the first time I started seeing the little orange native field mice bounce across my yard and we had a family of long tailed weasels move onto the vacant lot next to my house and I've heard of a couple fishers down at our pond. I also started seeing squirrels and cottontails again in my neighborhood.

I can see where you're coming from. Maybe I just don't think the situation is as dire here as it may be for you. My mom is a pretty active gardener, always has been. She's never complained or even said that she's ever had a problem with cats using the garden as a litter box. My next door neighbor's entire back yard is an organic fruit/vegetable garden, and she's never complained either. I'm not saying our cats (she has one of the neighborhood cats herself) aren't using people's gardens, but I just think they'd probably be using ours.

The most common thing my cat catches are sparrows and mice. I'm fairly familiar with mice and have yet to see any that have any injuries. I've kept some overnight to watch them and they all seem fine, just scared to death. I'm not a vet, but I've had a lot of mice (long before I had the cat). Birds are a little more fragile. But even if one has an injury, there's nothing we can do. Sparrows are not native to California and therefore it is illegal for vets to treat them here. She also doesn't catch things every day, I'm talking like once every few months. Usually if I'm gone for a weekend.

Another thing is wild animals - we don't really have any. And we're mostly city, so the ones we do, most people don't want around. Besides opossums, I've seen three raccoons and four skunks in my life. I've seen one coyote. Unfortunately, the city next to me catches and kills all the coyotes they can. I don't agree with this is any way. I have no problem with catch and release somewhere there aren't people and traffic to get hurt by, but I see no reason to kill them. But they do. Needless to say that city, and the ones surrounding, don't really have a coyote problem. Wild animals are generally at the beach (10 miles south of me) or in the rural mountainous areas (about an hour north or south, depending on what mountains). We do have black bears a good three hours into the mountains. We do have cougars. I wouldn't let my cat out in an area we had cougars. I wouldn't even let my dogs out unsupervised. Every year we get so many mountain bikers and hikers attacked by cougars, which everyone always has to catch and kill afterwards. A few dogs have been taken out of unenclosed backyards by cougars.

It's sad to me how much CA likes to preserve its beaches but not the inland areas. I would never let my animals out in an environment where there were coyotes and mountain lions. The problem is that I'm one of the few Californians down south who feel this way. Most of them just want to kill off the animals so they can leave their pets in the backyard. These are pretty much the extent of wild animals we have here that can be fairly easily seen by people (without going on backpacking expeditions and actively searching for them). If I felt my cat was doing damage to the natural world I wouldn't have her outside.