buying shots

hey all, i have another question...

i heard a stray cat had kittens, so ok i have my own place now i can foster cats, and i went to see the kittens...i thought there were 3, then 5, now two litters later there are 10. sooo for all the kitty shots at the vet i am looking at $450 + getting the mama cats fixed. A fellow rescuer reccomended purchasing shots instead from this mail order/online company Foster and Smith. They walk you through the process and are supposed to be reliable. The shots work out to be less than 50 dollars! I am really excited but i would like to hear your opinions on this, as I have always just gone to the vet, but $450 will break me

'conditioned to self interest with emotions locked away, if thats what they call normal then I'd rather be insane'

Why give them shots? We get ours tamed a bit and used to eating solid food then adopt them out. They are healthy and fine. It's the responsibility of the new owner to get them shot and spayed.

As for giving your own shots, that's fine. It's been going on for a long time. I believe only the rabies shot is mandatory to be given by a real vet. There are lots of on line places to buy med.s

Unless as a responsible rescuer you want to be 100% sure it gets done. The only way to be 100% sure is to do it yourself. The group I work with adopted 200+ cats out last year and spayed/neutered and vaccinated every single one. We are now 100% assured those 200 cats will never ever produce an unwanted litter. Arguments over who is technically, legally or morally responsible seem less important than just getting the job done.

Yes, it is but it's been shown that most new owners don't do these things. That's why our rescue group does the spay/neuter, shots, microchip before we hand them over. If only others were more responsible.

Well I would assume a large portion of that is office visits, since you have to keep going back for boosters. Some visits are unavoidable because a DVM MUST give the rabies shots (at least in all states I'm familiar with). One option is to go to a local Petco that offers that service. Before everyone flames me about Petco..... I know they're ALL different and some may not be favorable but our Petco uses a well respected doctor from our community who people would pay significantly more for in her office. I would at least investigate your local Petco. Also depending on where you are MOST places have low cost spay/neuter programs locally. The last option (and it's a REALLY good one IMHO) is to hook up with a local rescue, they may be able to get the kittens the medical care they need if they are adopted out through the rescue. You'll probably even still be able to foster them. The good part about that is once the kittens are placed perhaps you could continue to foster and instead of doing one good deed it turns into a continued chain of good deeds.

thanks all for the replies. I place all my cats through a local rescue group, they are very thorough with applications and home visits and i feel secure that all my kitties go to good homes. They also require that the animals have all their shots, which i think is a good idea in general. And kittend have an extra deposit that is returned when they are altered. Unfortunately right now they're pretty much broke. So, as I feel that the little money they do have can go to more desperate situations, the money is all up to me, and i am not poor, but several hundred dollars is just a lot of money. but luckily we do have a low cost spay neuter here for the mom cats. One is very friendly, and has really warmed up to me, now she practically climbs in my lap when im getting in the car to leave, and the other is very feral. I think I will probably end up keeping the friendly one and TNRing the other one. also, i called my local feed store, someone suggested, and they have the shots also, for about the same price, which is even more convienent.

jen 'conditioned to self interest with emotions locked away, if thats what they call normal then I'd rather be insane'

I'd be a bit squeemish about giving my cat a shot in the caboose so I'd rather have the vet do it. Besides, isn't it possible that people who give their shots to their cats are risking the animal's health? I am not sure I'd trust some company that sells shots on the Interet as you do not know what you are getting and it might be easy to tamper with the medication. Also at home shots also might have a liability factor too and could risk your cat's life possibly if the cat has a bad reaction to the medication. Shots under your cat's doctor's recommendation and prescription is one thing, you giving the shots in order to save a buck without the consultation of a vet is quite another. Much too high a risk if you ask me.

That brings me to another question. Is the vet at Petsmart any good? I don't intend on bringing my cat in their for treatment as she already has a doctor but was just curious.

PetSmart/Petco is not for yearly visits or any treatment. They don't do a routine health check, so you DON'T avoid the doctor by going there it's simply a way to ease up on expenses. I know my vet is $33 just to walk in the door, with 3 boosters that's $99 (not including actual shots). I would never reccomend foregoing an annual visit with a regular practice..... now back to the actual question :o) The vet at my local Petco is very good. She comes in once a month and the rest of the time has a normal practice. Some Petcos have vets on staff, some have community doctors come in, so I would imagine that how good a 'Petco vet' is would vary greatly. It's not something I would do without a lot of research. I am fortunate enough that I actually work at a vet clinic and I hear a lot of talk about many different vets that a lot of people might not hear... luckily most of what I've heard about the vets in my area is pretty good but we have a great vet school right in the area and we're also in an area that has access to an incredible amount of continuing education. I know that can vary by where you are.

It's really not as safe as going to the vet and it's true not only are you buying from a company that doesn't specialize in vaccines but also they are likely using a transport company that doesn't know much about vaccines (last I checked UPS was not trained on vaccination handling protocol). There is also a slight risk of reaction, not to mention that at least an initial visit to assess the health of the animal is important. What I object to is paying for an exam again 2 weeks later and then again in another few weeks.

I've heard that a few people are suing Banfield vets/PetsMart for incompetance. I believe it was on the web a few years ago. I don't use them. I don't trust them. I also don't like that their price for a spay is the highest of all area vets, about $146.