A shortage of cat vaccines swept across the nation late last year due to many of the concoctions being manufactured internationally. Since the new year, the supply of vaccination has been coming in ebbs and flows and RSPCA ACT is fearful that there still won’t be enough to meet their growing population.
“Our understanding is that this is again some of the complicated supply chain issues… Covid really created chaos on so many levels, there was still some of that taking place [earlier in the year],” says Michelle Robertson, CEO of RSPCA ACT.
The vaccine of most concern is the F3, a core vaccine that protects against Feline Rhinotracheitis (Herpesvirus), Feline Panleukopenia (Feline Parvovirus) and Feline Calicivirus. Kittens need three doses of the vaccine while they are growing, whereas adult cats need a booster every 1-3 years depending on whether they are inside or outside dwellers.
Due to longer-than-normal kitten seasons and an upswing in cats being brought into the shelter, the aftermath of the vaccine shortage has been hard on them.
“It was challenging, some of the other shelters in some of the other states had to stop taking stray cats in because they just didn’t have capacity. We never stopped serving the community, but we had to change our protocols,” says Ms Robertson.
While the Australian Veterinary Association notes that wholesalers were resupplied on 5 June, that doesn’t mean there is enough to meet the demand. The next supply stock is expected in mid-August and they are hopeful it will ease some pressure on veterinary clinics.
However, this doesn’t mean it will feed into the animal welfare shelters quickly and August is still a long time away during another seemingly endless kitten season.
“Now we’re heading into a supply issue, which is really concerning because we have been completely flattened by cat numbers. The thing is, we can’t and won’t close our doors, but it does create concerns around keeping our cat population healthy.”
Not knowing exactly how many doses they will get from the new stock and with high volumes of cats still coming through, the team is on edge and constantly checking their supply.
“Every week we are just tallying how many vaccines we’ve got versus the cats we have and just hope that the shortage doesn’t kick in while we still have these high numbers. Unfortunately, it is not looking very good.”
At the height of the virus late last year, the team had to make the decision to change their vaccination protocols which Ms Robertson says unfortunately meant there is less protection for cats.
“We will prioritise the vaccination of unvaccinated kittens and work on the assumption that adult cats would have already had some vaccination at some point which is not ideal, none of this is ideal.”
Presenting with the regular kind of nasties you get with an illness like diarrhea, vomiting, fever, loss of appetite, lethargy and pain, the diseases F3 protects against are much more dangerous than the regular cat flu.
“The most extreme is that the cat could become very unwell and die, it is something that we want to avoid, we live in a society where we have vaccine capability, and it makes us really vulnerable if we can’t access it.”
More at risk of an outbreak due to high population numbers, the RSPCA ACT team is requesting any potential cat foster carers to come forward and help cut down on in-shelter numbers.
“Fostering cats means we reduce our onsite shelter population and the less cats we have on-site, the higher our defence is against disease spreading. Having more people available to foster cats and kittens is really critical for us,” says Ms Robertson.
Cat owners can also help play a part by keeping their cats contained on their property.
“We want to avoid it potentially getting into the community and then those cats landing up with us and having a negative knock-on effect,” says Ms Robertson.
Find out how you can help RSPCA ACT; rspca-act.org.au
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