Did my cat's rabies vaccine cause her IMHA? What are the risks?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Happy. I typically will not vaccinate a dog that has had a significant immune mediated disease such as IMHA. However, each case is different. Rabies is typically 100% fatal if a pet acquires it. So deciding to vaccinate also needs to consider Happy's risk factors for exposure. I hope this information helps!

I am so sorry for the loss of your poor kitty. Her symptoms don't suggest she got infected with Rabies, but instead I suspect she was having a severe anaphylactic reaction to the vaccine, especially since her symptoms started within 24 hrs of her immunizations. The Rabies vaccine is NOT a live virus, so pets can't get rabies from the vaccine. Also even if a pet has a particular vaccine in the past, this does not mean they can't have a reaction in the future unfortunately. Also since the Rabies vaccine has clinically been shown to last a bit longer than the 1 year mark, your pet was likely still protected. Again I am sorry your pet was not able to recover from this sudden turn of events. I send my condolences to you and your family through this difficult time. And unless Scruff was exposed to a rabid animal within 10 days of being symptomatic, then rabies transmission is very unlikely, unless there is more to the story than what you have mentioned here. Feel free to request a private consultation if you need to discuss things further. Best wishes and take care.

I am sorry to hear about your loss. There are some studies about the relationship between vaccinations and IMHA (immune mediated hemolytic anemia). Unfortunately even though theoretically there may be a link between the two, that has not been confirmed from an scientific point of view. It is more likely that Ehrlichia was linked to the IMHA even though more commonly Ehrlichia causes immune mediate thrombocytopenia. It is hard to say if it should have been retested, even without clinical signs of the disease. For sure it should have been retested when IMHA was evident. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation (where you can post pictures ) if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

My condolences to your friend on the loss of his or her cat. Unfortunately, without a post mortem exam it can be very difficult to determine cause of death. If he as vaccinated against rabies, it was likely not a cause. The only way to find out would be to submit brain tissue for testing. This must be done according to strict Health Department guidelines. A more likely cause was trauma, toxicity or heart disease.

Vaccines in general are a potential trigger for immune mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA), a condition where the immune system begins attacking the red blood cells. I am not aware that this has been reported as a potential reaction to Cytopoint but because it is essentially a vaccine it seems possible. Each individual vaccine has the potential to trigger IMHA, and a specific combination of vaccines is not necessarily more likely to lead to the disease.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your kitten. Lethargy is common after a vaccine. If she vomits, develops facial swelling or has difficulty breathing, this is a sign of vaccine reaction. This needs immediate veterinary care. A small amount of bleeding can occur on the skin from the injection. I hope this information helps!

I am so, so sorry to hear about Grace. I know how hard it is to lose a pet, and how difficult it is to make the decision to let them go. It is very unlikely that the FVRCP booster had anything to do with her decline, though I understand how coincidental it appears to be. It is very common for veterinarians to give this shot to older pets and even to immunocompromised animals, as they are the most at risk for the diseases the shot protects against. Without knowing her complete history, it does sound like she had some other issues brewing even before she had the vaccine. Most pets that have a true vaccine reaction exhibit those symptoms within a few hours - not over several months. I am so terribly sorry that you had to see Grace at her sickest, but I know that you did everything you could for her, and that she had the best care right up until you made that difficult decision. Please take comfort in knowing that making the decision to euthanize our pets when they are in intractable pain, though one of the hardest decisions we ever have to make, is the last great gift that we can give them. I hope that the sorrow eases with time, and my thoughts are with you and your family.