But that is not the purpose of this page.....
Sometimes, no matter how much good we try to do, something goes
wrong, very wrong, and our critters have problems, major ones.

Let me tell you about my beautiful Zoë. Since my first pet,
my dog Midget, I had been a firm believer in vaccination as
prevention for disease. It worked for me as a human and I was
happy that I could similarly protect my pets. And when the
leukemia vaccine was available, my critters had that added to
the annual visit. It worked, and though exposed to leukemia
from a neighbor's cat through the screen door, my pets remained
healthy. Sure, we lost our beloved KitKat to cancer, but that
was recurring tumors that had no prevention, we thought.

So when we got the twins, we had them tested for leukemia and
they were negative. They started getting their regular and
routine shots immediately. We had had them about six weeks,
and their "kitten shots" were completed and 10 days past, when
disaster struck Zoë. Within 12 hours, an abcess blew up on her
neck between her shoulders so huge that she couldn't even lift
her head up and could barely walk. It was the weekend (of course!!)
and our regular vet's calls were being taken by a vet in a
neighboring town, who was not at all thrilled to be called out
on a Sunday night to tend to a kitten. "Couldn't it wait until
your regular vet is available tomorrow?" No, I said, I think
this must be seen tonight.

Well, when the vet saw the size of the abcess, it was apparent
that I was not just some hysterical female. When the abcess was
lanced, there was more than a cup of fluid that came out. It
took Zoë some 10 days to heal with lots of TLC and antibiotics.

The next year, she had no reaction at all to her shots, and we
all figured it was just a fluke of some kind.

This year, a mere two weeks after her shots, I discovered a
huge egg-shaped lump and another shapeless mass between her
shoulder blades. A trip to the vet, and immediate surgery was
scheduled. My vet was concerned because the shape was similar
to tumors that KitKat had had, and she had been an old cat,
while Zoë was just three. An anxious week went by before the
lab reported there was no cancer, and no real reason for either
growth, other than it was at the site of the vaccinations.

While we were awaiting the results, my vet did some researching
and found that, although rare, there are increasing numbers of
similar growths being reported in cats following vaccinations
in the neck area. Followups found that once the shots were given
in the rump and hip area, there were no problems. Recommended
procedure was to stop giving any shots in the neck area and
them all in the "other end."

The end result is that Zoë's chart now carries a big warning label:
NO SHOTS IN NECK AREA....and our vet has decided to change the
site of all rabies and leukemia vaccinations to the hips...another
cat might not be so lucky as Zoë, and there have been cases
where the growths were cancerous or pre-cancerous.

So, Zoë has recovered from her surgery, only the circle remains
where hair needs to grow to cover the 4-inch incision. Since we
had one cat who took out her own spaying sutures, these stitches
were done completely underneath the skin and will dissolve.

Zoë rests after coming home with her 4-inch incision.

UPDATE!!!

I just received the July 1998 CatWatch newsletter from
Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine...and I quote:

"Injected vaccines for rabies and feline leukemia virus (FeLV)
are associated with increased risk of fibrosarcomas -- a type
of aggressive cancer of the soft tissue -- at the injection site
in cats. The reason for this remains unknown.

"One potential solution to the problem is to devise vaccines
that do not need to be injected. Heska Corporation, an animal
health-care products company in Fort Collins, Colorado, is
studying ways to make vaccines to be introduced into the nostrils
or as eyedrops (lacrimally).

"Traditionally, vaccines have been made by using whole killed
or live pathogenic organisms. The live bacteria or viruses have
been manipulated in such as way that they are noninfectious....
Unfortunately, in a small percentage of the cases, some of these
noninfectious organisms within the vaccine may revert to
infectious ones once inside the body. In these rare cases, the
vaccine will cause the disease it is supposed to prevent.

"But newer methods will prevent this from happening and make
vaccine safer.......a nasal or lacrimal rabies for cats is
still several years away from the market.....working on vaccines
against feline immunodeficiency virus(FIV), heartworms in both
cats and dogs, cat scratch disease, plague, and toxoplasmosis.

"...(there is) commercially available, trivalent, nasally and
lacrimally delivered vaccine for cats against panleukopenia,
rhinotracheitis, and calicivirus."

July 1999 Update!

Zoë has completely healed and depression from the tissue
the vet removed "to be on the safe side" has filled in. Were
it not for these photos, you would never know
she had ever had surgery!

Post Vaccination Sarcoma Task Force

This site has a lot of information about the most recent
research and support groups for PVS. Check it out!!!