After posting my vaccination articles and getting such positive feedback, I was looking at other topics to blog on, and came across my new cat edition of the Foster and Smith catalog.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that you can now buy vaccinations for your pet through the catalog.

Now, I am all for saving money, but injecting your cat yourself? I mean, really, we don’t do it to our own children for measles, now do we?

For one thing, the  vaccines should be kept fresh in an appropriate environment.

But the main objection is, a regular annual check-up is a must for most people, and so it should be for our companion animals as well.

The vet will be able to put his or her hands on  the animal, look at eyes, ears, teeth, coat, perform an abdominal exam, and generally get a base-line as to what the animal’s overall health is.

As I also discussed in this series, some vaccinations are not safe to give all on the same day, and should never be given to an animal that is already ill.

If the cost of shots is a hardship, why not discuss it with your vet? Many vets are willing to give  multipet discounts, and you can even show them the catalog and ask them to let your pet have the shots at near or close to wholesale price. Or even at cost price.

I remember once, my cat was given a fiber supplement, 30 pills,  $30, so I went to the healthfood store and bought 1000x more for $4.57. Vets DO mark up on shots and frontline and so forth.

By all means, get your frontline from a catalog, or comparison-shop on line. But don’t try to vaccinate your own cat, kittens, dog, or puppies.