Recently I took my cat to the vet for a Feline Leukemia Vaccine. Upon taking her home, she had a terrible reaction. She had trouble breathing, started to pant, and acted incredibly aggressive. I took her back in and the vet confirmed that she is suffering from a reaction, and they gave her multiple injections and kept her to monitor her.

Flash forward, I get a letter in the mail from the pharmaceutical company telling me the vet contacted them about the reaction, followed by them asking for me to sign off on fine print voiding any liability on their part and upon doing so, the vet gets a sum of money around a few hundred dollars.

This vaccine was no more than $30. Does this seem right? I decided I will not sign it, but is this hinting toward that this might have been a rare occurrence? Should I be worried about the future health of my cat considering it's been weeks and they still want liability off of them?

Thanks for the help!

Sorry to hear about your cat. Is she better now?

Re. legal advice - I would suggest you taking the letter to your own lawyer to have a read over it before signing it. Reactions to medicine do occur sadly but I am not sure whether you wanted to take action against the pharmaeutical company. That is why it is best to speak to your lawyer about it.

If your cat does need further treatment caused by her reaction, your lawyer might advise you to ask the pharmaeutical company to pay out for her lifetime care, in which case you shouldn't sign the disclaimer.

Best to seek proper legal advice.

Let us know how your cat is now.

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No way!!!

If your cat had an adverse reaction to their vaccine, YOU should be receiving compensation, not your vet.

They should reimburse all extra cost made to save your cat, as well as accepting liability for any future medical issues that may be related to this adverse reaction.

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Jiskefet & the mognificent Dutch bunch

My little angels at the rainbow bridge

As you mention a dollar amount you need legal advice pertinent to your own country. You don't say if the vet charged you for the treatment following the reaction. If not then it strikes me as perfectly reasonable that the vaccine manufacturers reimburse the vet. Could this be what the few hundred dollars you talk about is for?

Your vet did the right thing in reporting it to the manufacturers and they appear to have responded appropriately if it all means that you have not been left out of pocket. Had there been any suggestion of a manufacturing fault then presumably your vet would have had a bad batch and your cat wouldn't be the only one affected.

First and foremost I hope your cat is okay now.

It's important to remember that reactions can occur to any medication and there is an inherent risk from administering it. My understanding is that medications are administered on the premise that side effects may occur therefore in ordinary circumstances I wouldn't expect any party to be be auotomatically liable for or have a right to compensation (I assume this was a licensed vaccine). Therefore I think you are 100% right to be suspicious and there is absolutely no way I would be signing it at present at very least until you have further information.

I agree with what has been said above and personally I'd be taking legal advice on the issue. First and foremost in my considerations would be what is the money being paid to the vet for?

You say your cat was kept in and medicated, were you billed for this by your vet? If not is the money to cover these additional vet fees? if so I would be far less suspicious than if it were for nothing in particular, though I would still be suprised the manufacturer were paying it if was a simple case of a bad reaction. Have you checked the datasheet to see if this is a known side effect, googled the vaccine to check whether others have had similar problems etc?

Have you discussed with your vet whether there is any possibility of lasting damage?

Agree completely with everyone. I was going to say what Ali has mentioned - pertinent to all of this is the fact manufacturers are extremely unlikely to provide compensation for any normal side-effects of a drug or medication so this would make me very suspicious indeed! Signing a disclaimer in these circumstances would be extremely unwise ! I would discuss all this with your vet since Felv vaccine has been associated with VAS for instance. I've no wish to scare you but best to have the chances of this occurring later excluded.

Yes, I'm fairly sure the money they've tendered is to reimburse YOU for any additional veterinary costs incurred as a result of treating the adverse reaction! The manufacturers of Metacam provide similar compensation if the animal suffers renal problems as a result.

Personally, I wouldn't be signing anything like that without getting professional legal advice. While there is always a risk of reactions to vaccinations or any medication for that matter - I find it strange that the pharmaeutical company is going to give your vet money if you effectively indemnify them from any future costs associated with the reaction (there may be no long term effects so this may not be an issue). If you didn't pay for the follow up treatment, then it could just be that they are reimbursing the vet for the costs of that treatment but I still wouldn't feel comfortable signing such a waiver without knowing exactly what the legal implications of doing so are.

notsure

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notsure

I'd actually be very impressed rather than suspicious. Here in the UK vets are not nearly so quick to report adverse reactions. I would think it highly useful if such a system operated whereas it is in everyone's interest to report such reactions.

In the grand scheme of things it's nothing to the manufacturers, means owners are not left out of pocket, and accurate records exist. Vaccine reactions do happen. It is perfectly possible to pay no fault compensation and I've never known any case where the recipient isn't required to confirm it's a full and final settlement. If this is what has happened then the only person at fault is the vet for not explaining it properly to the client.

Yes, Havoc you've raised some good points here. It's important to interpret all of this in context ie in the light of usual practice in the country concerned. If the drug manufactureres normally reimburse in all cases of adverse reaction then that's a different matter entirely. However, we need to know if this is the case or not. As far as I'm aware this does not apply to vaccinations or most mainstream veterinary drugs dispensed in the UK which are approved for veterinary use.

Agree completely about reporting adverse drug reactions. I've always done this in the past regardless of whether the vets have or not. I believe others would as well if they realised the factility existed.

I appreciate all the responses and I'll try to answer the questions you all have.

My cat is doing fine now, thanks for your concern everyone!

I did research on the FeLV vaccine, but like many have stated, just about every vaccine out there would list many adverse reactions.

"In the rare event of hypersensitivity reaction following vaccination, administer an antihistamine, corticosteroid or adrenaline without delay and by the most immediate route."

Sounds like the vet did exactly that.

Following the reaction the vet did not charge me for the treatment (benadryl & steroid shot). So far, she does not need further treatment. I did ask the vet if there was anything that could happen even after the treatment and the vet mentioned fatality. So obviously I was concerned and had her monitored for a few hours in place of simply taking her home, which the vet gave me the option.

Throughout the next few days, she had multiple fevers and I had to bring her in again. They did blood work and urinalysis, which both came up fine. I'm not sure how much this costs, but I guess the vet is trying to get back money in which they would have charged me for these services... I'm not trying to slam my vet, they are an excellent vet hospital. I'm just wondering about the waiver as I've never had to do anything like this before. And why must I sign the waiver BEFORE my vet is reimbursed?? What kind of stingy, inconsiderate nonsense is that?

It also has a law services insignia on the letter and is signed by a director with a DVM representing the Pharm company.