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Annual booster this morning, now in ICU with vomit and diarrhea

5K views 19 replies 14 participants last post by  Kittens123 
#1 ·
Anybody else experienced this trouble recently? After her annual booster this morning of Nobivac Tricat Trio and Nobivac FeLV, my Ruby started to vomit and cry, developing diarrhea which then had traces of blood in it. She is now back at the vets, in intensive care, on a drip and sedated. They expect her to be there for three days - if she survives!
 
#5 ·
Ruby was discharged from the vets at 4pm on Saturday. They advised that she was no longer at any risk and all of her vital signs were now normal. We gratefully settled the account of £848.75 so that we could take her home. As expected, Ruby hid herself behind the sofa where she chose to stay for the rest of the night. On Sunday morning she was downstairs in the living room where we found her crying in distress and dragging herself across the carpet, her back legs limp, cold and useless. She was in a dreadful state having also defecated which was lodged in her long fur. We dashed to the vets who took her in to surgery at once. Half an hour later they advised that there was nothing to be done, Ruby was in a terminal condition and she should be put to sleep to end her suffering. Our expert veterinary service had killed our perfectly healthy 9 year old ragamuffin and charged us over £1000 for their service. (Termination and cremation charges are yet to be advised) Obviously no blame can be attached to the practice.
 
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#8 · (Edited)
OMG I am so sorry to hear this. Looking on NOAH, they list the risk of adverse events to be very low indeed.

For TriCat Trio, the possible side-effects are as follows:

"A slight painful swelling may be observed at the injection site for 1-2 days. A slight transient rise in body temperature (up to 40°C) may occur for 1-2 days. In some cases sneezing, coughing, nasal discharge, and a slight dullness or reduced appetite may be observed for up to 2 days post vaccination. In very rare cases, the vaccine may cause hypersensitivity reactions (pruritus, dyspnoea, vomiting, diarrhoea and collapse)."

https://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-455549

For FeLV

"Transient and small thickening or nodule, approximately 5-10 mm in size, may be observed at the injection site and disappear within 2 to 6 weeks without treatment. Occasionally, systemic reactions (hyperthermia, anorexia, lethargy) may occur within one or two days after vaccine administration.
Where Nobivac FeLV has been used to reconstitute cat vaccines in the Nobivac range containing feline calicivirus (F9 strain), feline rhinotracheitis virus (G2620A strain) and/or feline panleucopenia virus (MW-1 or Bristol strain) prior to inoculation, a small nodule at the site of vaccination is frequently observed. It can persist for up to 18 days post-inoculation.

Occasionally, the nodule may be painful for up to 6 days after injection. A transient rise in body temperature or lameness may occur and last up to 3 days post vaccination. In some cases, a slight dullness or reduced appetite may be observed for up to 1 day post vaccination.

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

The frequency of adverse reactions is defined using the following convention:
- very common (more than 1 in 10 animals treated displaying adverse reactions)
- common (more than 1 but less than 10 animals in 100 animals treated)
- uncommon (more than 1 but less than 10 animals in 1,000 animals treated)
- rare (more than 1 but less than 10 animals in 10,000 animals treated)
- very rare (less than 1 animal in 10,000 animals treated, including isolated reports)."

https://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-455441

I would get the medical notes from the vet straight away to see how they managed the incident. I would also contact the manufacturer to explain what happened. They need to know.

And I would contact the regulators, the MHRA and the EMA (even though we've left the EU, we are still following their approvals for 2 years). They need to know in case this is a systemic issue.

I am so very, very sorry.
 
#15 ·
I am responding to this post as I was Googling a possible reaction to the same lot of vaccines. My 13 week old kittens had Nobivac Tricat Trio and Nobivac FelV on Friday. All three have had diarrhoea for the last 4 days!! They appear to be feeling OK in themselves. I have given them Oralade to help with dehydration and will be calling the vets asap.

This is their BOOSTER batch. They have had the same vaccine at 9.5 weeks and were absolutely fine.
I am going to put batch numbers here so that if anyone else has an issue you can check if it is the batch.
Nobivac Tricat Trio Lot: A405B01
Nobivac FelV batch: 849301
 
#16 ·
I have a Ragdoll that’s allergic to Nobivac. Not as severe thankfully but she had her booster and within a few hours her face and leg and swollen up and she wouldn’t stop biting at where it had been given. Went to the emergency vets who gave her a dose of steroids and that resolved it. She’s had alternative vaccines since with no problem.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I’m replying here after finding this thread through a Google search. I need to share the nightmare we’ve been in. Yesterday we brought our two cats (who are brother and sister) for the booster shot of the Nobivac Tricat Trio.

The cats are 21 months old and were perfectly healthy when we brought them in. As soon as 15 minutes after the shot, both cats started to vomit and have diarrhea with traces of blood initially and with a lot of blood afterwards. Despite being checked in at the hospital, within 12 hours our beloved cat Mia passed away while the male was also seriously ill (he has since recovered quite a bit and should be out of the woods now).

I can’t tell you the heartbreak of seeing a cat that was happy and healthy just 12 hours before dying in our arms.

I should add that our cats were rescued by us and as kittens when we found them had contracted calici and herpes virus. The vet said that it’s possible this vaccine triggered one of these viruses despite the fact that nothing happened when they had their first two shots of Nobivac last year. We just wish we knew that this was even a possibility. No vet ever warned us.
 
#18 ·
Hello Mia 20,
Very saddened to hear about such an horrendous experience and the passing of your girl Mia . I hope the vets retrieved and preserved the vials that the booster shots were in. The odds of two cats having such a violent reaction even if related must be virtually non-existent if there was nothing wrong with the vaccine. Be sure to point this out to the vet and ask for a written explanation as to why they think this could have happened and how exactly the booster interacting with the calici and herpes virus could cause such a rapid and disastrous reaction. Keeping my fingers crossed that your boy makes a full recovery.
 
#19 ·
Hi, I just wanted to post an update here on my previous post, in case it helps others who may run into similar problems.

First of all, I can say that our male cat thankfully fully recovered and he’s now doing well.

The vaccine manufacturer sponsored a post mortem exam on Mia to understand the cause of her death after getting the vaccine. The autopsy showed that Mia was perfectly healthy, with no signs of disease or genetic malfunctions in any organ. They also ran histological (lab) tests on her tissues and are now claiming that she died due to Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation, essentially a terminal condition of the blood triggered by gastroenteritis and the presence of bacteria in her intestines. Both our vet and the manufacturer are refusing to recognize that the super aggressive gastroenteritis was triggered by the vaccine.

They are essentially claiming that our cat was already sick (despite the fact that she showed no symptoms and their own autopsy didn’t find anything wrong with her organs) and the timing of her sudden complications just happened to coincide with the vaccine. We’re going to try to pursue legal routes as this is obviously unacceptable for us.

After this experience, I’d encourage everyone to be much more cautious with yearly boosters of these vaccines, especially if their cats are rescued and have more complex clinical history. It seems to me that most vets have a very poor understanding of the balance of risk/benefit that these vaccines provide for cats with a history of previous infections or disease. I’d hate to think their default stance is to recommend yearly boosters just to make sure that once a year they get a paid consultation.
 
#20 ·
We just had a kitten die less than 60 hours after vaccination with Novibac Tricat Trio.

He was perfectly healthy (ragdoll or ragdoll x/long haired type) prior to the vaccine and we had no idea that such an outcome was possible. The night of the injection (a Wednesday) he was absolutely fine, bouncing around and eating normally. On Thursday morning he ate breakfast but by lunch he seemed a little subdued - though this wasn't abnormal for him. Late Thursday evening he seemed lethargic, was limping and in pain, shrieking if picked up. Thinking it was maybe an arthritic reaction to the calcivirus component of the vaccine (apparently quite common as evident on cat forums) we rang the vet on Friday, spoke in detail about it and were issued anti-inflammatories. We were expecting the anti-inflammatories to kick in and take the pain down and see his appetite and vigour return, but even later that night there was no change - if anything, a gradual decline as he was becoming dehydrated. On Saturday morning, after having had no breakfast, his breathing changed to panting - I raced him to the vet but he died in his carrier in the car.

We have rescued and fostered over 40 kittens and have never seen anything like this. It was absolutely horrific. He was being monitored and were in regular contact with the vet. We've seen other - very, very poorly - kittens come through diseases and other issues and have never experienced such a rapid decline (that was NOT an anaphylactic reaction). Most of the literature on Novibac Tricat Trio contests that it is abundantly safe, and I had to dig quite far to see that a 1 in 10,000 reaction of this severity can also be fatal. The limping cat syndrome after the vaccine is in of itself (apparently) extremely rare but sees to have a good recovery rate. I am kicking myself that we didn't rush him into the emergency room at the first sign - although - according to some other posts here, that may not have helped.

The vet said that it was unlikely the vaccine itself killed him but rather the kitten may have been incubating a disease "underneath" and his developing immune system was overwhelmed. As he was a rescue kitten, that may be true. Though it seems implausible given the incredibly robust state he was in and the fact that none of the other kittens from his colony have gone on to display any signs of illness whatsoever. If the possibility of underlying infection is a clinical consideration with rescue cats, vets - or the manufacturer -should advise that no vaccinations should be given unless the kitten has been observed for at least 14 days. In our case, we had had him for 7 days and wanted him chipped and vaccinated because we have other (vaccinated) cats in the house and we thought he would be at risk from them (and also from whatever we brought into the house via our shoes and clothes).

We are utterly devastated.
 
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