This is my first diary as SwimmertoFreedom07 and my first in a long time on Kos (since Katrina in 2005).
A good friend of mine alerted me to this issue when her cat developed an injection site sarcoma and I felt given the recent problems around trusting Pet Food and having general accountability in our culture, a heads up to all cat and pet owners was warranted.
More below the fold...
Sarcomas are rare muscle and connective tissue cancers that have pretty dreadful prognoses in veterinary (and human) medicine. Treatment is rarely effective and always very expensive.
In the 1990’s, the veterinary community became aware of an increasing association between certain vaccines administered to cats and the development of injection site sarcomas. According to an article by Morrison and Starr from the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association in 2001, (http://www.avma.org/vafstf/vafstf01.asp), the association arose:
"at about this same time, the vaccine industry had shifted from production of modified-live virus vaccines for rabies prophylaxis to killed-virus vaccines. This change had been encouraged by the USDA-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) primarily because of concerns about vaccine-induced disease with the use of modified-live rabies virus vaccines. Most killed-virus vaccines contain adjuvants to enhance the immune response, and injection of some killed-virus vaccines has been shown to result in inflammatory granulomas in cats.2"
Some of these granulomas the authors further stated, progress to sarcomas.
The relationship between the rabies and the FeLV vaccine (and other injections) and sarcomas grew and caused increasing alarm in the veterinary community by the late 90’s.
"In response to concerns about this emerging health issue of cats, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), and Veterinary Cancer Society (VCS) jointly formed the Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force (VAFSTF) in November 1996."
The troubling issue that I see is less that there is a medical intervention associated with causing a bad outcome than what appears to be the lack of truly informed consent for many pet owners innocently having their cats vaccinated without the knowledge of this lethal and expensive outcome.
As Morrison and Starr further state:
"vaccination against serious infectious diseases is a necessary component of delivering state-of-the-art health care to cats. The diseases that can be prevented by vaccination can be devastating and life threatening."
However, as commented by Dennis Macy, DVM: http://www.geocities.com/...
Though a "tumor at the injection site may result in more than $3,000 in treatment costs, owners really don't have a choice whether their pet receives the mandated rabies vaccines. In many parts of the country, pet owners must have their animals vaccinated for rabies or face a court appearance. Rabies laws usually apply to dogs and / or cats regardless of how low the risk of contracting rabies may be for an individual pet."
Furthermore, vaccine makers bear no liability for diseases caused by their products since the USDA, which pre-empts state law that would allow such accountability.
The veterinarian’s liability however is quite different. According to Macy,
"If the veterinarian, however, merely administered the vaccine without providing information regarding potential adverse events prior to the vaccination (my emphasis), the veterinarian may be considered liable for damages associated with that product."
How many Kossites remember receiving such information about the risks of any of the vaccines administered to your cats (or pets)? I sure haven’t!
Finally, according to Morrison and Starr:
"Vaccination should be viewed as a medical procedure to be performed only after careful assessment of the needs of the patient, rather than as an automatic act dictated by the calendar. Each veterinarian and cat owner must determine the relative risk of disease for individual cats and make appropriate decisions regarding vaccination...
The VAFSTF recommends that previously issued guidelines on standardization of vaccination and injection sites, diagnosis and management of VAFS, and reporting of adverse events be followed."
Kossites, what experience have all of you had with your veterinarians regarding informed consent around vaccination?
My friend is currently seeking a consultation with a veterinary oncologist as she contemplates what to do. Though Rosie is "just a cat", many of us love our feline friends. Furthermore, we trust that the USDA charged with oversight of veterinary medicine and especially our professional veterinarians will uphold their responsibility to us to provide necessary information and to act in behalf of their patients.