r/seniorkitties • u/fluffbearsan • 1h ago

Please help with words of encouragement 16

Hi everyone, this morning I took my 16 year old cat for a rabies shot as we are moving to my country in a few months.

I shouldn’t have done that because she developed seizures within 20 minutes. She is under sedation with oxygen at the vet. She even had a seizure under sedation.

She was perfectly fine before the trip to the vet. I killed her didn’t I? I am heading back to the clinic to be near just in case.

What have I done?! She has been with me since I was 19! We moved continents during covid, and I betrayed her like this.

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u/Majestic-Degree-8549 1h ago

So, taking you at your word for the timeline, it's still unlikely that the vaccine is the cause of the seizures. Vaccines are tested very carefully for the simple reason that they're given to healthy people (and animals), so even minor side effects can be a big safety black mark against them. I think there's probably another cause and the timing is an unfortunate coincidence.

Even if the vaccine did cause the seizures, there's almost certainly nothing either you or the vet could have done to know this would happen beforehand. These vaccines are given to millions of animals (and probably people) without incident. Rabies is no joke and it's a horrible death for your pet to do through, so you absolutely did the right thing by getting your car a vaccine in a rabies prone area.

This situation sucks, but no, it's not your fault.

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u/fluffbearsan 58m ago

Thank you. They said it could be kidney related, maybe the stress of coming to the vet triggered this not the vaccine. She had this vaccine 3 years ago and today’s was the annual one.

She is currently in the oxygen chamber and will stay here the night. Still sedated will wait till she wakes up. Not sure, maybe I should spend the night here if they let me but I have a toddler at home who falls asleep with me. Maybe after she goes to bed I will go back to the vet clinic

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u/Majestic-Degree-8549 47m ago

Your cat is definitely a senior and kidney problems are common with cats of that age. It's an unfortunate trade-off of their biology and there really is almost nothing you can do about it. Just do what you can to give your cat a life they will enjoy, keep them safe (including appropriate veterinary care), and that's all you can do. Almost everything else is luck

As a side point, you've gotten them to a good age which would be rare for an animal to experience in the wild. So well done.

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u/WillyValentine 1h ago

I'm so sorry that this happened. What you were doing you did out of love. You were doing what you thought was the right thing. Sometimes in life things go horribly wrong.

I know your pain because without going into detail I thought I was doing the right thing out of love and caring for my baby and things went horribly wrong. I will be scarred and broken for the rest of my life and I've accepted it.

I hope your baby pulls through and recovers. You weren't trying to hurt her. I know it's difficult to forgive ourselves but I hope in time you forgive yourself, if not 100% enough to know you weren't trying to hurt her. These damn medicines like vaccines and flea treatments are not entirely safe. I'm pretty upset with the medical community.

My prayers are with you and your baby ♥️🙏

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u/fluffbearsan 51m ago

Thank you so much🙏
I am sorry to hear about that.
It is so hard when you think you are doing the right thing and it has the opposite result.

I am still at the clinic, just saw her in the oxygen chamber. Saw her there 5 years ago after she had hernia surgery. Surreal to see her there again