You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Every year millions of pets have a short "holiday" in a cattery or kennels, and every year owners forget to check whether their pets vaccinations are up to date until the last minute

Several of the most serious infectious diseases in cats and dogs (eg Distemper, Infectious hepatitis, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis, Kennel Cough, Panleukopenia, Feline Leukemia, Cat Flu and Rabies) can be prevented by vaccination and most owners do have their pet protected when they are young, but as time goes on fewer and fewer owners have regular boosters. There are two main reasons why you should make sure your pet is fully vaccinated before it goes on its holidays to a kennel/cattery :

• To protect your pet in case it comes in to contact with an infectious disease whilst it is there
• To minimise the risk to other pets by ensuring that your pet is vaccinated, and so not likely to be carrying a serious infectious disease

Last minute vaccinations are sometimes accepted by a kennel or cattery, but this is a risky business because :

• The animal that has been vaccinated may not have had enough time, or enough doses of the vaccine, to develop sufficient  immunity to a disease if it is exposed to it
• Late vaccination gives little reassurance that the animal is not be carrying an infection - because it could be infected but not showing signs

In addition, you should have your pet fully vaccinated before you take it away on holiday with you because it may come into contact with  infections to which it has no natural immunity. This is particularly likely if you are going abroad to foreign countries.under the Passport Scheme. You should,try to have your pet vaccinated against as many diseases in your destination as possible eg Leishmania. 

Provet's advice is : Have your pets booster vaccines regularly as advised by your veterinarian. If you do this your pet will be continuously protected and you won't get caught out if it has to go into a kennel/cattery at short notice.

Updated October 2013