Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Richard Fox — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:45:13 GMT

Yup - I reckon honesty is the best policy unless it is a very small error with no possible repercussions and is corrected 'in house".

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

VetSurgeon — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:30:46 GMT

Yes - told the client straight away. No problems and got them to come back later.

Have also realised that I have given a dog part of a polyvalent vaccine and missed mixing it with the powdery one! Ooops - again told the client and repeated it!

And yes - first year out tried to spay a tom cat!

Another mess up was trying to spey a cat and incising into the bladder - should have emptied the bladder first. I corrected the problem and told the client what had happened and they were fine about it....I went against what my boss recommended - she had advised me not to tell the client....ahhh the joys of being a new grad. I no longer work at this place for obvious reasons!

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:27:06 GMT

Been there, done that, every possible permutation, got the tee shirt. Last one was cat given dog vaccine, I meant to re-vaccinate when it came in for neutering a few weeks later but forgot all about it. Cat now has Chlamydophila - not a good one to confess to but should I give the Ronaxan for less to appease my conscience? Tricky one.

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Bob Russell — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:31:49 GMT

[quote user="i am ed"]

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"] Have also injected the kennel cough vaccine.........[/quote]

I was under the impression that this can induce anaphylaxis, or or have other similarly serious consequences. Might be wrong, of course!

[/quote]

If it has caused anaphylaxis I have never heard of a case. I have seen dire things written down but have never heard of anyone ever having a problem. Start the telephone call or conversation with 'I am sorry this is very embarrassing but.......' then apologise for the fact that the pet will not able to go out for an extra few weeks rather than dwell on possible side effects!!!

Kittens should not be allowed contact with the outside world at a young age anyway - they get into trouble!!!

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Richard Fox — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:39:09 GMT

Don't worry , it will just be immune to CDV, canine parainfluenza etc as well as feline panleukcopaenia etc when you give it the normal vaccine in 4 weeks time :) To err is human :) we ALL make mistakes from time to time :)

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:27:58 GMT

Can't remember injecting dog vaccine to cat (maybe have done, but didn't realise, so stuck correct vaccine sticker on card and sent it home ) I have injected kennel cough-thankfully noadverse reactions-and yes have tried to spay a tom-cat, I usually check but this was brought in by RSPCA lady, as localbranch used to pay for needy owners to have animals neutered,and my nurse and I both assumed she had checked-and she did say spay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wynne

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Gina Dungworth — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:18:28 GMT

Kennel cough vaccines are a bit different (assuming you're referring to the intra-nasal bordatella variety) as they aren't designed to be injected. My main worry would be the live vaccine causing an abscess at the injection site, although I don't remember any cases of it happening off the top of my head.

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Edward Jones — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:02:56 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"] Have also injected the kennel cough vaccine.........[/quote]

I was under the impression that this can induce anaphylaxis, or or have other similarly serious consequences. Might be wrong, of course!

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Gina Dungworth — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:51:21 GMT

Plenty of vets have done it, and I haven't heard of any serious outcomes.

Speak to the manufacturer though, both for your own piece of mind, and so that they can keep it on record formonitoring purposes. I'm sure we only hear about a fraction of the 'wrong' vaccinations that happen out in the big wide world.

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Vikki Halliday LLB — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:39:31 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

Try to spay a tom cat anyone?

[/quote]

My old boss once called me to our upstairs operating room, and mopping the sweat from his brow with his upper arm, asked me if I could look over his shoulder and see if I could spot the uterus in a cat he was spaying, as he was " buggered if he could find it".

I lifted it's tail.

I have never yet seen such a look of 1. relief that he was not going crackers, and 2, embarrassment that he'd been a bit hasty in slicing.

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:34:45 GMT

Oh and now fes up - we all have. Who are you really?

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:34:09 GMT

Yes I have too. Told owner and gave correct vaccine straight away. Have also injected the kennel cough vaccine.........

Try to spay a tom cat anyone?

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

bob lehner — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:28:30 GMT

Yup - anyone who has been in practice for any length of time will have done something along those lines.

Have a look at 'In Practice', May 2010, volume 32, no 5 , p214 - 'Everyday ethics' - discusses this very scenario.

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Colin Cameron — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:39:44 GMT

Been there, done that and checked with manufactures post haste to be told not to worry as dog vaccs checked in cats and vice versa.

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Vikki Halliday LLB — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:33:37 GMT

I haven't (so far as I am aware) given a dog vaccine to a cat, I did recently give a cat vaccine to a dog by mistake. The usual, long day, run of kitten vax, chatting to owner, turned to fridge and extracted green and silver without thinking about it, and only when I was looking for the bottle to peel the sticker off did I realise what I had done!

Gave the dog vax after Intervet advised the worst that would happen was an abscess at the injection site.

But how big a fool did I feel!

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Hannah Wynne Richards — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:11:51 GMT

I know it's the other way round, but when canine parvo exploded on the scene, there were no dog vaccines,and we were advised to use cat panleucopaenia vaccine

Wynne

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

Mark Holmes — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:11:19 GMT

Don't feel bad I have checked and everybody I have asked has given a rather embarrassed cough and said very quietly "yes" and usually "more than once". I have done it myself a number of times. Not for a few years now but in the first couple of years post grad. There is more than one cat in the east yorkshire area well covered against distemper!

Re: Accidently giving a dog vaccine to a kitten.

macflea — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:06:40 GMT

done it myself , very busy consult afternoon , cant remember which way aound i gave vaccines , rang vaccines makers , they told to wait 4 weeks and then give right vaccine , they told me not to worry . so for your own peace of mind i recommend ringing vaccine manufactures tomorrow.