This has been discussed on another cat forum, and thought you might be interested as it mentions the rabies jab and alternating it. This came from FAB
Interesting info on vaccines...
What problems may be associated with vaccination?
Side effects from vaccines are very rare, especially in view of the thousands of doses that are administered every year. The most common side effects are very mild, and include lethargy, inappetence or tenderness at the injection site. More marked side effects may include vomiting, diarrhoea, lameness, fever, signs of respiratory tract infection, or lumps at the site of injection. Kittens and young cats appear to be more likely to develop problems than older cats. Another adverse effect that may be reported is lack of efficacy. Whilst this may be due to genuine vaccine failure, it may also be due to infection before vaccination, or a deficient immune system resulting in an inability by the cat to mount an immune response.
The side effect that has received the most attention in recent years is fibrosarcoma – this is a tumour that develops at the site of vaccination. A number of cats may develop a small nodule at the site of injection, associated with inflammation. This will normally disappear within three to four weeks, but if it does not, the chronic inflammation can lead to the development of a fibrosarcoma tumour. Inflammation is more likely to arise with vaccines that contain a substance called an adjuvant which is included in the vaccine to improve their efficacy. Adjuvanted vaccines are typically the FeLV and rabies vaccines.
The incidence of fibrosarcoma in the USA is estimated to be one case per 10,000, whereas in the UK it is estimated to be 0.04 cases per 10,000 doses of vaccine. This difference may be explained by different vaccines available in the two countries, and the greater frequency of rabies vaccination in the USA .
Injection-associated fibrosarcomas are very invasive, which makes them difficult to remove. In the USA , some guidelines recommend rabies vaccinations are administered in the right hind leg, and leukaemia vaccines are administered in the left hind leg. This is partly because, should a fibrosarcoma develop at these sites, limb amputation is possible and offers a better chance of complete removal than trying to remove an invasive tumour from the neck region.
While fibrosarcoma is a devastating disease, it should be remembered that FeLV is also a fatal disease. The incidence of FeLV is far greater than fibrosacroma, at one to two cases per 100 cats, with some areas having a much higher prevalence of disease.
Conclusions
Vaccination is generally a safe procedure that has substantially reduced the incidence of serious disease within the feline population. That said, vaccines are not entirely without risk, and appropriate and judicious use is indicated. Individual cats that do not tolerate vaccines may still be protected if the vast majority of the feline population is protected, as the infections do not have sufficient numbers of susceptible hosts to become established. However, if a sufficiently high number of cats were to be unprotected, diseases such as panleukopenia that are currently very rare could become re-established within the feline population.
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BY THE WAY:
...In pharmacology, adjuvants are drugs that have few or no pharmacological effects by themselves, but may increase the efficacy or potency of other drugs when given at the same time. So basically, this is why the cancer is happening... The companies are making the vaccines too strong by adding this ingredient...
