A person I work with got a letter from their vet stating that there is a serious outbreak of feline calicivirus in our area, and that he should bring his cats in right away for vaccination because the disease has a high mortality rate.
I'd always thought that calicivirus was like herpesvirus, and not particularly life-threatening, so I did a bit of research when I got home.
I'm going to guess the letter refers to what I came across, which was called systemic feline calcicivirus (VS-FCV) and does indeed have much more dire consequences.
Has anyone else heard anything in their area?
I found a couple of websites like this one:
Pet-Related Diseases & Human Health-Emerging Feline Disease Causes Tragic Loss for Cat Owner
Is there too much nudging toward the wonderful, great, new vaccine (i.e., is this clever marketing?). I'd hate to think that someone's vet would send out a letter in that case, though.
I don't like over-vaccinating because of sarcoma risks, so I'm not going to get them vaccinations that aren't really necessary, but I don't want to risk something really deadly that I could bring into the house, either.
I'm also going to ask my own vet, but I like to get opinions from folks on here too. I have a hard time judging this sort of stuff since I lost Willow to FIP - it makes me a little overprotective in some ways, so my meter is a bit off.
