Dog and Cat Vaccines: The Schedule, the Prices and the $10 Rabies Shot

Core vaccines: every dog, every cat

Non-core: depends on where the animal goes

Prices are the vaccine alone. Add the $50 - 100 exam fee at a private practice unless the shots are given during an annual visit you were making anyway.

The puppy and kitten schedule

Maternal antibodies wear off unpredictably between 6 and 16 weeks, which is why the series repeats: each dose catches the animals whose protection lapsed since the last one.

Some vets add a fourth DHPP dose at 18 to 20 weeks for high-risk breeds (Rottweilers, Dobermans) or puppies in parvo-heavy areas. A puppy is not reliably protected until a week or two after the final dose; that is why the advice is to keep it off public ground until then, and why parvo in an unfinished puppy is a $2,000 to 5,000 hospital stay.

The rabies law

Every state but one (Hawaii, which is rabies-free and has quarantine instead) requires dogs to be vaccinated against rabies; most require it for cats and ferrets too. The vaccine has to be given by a licensed veterinarian — not a self-administered shot from the feed store — and the certificate is what the county wants when you license the dog, what the boarding kennel asks for, and what keeps an animal that bites someone out of a ten-day quarantine at your expense. The first dose is good for one year; boosters are labeled for one or three years, and which one you get is often a matter of what the clinic stocks.

What you can and cannot do yourself

Feed stores and online retailers sell DHPP and FVRCP for $10 to 20 a dose, and in most states you may legally give them to your own animal. Two cautions: the vaccine is only as good as the cold chain between the warehouse and your refrigerator, and a boarding kennel, groomer or daycare will usually not accept a self-administered vaccine without a vet's signature. Rabies can never be self-administered. For a single pet the savings rarely cover the risk; for a breeder or a rescue with twenty puppies, it is standard.

Titers instead of boosters

A titer test ($80 to 200) measures antibody levels and can justify skipping a DHPP or FVRCP booster in an adult that is still protected. It costs more than the shot it replaces, so people do it for medical reasons (a prior vaccine reaction, an immune condition), not to save money. Titers are not accepted in place of rabies vaccination by any state.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an indoor cat need vaccines?

Rabies, yes — it is the law in most states, and bats get into apartments. FVRCP, yes, because the viruses travel on shoes and clothing. FeLV can be dropped for an adult cat that truly never goes out and lives with no cats that do.

Why does my vet want yearly boosters when the label says three years?

Ask. Some practices have not updated to the three-year protocol that the AAHA and AAFP guidelines have supported since the 2000s; some are following a one-year rabies label because that is what they stock. A three-year vaccine on a three-year schedule is the current standard for core vaccines in healthy adults.

Are vaccine reactions common?

Mild soreness and a sleepy day are common; serious reactions are rare. Small breeds and animals getting several vaccines at once are at slightly higher risk, which is a reason to split the shots across visits for a five-pound dog. In cats, injection-site sarcomas are rare enough that the guidelines simply say to inject low on a limb.

What does the whole first year cost?

At a private practice, with exam fees, roughly $400 to 700 for a puppy and $300 to 500 for a kitten, before spay or neuter. At a low-cost clinic, a third of that.