Every cat in India shares the same short list of must-have shots: FVRCP, which covers three feline viruses, and rabies. Beyond those two, what a cat needs depends on how it lives, and FeLV is the one that moves between the lists depending on the cat's age, whether it gets outdoors, and whether the virus is common where it lives. The core and non-core split is how a vet decides what your particular cat should have, and it is the reason an indoor flat cat and a free-roaming terrace cat can end up with different vaccination cards.
The full schedule lives in the main cat vaccination guide. This page is about the decision behind it, which shots your particular cat actually needs.
What "core" and "non-core" actually mean
The global veterinary guidelines from the WSAVA sort vaccines into three groups. Core vaccines are the ones all cats should receive, after considering their lifestyle and the geographical locations where they live or to which they travel, because the diseases are severe, common, or both. Non-core vaccines are optional and lifestyle-based, recommended only for a cat whose life exposes it to a particular infection. A third group WSAVA does not recommend for pet cats at all.
The point of the split is to vaccinate a cat for what it is genuinely at risk of, and to avoid piling on shots it does not need. A vet works out where your cat sits and builds the plan from there.
Core for every cat
For cats, the core vaccines are FVRCP and rabies.
FVRCP is the combination shot against feline panleukopenia, herpesvirus and calicivirus, the three feline viruses that do a cat the most harm. Rabies is core in India because the country is endemic for rabies, the Government of India runs a national action plan aimed at eliminating dog-mediated rabies by 2030, and the WHO records that once clinical symptoms appear the disease is virtually 100% fatal. WSAVA treats the rabies vaccine as essential for cats anywhere the disease is endemic, even where no law requires it. These two cover the threats that do not care whether a cat ever leaves the house.
FeLV, the one in between
Feline leukaemia virus, FeLV, sits between core and non-core, and where it lands depends on the cat and on the country it lives in.
WSAVA attaches a condition to this one that is easy to miss. In regions where FeLV infection is prevalent, it treats the vaccine as core for cats under a year old, and for older cats with a continuing risk of exposure, the example it gives being adults with regular, unsupervised outdoor access in areas where the virus is endemic. What counts is contact with an infected cat, and WSAVA notes that such contact can happen indoors or outdoors. For a settled indoor-only adult with no feline visitors it is non-core. WSAVA adds that the cost, risks and benefits are worth weighing at every annual health check, except in regions where FeLV is known to be exceedingly rare.
India is where that condition starts to matter. FeLV appears nowhere on the register of veterinary vaccines that India's drug regulator, CDSCO, has cleared for marketing between 2010 and the end of 2025, and the only feline products on that register are three versions of the same CRP combination. The Indian catalogues of MSD Animal Health and Virbac tell the same story, listing a CRP vaccine and a rabies vaccine for cats and nothing further. If you are offered an imported FeLV dose, no product matching it appears on the published register, so you have no Indian regulatory record to check its batch or its cold chain against. WSAVA anticipates this situation directly, noting that a vaccine considered crucially important in one region may elsewhere be unnecessary or simply unavailable, and that national associations are meant to adapt the guidelines locally. No Indian adaptation has been published.
The honest position on the risk is that none of the guidelines, registers and catalogues behind this page carries an Indian FeLV prevalence figure. WSAVA's condition turns on whether the virus is prevalent where a cat actually lives, and for India that is the one number an owner cannot look up.
That leaves the part of the guidance that needs no vaccine at all. WSAVA says avoiding exposure is the best way to prevent FeLV infection, and the European ABCD guideline puts identifying and isolating infected cats alongside vaccination as the primary measure. In practice that means testing before a new cat joins a household with cats, keeping the newcomer separate until the result is back, keeping your own cats from free-roaming, since close contact and bite wounds are the main routes the virus takes, and neutering, which ABCD advises to cut the roaming and territorial aggression behind those bites. If you are ever in a position to vaccinate, the blood test still comes first, because the shot only helps a cat that is not already carrying the virus.
The genuinely optional ones
The clearly non-core cat vaccines are added only for specific situations:
- Chlamydia felis: for cats in multi-cat homes or shelters where this cause of conjunctivitis circulates.
- Bordetella: not routinely used in pet cats, and considered mainly for cats kept in unusually large colonies.
WSAVA also lists a few vaccines it does not recommend for pet cats at all, including those against feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), Giardia and ringworm. If a clinic offers one of these, it is fair to ask why.
Whether any of these is available near you is a separate question from whether your cat needs it. Ask your vet what is actually stocked locally, which for most cats in India brings the real decision down to the core two and how carefully the household manages exposure.
The indoor-cat myth
"My cat never goes out, so it does not need vaccines" is a common reason cats go unprotected, and it does not hold up. Panleukopenia virus can stay infectious in a contaminated environment for weeks or even months, and calicivirus survives up to a month on dry surfaces at room temperature, so both can travel into a home on shoes, clothes and other pets. Herpesvirus survives about as long on a surface at room temperature, but a contaminated environment does not generally drive its spread outside crowded catteries, so it travels mainly by direct contact between cats. Rabies is a public-health matter in an endemic country, and an indoor cat that does get out is exposed like any other. An indoor life genuinely lowers a cat's exposure to the lifestyle diseases, which is why the optional ones may not be needed. It does not remove the need for the core FVRCP and rabies, which an indoor cat needs as much as any other. The lifestyle extras are the part it can usually skip.
Matching it to an Indian cat's life
A few common Indian setups make the split concrete:
- A single indoor flat cat that never leaves: core FVRCP and rabies, and usually nothing more.
- A cat with balcony or terrace access, or one that free-roams a building: the core two, plus a serious conversation about limiting contact with unknown cats, since that contact is the FeLV risk and India has no vaccine on the register for it.
- A multi-cat home, or a cat that boards when you travel: the core two, FeLV testing for every cat in the house and for any new arrival before it joins them, and a conversation about Chlamydia depending on the setting.
Your vet will fine-tune it, but the pattern is steady: everyone gets the core, and the extras track how much your cat mixes with other cats and the outside world.
Frequently asked questions
Do indoor cats really need vaccines?
Yes, the core ones. FVRCP and rabies are recommended for every cat regardless of lifestyle, because the viruses can reach an indoor cat and rabies is a public-health issue in India. The lifestyle vaccines are the ones an indoor cat can usually skip.
Which vaccines are core for cats in India?
FVRCP, the combination against panleukopenia, herpesvirus and calicivirus, and rabies. Both are recommended for every cat. WSAVA also treats FeLV as core for cats under a year and for outdoor-access adults in regions where the virus is endemic, but no FeLV vaccine appears on India's published register of veterinary vaccines, and neither the MSD Animal Health India nor the Virbac India catalogue lists one, so the core two are what an owner here can actually plan around.
Does my cat need the FeLV vaccine?
It depends on the cat and on where you are. WSAVA calls FeLV core for cats under a year and for adults with outdoor access, in regions where the virus is endemic, and non-core for settled indoor-only adults. In India the question is largely settled for you, since no FeLV vaccine appears on the published register of veterinary vaccines and the Indian catalogues of MSD Animal Health and Virbac do not list one. Testing, isolating new cats and limiting contact with unknown cats do that work instead. For anyone who does vaccinate, a blood test comes first, since the vaccine only helps a cat that is not already infected.
The bottom line
Every cat in India needs the core vaccines, FVRCP and rabies, whether it ever goes out or not. The non-core shots are added to match your cat's actual life. FeLV is the exception worth knowing about, because WSAVA treats it as core for young and outdoor cats in regions where the virus is endemic, and no FeLV vaccine appears on India's published register, so testing and managing exposure carry that job here. To decode the FVRCP combination itself, see the FVRCP explainer, and for the full schedule, the main cat vaccination guide.
If you are still choosing a vet, Nuzzy's PetMap lists verified clinics near you, and PetLife holds the whole plan and its reminders together.
Sources
- WSAVA Guidelines for the Vaccination of Dogs and Cats. Squires RA, Crawford C, Marcondes M, Whitley N. Journal of Small Animal Practice 2024;65:277-316, doi 10.1111/jsap.13718. World Small Animal Veterinary Association (three groups: core, non-core, and vaccines not recommended for pet cats; core defined after considering lifestyle and the geographical locations where cats live or travel; FVRCP and rabies core for cats, rabies core wherever the disease is endemic even without a legal requirement; FeLV core for cats under one year in regions where FeLV infection is prevalent and for older cats with a continuing risk of exposure, with FeLV testing before vaccination; avoiding exposure is the best way to prevent FeLV infection; cost, risks and benefits reviewed at every annual health check except where FeLV is exceedingly rare; Chlamydia felis and Bordetella non-core, Bordetella mainly for cats in unusually large colonies; FIP, Giardia and Microsporum not recommended for pet cats; a vaccine crucially important in one region may elsewhere be unnecessary or simply unavailable, and national associations are expected to adapt the guidelines locally).
- Rabies fact sheet. World Health Organization, 5 June 2024 (once clinical symptoms appear, rabies is virtually 100% fatal; rabies infects mammals including cats).
- Adopt One Health, Stop Rabies: India launches new national action plan for dog mediated rabies elimination by 2030. World Health Organization (India is endemic for rabies and suffers approximately 36% of the world's human rabies deaths transmitted by dogs; India launched its National Action Plan for dog Mediated Rabies Elimination by 2030, and rabies is now a notifiable disease here).
- Veterinary Vaccines Approved by CDSCO from 2010 to 31-12-2025, Marketing Authorization (Form-45/Form-46). Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Government of India (no FeLV product appears anywhere on the register; the only feline entries are three versions of the same calicivirus, rhinotracheitis and panleukopenia combination).
- Vaccines. MSD Animal Health India (the cat products listed are Nobivac Tricat Trio, against feline calicivirus, rhinotracheitis and panleukopenia, and Nobivac Rabies; no FeLV product).
- Cat Vaccines. Virbac India (the cat products listed are Feligen CRP and Rabigen Mono; no FeLV product).
- Feline leukaemia virus infection. European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (identifying and isolating infected cats, alongside vaccination, are the primary measures against FeLV spread; test before vaccinating; isolate and retest a new cat before it joins the household; neutering reduces the roaming and territorial aggression behind bite wounds; saliva and bites are the main transmission routes; free-roaming raises risk).
- Feline panleukopenia. European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (in contaminated environments the virus may remain infectious for weeks or even months).
- Feline calicivirus infection. European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (the virus remains infectious for up to one month on dry surfaces at room temperature, and longer in colder or damper conditions).
- Feline herpesvirus infection. European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (the virus remains infectious for about one month at 25 degrees C and is inactivated within three hours at 37 degrees C; except in densely housed catteries, contamination of the environment does not generally play a role in transmission).
