Hello Advemture_Me:
Hopefully I can give you some ideas of what's happening.
Some years ago, the vet we had - who was an integrative vet - when questioned about the use of vaccines, he informed me that they did not make the 1 year vaccine. It wasn't till later that I found out that the 3 year vaccine carries a one year label. In other words, the 3 year vaccine is used under a separate label. And the protocol in regards to administration is different than the 3 year.
In a lot of instances, the one year vaccine is used to entice the people to come back in annually for checkup and vaccine shots. The reason for this is - if it was administered for 3 years, people wouldn't bring their animals for an annual checkup, and that would cause the loss of revenues.
As far as taking a prescription to a pharmacist for filling - if the pharmacist has had training in animal pharmacy, they would know. We have had 2 pharmacists in the one shop that we used to frequent, that were trained - one in large animals and one in small animals.
From what I gather in talking to these pharmacists, the art is to fill the prescription to the letter that the vet had prescribed. With doing human pharmacy, if the druggist is out of one of the particular brand of medication, they usually have a backup to substitute. If the pharmacist does the same thing with a vet's prescription, this could have devastating consequences. As the pharmacist told me, if they run into this problem, they contact the vet who wrote the prescription to find out if there is an alternate, rather than taking it on their own owness.
As far as this type of harrassment, I'm sorry but if it was me that was getting it, I'd be long gone. I had a vet that was in the same boat as you are experiencing.
It sounds too as though your cat's immune system has been compromised and shouldn't be getting annual vaccines. When was your cat diagnosed with the condition she has? and was it any time around the time of vaccinations? I gather your kitty is a spayed female - how close to that procedure was there vaccine medications administered? We had one kitten who was given the full range of vaccines and 48 hours later she was spayed. This set up for a life time of issues with her.
I am including a couple of web sites for you to check out. The rabies challenge web site was given to me by my integrative vet mentioned above - and the 2nd one is a letter put out by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association in regards to changing the label on the rabies vaccine.
https://www.rabieschallengefund.org/
https://www.canadianveterinarians.ne...-be-phased-out
I think I would be trying to contact the vet in Hamilton and see if it's possible to have an online or telephone consultation? Or could they suggest a vet that is accessible for you in the Toronto area, that you can consult with by phone.
One other thing - every city, town, and township and county in the province, has By-laws regarding vaccines that could differ from one another. It might be wise to get in touch with the powers that be and find out exactly what the By-law is where you live so you know exactly what you can and cannot do and where the vet is coming from with his harassment.
Where we live we just have to deal with the Provincial Department of Health law re vaccination. And that is "they will be vaccinated"......done......there are no other timelines.
Sorry about the ramble on. Best of luck.