Canine Lyme Disease Vaccinations

[Sisu]

I am going to be relocating to the upper Great Lakes (Lake Superior area). My dog's vet is recommending vaccinating for Lyme disease. Initially I thought it was a good idea and he ordered the vaccine. However, after reading a little I am concerned about potential side effects, and if the vaccine is even necessary. My buddy is an 8 year old Labrador Retriever that is in fantastic physical condition.

I'm interested to hear thoughts from dog "owners" (especially in the Lakes region) regarding the vaccine. In my short time looking into it, there are some serious arguments from serious doctors (Department Chair @ U Wisconsin for one) for not vaccinating. My concern is vaccinating an otherwise healthy, yet older, dog. He is out daily and picks up lots of ticks, mostly wood ticks and Lone Star, but the occasional deer tick. I don't use any of the pesticide products like fipronil et al. So he does pick up ticks on the regular.

I'm going to read more also, and I'll share anything pertinent here too. I'm probably making the move in the next 3-5 weeks +/- so I'll have to decide pretty soon as two injections are required separated by about 2 weeks.

 

[Midwest sticky]

No vaccination its to skechy. Get frontline much safer for the dog and keeps ticks away. It's what Ive always used for mine. There's a shitload of ticks here,get frontline and check your buddy for ticks daily and you're good.

 

[Green Squall]

My dog got lyme disease while vaccinated AND on frontline. He was just puppy, so maybe the vaccine wasn't built up enough in his blood stream to be effective. He was in a lot of pain, so I would definitely vaccinate just to be safe. I'm not from the great lakes region, but it seems to be a hotbed for deer ticks.

 

[Sisu]

No vaccination its to skechy. Get frontline much safer for the dog and keeps ticks away. It's what Ive always used for mine. There's a shitload of ticks here,get frontline and check your buddy for ticks daily and you're good.

Thanks. I'm leaning this way and still reading and thinking about it. I'd like to find a safer alternative to Frontline. I've used it before. One application seems to last about 2.5 months, and this dog swims a lot. I haven't used it for about 2 years. I just check him on the regular now.

My dog got lyme disease while vaccinated AND on frontline. He was just puppy, so maybe the vaccine wasn't built up enough in his blood stream to be effective. He was in a lot of pain, so I would definitely vaccinate just to be safe. I'm not from the great lakes region, but it seems to be a hotbed for deer ticks.

Did your vet put your pup on antibiotics to zap the Lyme's? I understand that will take care of the problem nearly always (my dog's vet pops doxycycline whenever he finds a tick on himself). The problem would be correctly recognizing the lameness or other symptoms before it became serious. I read that 95% of exposed dogs do not become infected or manifest symptoms. It's uncommon but there are the other 5%. Hope your pup got through it OK.

 

[Green Squall]

Ya, the antibiotics took care of it. Luckily, I caught it early. He would whimper whenever he took a step. I originally thought he hurt his leg or something, but the vet knew right away it was lyme. Other than that, he never had any adverse effects from the vaccine.

 

[Sisu]

I finally was able to find some multi-year data for reported cases of Lyme's in dogs at this site.

The same people produced a forecast for Lyme's that you can view here buried somewhere, but here is the forecast map:

Many veterinarians recommend against vaccinating in areas where infection rates are below 10 percent. Based on this I've decided to not vaccinate. Instead I'll just practice manual tick removal.

HTH someone

 

[Green Squall]

I think deer ticks need to be attached for 36-48 hrs for transmission of lyme disease. If your vigilant you should be fine. That's interesting about the 10% rule. My buddy has been diagnosed with cancer and I'm starting to wonder if all of these damn vaccinations/drugs had anything to do with it.

 

[Sisu]

Sorry to hear about your buddy. I hope a recovery/remission is possible. I've only skimmed but a lot of people do feel that over vaccinating may have something to do with it. It's tough because we select a veterinarian that we trust and generally follow his or her advice. I wonder how often a mature dog really does need (biologically) to be vaccinated for the core diseases.

This is the first time I've questioned this vet's advice; actually it was his current resident - who happens to be from the Great Lakes region. Turns out that the place I'm moving to has about the same rate of infection (<5%). Seems sloppy to recommend vaccination without knowing anything about destination. I think you could get most off in 36-48 hours. I'm not using any of those crazy insecticides like frontline either. Comb and forceps.

 

[Green Squall]

Thanks. Remission is possible but this kind of cancer will take him eventually. He's responding well to treatment and is in no pain. Doing great as a matter of fact.

I'm in a hot zone so I thought getting him vaccinated was the smart thing to do. We hike in the woods a lot. Everyone I know get's their dog's vaccinated around here. I don't plan on getting another dog, but if I do in the far far future I will definitely get some second opinions.

 

[Sisu]

Thanks. Remission is possible but this kind of cancer will take him eventually. He's responding well to treatment and is in no pain. Doing great as a matter of fact.

I'm in a hot zone so I thought getting him vaccinated was the smart thing to do. We hike in the woods a lot. Everyone I know get's their dog's vaccinated around here. I don't plan on getting another dog, but if I do in the far far future I will definitely get some second opinions.

You shouldn't kick yourself about it if you are. Like I said we trust our vets. And if I had found out that the area I'm going to was a hot spot, I probably would have agreed to the vaccination too, especially for a young dog.

Glad to hear he's feeling good and I hope you guys get to have a lot of good fun together. If only our dogs could live for 40 or 50 years or more.