Lyme Disease Vaccination?

Hello,

I should be bringing home my first Corgi friend this Sunday. He is 12 months old. I plan on taking him with us as we hike through the woods, but I am concerned that my area is a huge hot spot for Lyme disease. I've seen a lot of articles saying bad things about the doggy Lyme vaccination, but many of these articles are over three years old. However, I've seen that there was a new vaccine release in 2009, and I don't really see a lot of feedback - positive or negative - regarding the vaccine.

Having a lowrider, I assume that the risk to pick up ticks is a bit higher than dogs of higher stature, I want to know if the consensus is still that it is safer/preferred to just treat Lyme disease if the dog gets symptoms than it is to give the dog a vaccination for it.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on June 16, 2011 at 12:14pm

See what your vet recommends. We vaccinate.

My parents' dog just came up positive for Lyme. "Just treating" sounds fine, but treating is 30 days on an antibiotic. The dog was sore before the dx, and they thought it was just old age (she's 9) but her soreness and decreased appetite went away with treatment.

The criticism with the old vaccine is that some dogs developed a post-Lyme type syndrome (arthritis, mainly) after vaccination and that could not be treated. The flip side to that is that there are reports among people of developing chronic Lyme after infection and not being able to recover. So, both sides of the argument have merit, IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Jane on June 16, 2011 at 12:37pm

The tech at my vet recommended it, but since we don't go into woods much and the vaccine is not 100% effective I chose not to. My regular vet has never pushed it. Both of my dogs are on Frontline Plus which is supposed to kill ticks though.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on June 16, 2011 at 12:51pm

Congratulations! We live in the country with lots of woods but we only have about a month where the ticks are bad. I also use the frontline but only once when they start getting bad. I don't think corgis are anymore prone to get ticks than any other dog. Since I am not a big fan of any extra vaccinations I don't.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer evans on June 16, 2011 at 4:26pm

I live in MD and the ticks here have been crazy( and i live in a developed area). I got Toady's knowing that he would be bitten and I didn't want to take a chance, even though hes on advantix.

One of my best friends has lymes and it can be painful for her, I wouldn't want toady experiencing that in any way.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bauer on June 16, 2011 at 11:00pm

Back in 99 when we moved to our "dream" farm our new pup, yellow lab Travis, became very ill...he was only 7 months old and sick as a "dog" pun intended! wouldn't eat wouldn't drink, just laid there...well with Labs you know that is WRONG! I hauled him off to the vet and since they are very proactive, gave him the anti-biotic (starts with a D...I have taken it too for a bite) and within 12 hours he was back to himself. Since then at every years checkup we check...it took 10 years for the Lymes to leave his body!!!! He is now 12 and doing ok for a tall 12 year old lab!

I take no chances, when my vet told me about the new Lymes vac in 09, we have done it for all our babies...I'm not an over-doer with vacs and the like, but heck, I would rather take that chance that it may help them not get that awful disease than not. Mine do Frontline Plus too!

Hope this helps!

Nancy Emma Katie & Jack (Bauer)

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Permalink Reply by Beth on June 17, 2011 at 4:04pm

The antibiotic is Doxycycline, and it's the same one used for humans with Lyme (and some other illnesses).

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on June 17, 2011 at 4:17pm

If you live in a high tick area don't think about it twice! My son lives in Virginia, where ticks are endemic, and their dog got lyme disease. They don't have any woods, but ticks love tall grass too. Now they vaccinate their dogs and also use the monthly flea/tick preventive ( Once bitten, twice shy...) The vaccine has been around a long time now and the tradeoff seems worth it.