Lyme Vaccinations...

[The Cairn Farm]

I just pulled my first tick of the year off Chloe. She is protected by Frontline Plus, but I'm wondering if I should vaccinate her with the Lyme Vaccination. Anybody have any advice for me? Pros and Cons?

[sanford]

I'd say "Yes" to the vaccination. Because of the warm winter it is predicted that we will have a very bad year with higher than usual deer tick transmitted Lyme disease.

[Sam I Am]

Cant help with advise on this one.......Again there are good things to living up in the frozen north...few things survive our winters.

[Hillscreek]

Same as Sandford here in PA. Warm winter more ticks so possibility of more Lyme disease. I am currently us Advantix II which is said to kills ticks as as well as fleas and other bugs.

I would talk with your vet about which is best for you in your area.

[Dempsy's Mom]

Went fencing with Demps today. Out about an hour. Crazy thick with ticks. I bet I pulled 50 ticks off of Demps and 3 or 4 off of me. Yikes. So I think I may look into a vaccination. Creepy things.

[jo_]

I'm sometimes leery about over-vaccinating but after picking two off of Eddie last week and having my neighbour pull four off of their dog we opted for the vaccine. Lyme disease used to be rare in Ontario (Canada) but it started to pop up in many places throughout the province. We started our guys on Revolution last week. A little earlier than normal but with this strange spring our vet advised us to start early. I was told it can take up to 24 hours for the Revolution to work against ticks. By that time if the tick happened to be carrying Lyme disease it might be too late which is why we decided to vaccinate. I tried to identify the ticks that were on Eddie but couldn't tell if they were deer ticks or not. Either way they were NASTY!!

[sanford]

Went fencing with Demps today. Out about an hour. Crazy thick with ticks. I bet I pulled 50 ticks off of Demps and 3 or 4 off of me. Yikes. So I think I may look into a vaccination. Creepy things.

I'm a worry-wort and after reading about the ticks on your property, I'm adding Demps to my list of worries. A vaccine doesn't exist for us humans, but dogs are ahead of the game because they can be vaccinated.

The deer ticks that spread Lyme disease are very small and hard to see; they are easy to miss. Therefore, the disease often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed until the disease has progressed and caused illness.

P.S. I would suggest spraying your boots/shoes and bottoms of pants legs before going into (tall,grassy) areas where ticks are known to have been. I used to be careless about this precaution... until I was bit. I developed the tell-tale red bull's eye rash and was able to get treatment for Erlichiosis.

[Dempsy's Mom]

eeew. These were all different sizes. I was astonished to see so many on my sweet Demps. He kinda liked getting rolled around and picked over I think, but I bet he felt better with these darn things off him, a bath, new spray and new front line. I have seen them this bad another time - again when I was fencing - so it must be a perfect year for them. Yup, their nothing to mess with.

[MegsMom]

I'd say research, research, research; it's one of those that there are good things & bad things about it. When I learned it could actually induce lifelong arthritis as a possible reaction, that was my 'anti' deciding factor. Having an in-office test done shortly after finding a tick (or doing a ck regularly through the season), to determine if antibiotics need to be started, that will cure the disease, and not possibly have a dog with extra years of arthritis, I will afford. [And the typically used antibiotic is often on a drug store's "cheap" list, if your vet will prescribe through a human pharmacy.] But my decision may not be your decision, that's why I say 'research'.

[The Cairn Farm]

After researching the vaccination, we have opted to go with switching them to Advantix II. I don't like the effects of a vaccination that isn't even 50% effective! Crazy! Thanks for all your advice!

[kjwarnold]

I talked to our vet the other day about Lyme vaccinations for Packy & Kirby. Packy picks up ticks everywhere, while Kirby rarely has one. They both go in the same places, so it's just weird. Anyway, our vet said there's a pretty low rate of Lyme disease in our area (Missouri) and he really doesn't worry about it. What he does worry about is ehrlichiosis, which is common here and he's seen quite a bit already this year. He said if there was a vaccination for that, he'd recommend them in a heartbeat. Humans can also get ehrlichiosis. I'd check with your vet to see what he recommends; he's probably aware of the TBDs (tick-borne diseases) in your area and what to look for.

Oh, I forgot to mention that both of our dogs are on Frontline Plus. They get ticks but at least they are dead when I find them.