Lyme disease vaccination
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| Kim, I've always vaccinated Brick for Lyme disease (and Zeke when he was in my care). It may not prevent it completely, but it reduces the chance of him getting it. And I'm all for any kind of reduction in chance of disease. |
| New Jersey has an extremely high population of ticks. At least 20% of the people I know have had Lyme's disease before (including, myself) Ticks here are just a way of life, just like a housefly. They are everywhere and I have found them on myself, my husb., the dog, crawling around etc. We just pick them up and burn them or flush them. There are deer ticks (which are the size of a freckle or dog ticks/brown tickets which are much bigger) Deer ticks are the troubling ones bec/ many carry the disease and they are hard to detect bec/ they are so tiny so they can stay on you for awhile without noticing. When you remove a tick quickly, or less the 36 hours, then the chances are much less for development of a disease. With that said, I have opted at this point not to vaccinate Dahlia. I also did not vaccinate my other OES. I spoke to my vet in length about the vaccine and she did not vaccinate her own dogs and we live near each other. We also grew up together as neighbors, so I trust her opinion and have known her a long time. She told me that although the vaccine can prevent against Lyme's, it does not prevent against all of the other tick-borne diseases. You still have to use Frontline or what of those preventative medicines. She also told me about the potential side effects of the vaccine itself. I have witnessed this first hand with my Sis-in law's 1st golden who had a severe reaction. She obviously opted not to give her new young golden this vaccine either. I think you are in an extremely low risk area, and you should talk to your vet about the options. Learn about the vaccine, the side effects and the pluses and minuses of giving it to your dog. One thing to consider, there is no current Lyme's disease vaccine for humans. I am also very cautious and hesitant about "over vaccination" but, that is just my opinion as a fur-parent. |
| We live on a golf course, surrounded by hundreds of acres of forest preserve. Deer and coyote cross through our yard on a regular basis. We seem to have much more of a problem with the brown tick/American dog tick than deer ticks, and only in the nymph stage. (American dog ticks carry many diseases, but not Lyme.) As Oscar is always on a lead, he doesn't get a chance to wander through the underbrush or tall grass, so we limit our exposure to ticks that way, though they have been known to blow off the trees. Due to Oscar's Immune Mediated Disease, we do not vaccinate for anything we don't absolutely have to, including Lyme disease. However, my vets don't vaccinate their own dogs either, though they live in a more urban area near the city of Chicago. Laurie and Oscar |
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