Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My dog has been vaccinated for Lyme Disease.. Just got a call from my Vet.. he said my dog has Lyme Disease..What is the sense of getting a vaccination if it is not going to work!He has been vaccinated the last 4 years..I just can not believe this. I am starting to think this shot is nothing but a scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is the shot from the same vet who told you your dog has Lyme? What did he/she say?
If it is a different vet, I would definitely notify. Look up the vac online. I doubt there is any guarantee enforceable but I would contact the manufacturer anyway.
Is it possible the lab made a mistake/ Has your dog been sick?
How serious is this disease in dogs? My husband had it a few years ago and he suffered for months.
I'm sorry for you and your dog.
I understand there is a high percentage of false positives after this vaccine. look in the archieves on Lyme Disease. I just read an older thread and it had good info.
this is very common and why my vet wont even consider the lymes vaccine for anythign but hunting dogs (even though were in a high lymes area)
the vaccine only protects against certain strains, and the strains it does protect against its effectivness is not exactly great (as your finding out)
and the risk of allergic reaction is so high...
we (myself and my vet) just dont think its worth it, plain and simple.
infact most of the vaccines folks give their dog year after year are useless or overkill...
i hear people all the time going on about how they give the bordatella shot (kennel cough) like its this amazing thing, but it only coveres some strains and its effectivness in general is incredibly low even on the strians it does work against...
while other vaccines actually provide long term and even lifetime immunity and yet vets (or more so the pharmacuitcle companies) encorage pumping these vaccines into them every year...ect.
my personal method...
at 8, and 16 weeks of age we do distemper, parvo and adeno-2 (all seperated by a couple of days i NEVER do combo shots)
rabies at 6 months, no earlier...
then at 1 1/2 yrs they get distemper, parvo and adeno-2 and their rabies booster (good for 3 years)
we USED to then do titer testing ( a blood test checking for immunity) every year, now though after a couple of years of checks with no need to revaccinate, we titer every 3 years at the same time we do the rabies (we only do rabies every 3 years because its required by law reguardless of titer results)
as of yet our oldes is almost 10 yrs old and hasnt needed a single vaccine since his 1 1/2 yr boosters. (other than his rabies)
none of our dogs have had any vaccinations since their intial "puppy shot follow up at about 1 1/2 yrs old) titers always come back clear.
we NEVER do:
parainfluenza, the risk isnt high enough...
bordetella my dogs dont board, rarely socilize with strange dogs and the vaccine isnt very effective even on the strains it is approved for...its also very common for producing an allrgic reaction.
corona, again, they dont meet strange dogs often if at all, or board ect...not enough risk of exposure to make it worth while.
lymes, as your unfortunatly finding out, its not very effective
Lepto, spread by rodent urine, my dogs are never left outside unsupervised, and dont go swimming in or drinking from random bodies of water...
this is another one highly likely to cause allergic reactions!
the good news is if you caught it early enough treatment is relitivly easy and recoviery is usually quick and relitivly painless...
hope your boy is ok...
Same Vet, same vaccine.. I know he was bit by a tick in the yard last summer.. It wasn't a deer tick.. but he was vaccinated months before being bit...This makes me mad.. thinking we are protecting our pets and finding out alot of this is just money making garbage!
dog ticks dont transmit lymes, so in order to have lymes he either had to be bitten by a deer tick (they are much smaller and people frequently miss them) or it could very well be a false positive on the lymes test.
(one of the reasons its now not frequently suggested to revaccinate every year)
its not money making garbage, the problem is, we as the public have to do our own reserch, we cant just take our vets (who are taught by the pharmacuitcal companies who are out to make the money) word for things, just like in people, some vaccines while developed for our good are not nessicary or not as effective and theres no such thing as 100% anywhere in the world...
our dogs cant speak so we have to be our own researchers and in a world of internet, theres no reason NOT to do your own research.
its not that the lymes vaccine is a scam, or waste of money ect, its that most people dont reaserch these things our vets put into our pets, heck our vets dont even realy reserch what there putting in our pets beyond "this is the protocall"...
for hunting dogs, dogs that do spend alot of time exposed to ticks, the vaccine is worth while, even wth a low effectivness,
but the average pet isnt exposed to high numbers of tick bites and therefore not typically exposed to a high rate of lymes and so not typically worth while giving the lymes vaccine.
Hmmmmm, I just turned down the Lyme vaccine at the vet but am reconsidering that decision after reading this post. My reasons for reconsideration are, while my dog is not a hunting dog he is a lake dog ... i.e. always in the water through the summer months, running through marshes, high grasses etc., interacts with other area dogs, not all of whom receive regular vet care. Seems to me that though the vaccine may not cover all strains of the disease for certain dogs it may prove cost effective. My vet quoted $60 for the first year and $30 per year thereafter for the booster.
One of the problems with the Lymes vac is that it can throw a false positive. Is your dog exhibiting any symptoms of did it just come up positive on a blood test?
If its just the blood test, please ask your vet to review the attached paper on the subject.
IMidwestmom...
while long grass itself is a source for deer ticks, lakes and marshes are not, ticks cannot swim (they can float pretty well but if they cant get out of the water quickly they die due to the position of the mouth peice and thier body shape.)
also if you DO get the lymes, a booster every year is major overkill, look unto vaccinossis, there would be no good reason to redo the vaccination every year, any antibody reaction to the vaccine lasts longer than 12 months...
also, just something for you to keep in mind...the strains that the vaccine DOES protect against are also the LEAST LIKELY of the strains your dog would come into contact with...
The vaccine is very effective but its not 100%. Dogs can get infected after vaccinations but usually its a two step thing. With the vaccine, they can have a positive test that says they were infected, but because of the vaccine they dont actually get seriously ill. My vet equates it to the seasonal flu shot, you may still get it but not as bad had you not had the shot.
i had the flu shot once in my life, i had a sever allergic reaction to it then about a monht later got the flu worse than i EVER have, ive not had the flu shot since lol.
my mum get the flu shot every year for the past 4 years as she started working with the elderly, she NEVER had anything remolty "flu like" untill she had the shot, now she gets a nasty case of flue like symptoms about twice a year, my mums tough and it lands her in bed...
dad stopped getting the flu shot after similar reactions, for us at least it ended up we all got the flu WORSE after the shot than we ever did before...
dogs vaccines are similar, for some they work well, for others not so much...
if you must get the lymes vaccine
Intervet-Schering-Plough's vaccine is the best choice
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
