Ok, my hubby wanted me to ask about the Lyme Vaccine here.

We've both heard of it, but we don't want to give unnecessary vaccines at all. Like when the vet here wanted me to have Otto vaccinated for Giardia (the vaccine started with a "p" I can't remember the name, it's in a past post of mine) right after we'd found out he had hypothyroidism.

My hubby wants to know what the word is on this vaccine and if anyone has gotten this for their dogs-was/is it worth it?

He's such a worried dad to both our little girl and our dogs. Kind of sweet

Edited by Keleah Stull (04/23/2009 04:15 PM)
Edit reason: added more

There are two different vaccine for Lymes that I know of. Don't ask me their names because I'm trouble with that kind of stuff.
But if I remember correctly, one is a live culture and the other is supposedly a benign culture that just triggers the immune system.
I 'think' in either case the dog MUST be given the vaccine before they are exposed to the Lymes organism.
I believe (because I haven't checked lately) that the live culture has had high incidence of actually infecting the dog.
And the other hasn't been very effective.

All that being said, it'll pay to do some research on the studies for how much better dogs deal with the disease than the human body does. The last report I read said that 80% of the dogs that contract Lymes never show any issues or problems associated with the disease at any time in their life, even without treatment of any sort.
Sorry, I had that report marked, but it went the way of the last hard drive that died of some kind of disease unknown, but it didn't suffer long, so it presumably was painless. I think though it was from Cornell.

Me, I'd ignore the vaccines and just figure in the cost of a blood test now and then, and run the antibiotics when necessary.

Randy

Jean Dodds has it on her "not recommended" list.

Here is a pile of info:

http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=53293

Thanks Randy and Connie.

I told my hubby when he asked me to post the question 2 days ago that there is no way I'll get them that vaccination. We do get alot of ticks here, but I use a preventative (Zodiac) and they've done fine with that.

I appreciate the links and the info.