lyme disease

[mask]

Can a dog that has had lymes be safely vaccinated after they are treated and symptoms are gone?

[cjhills]

yes. the lymes vaccine is only about 70% affective, so you need a good tick repellant......................Cj

[birddog1968]

I won't use the vaccine....all mine have had active bouts of Lyme and needed treatment with doxy at one time or another....but after discussion with my vet the vaccine results seem marginal in this locale so I choose to not give it....

I've found best prevention is by keeping ticks off them best I can and being in tune with symptoms large or small.....dogs can carry a low grade infection for a long time so you have to be vigilant in prone areas.

Just my two cents

[Sharon]

x2

http://now.tufts.edu/articles/dogs-canine-lyme-vaccine

[Grange]

My setter had Lyme disease while on the vaccine and being treated with Frontline Plus. For the next couple years the vet said he'd feel like he was stealing from me if I gave my setter the vaccine. Well last fall when I took her in for Anaplasmosis the vet said research now recommends giving a dog that already had Lyme disease the Lyme vaccine. So this year both my dogs got the Lyme vaccine.

[mask]

Thank you for the info. Lyme is unheard of here, the tick was picked up in northern California last winter. We had used a systemic repellent but perhaps not soon enough. I found the tick on about the forth day. two months later the first symptoms started, five weeks on antibiotics and he acts normal again. Again thanks to those that responded.

[Grange]

My setter showed signs of Lyme in mid-December. The only tick that I know attached to my setter was picked off in early to mid September. So that is about 3 months between tick bite and showing symptoms.

[birddog1968]

Id be surprised if you actually saw the tick that caused the lyme or the other tick born disease. Some
ticks are almost too small to see so seeing every tick that bites a dog is improbable, not impossible but
improbable. They say it takes 24 hours for a tick to infect but I don't know if I believe that either.

[Grange]

Id be surprised if you actually saw the tick that caused the lyme or the other tick born disease. Some
ticks are almost too small to see so seeing every tick that bites a dog is improbable, not impossible but
improbable. They say it takes 24 hours for a tick to infect but I don't know if I believe that either.

Then you can be surprised. Just because my setter didn't show signs for three months doesn't mean the dog wasn't infected much of that time. In fact I'd be surprised if she wasn't infected well before she showed symptoms. The Anaplasmosis infection was this past fall during trial season so some time after the Lyme infection.

[birddog1968]

I'm sure she was....don't know why your being hostile, maybe you misunderstand the point I was making........dogs can carry low grade infection for years...this is the worst scenario as long term joint damage / arthritis is the result.

All I was saying is some of the ticks are nearly invisible small...so dog could have been bit by more than one tick.

I had been bit 100 times or more in a bad Lyme locale before I was infected.

[Grange]

I understand your point and understand how small deer ticks can be. Due to the prevalence of Lyme and other tick borne diseases around here I am extremely diligent at finding ticks on my dogs. Its much easier to find them on my setter than my lab due to the color and denseness of the the fur. They get checked during the hunt, after the hunt, before they are loaded up, later that evening and several times afterwords. Yes deer ticks can be hard to see, but they are much easier to find after they are attached, especially after feeding for a while. Add in the tick repellent and tick comb I am quite confident the one tick I found attached to my setter that year was the one that infected her.

[birddog1968]

Little trick I learned on dark coated dogs....rub their fur backwards vigorously and even the tiniest ticks will come to the surface and crawl around....look for the shiny little devils. Works on my black lab.