Pet Lovers

[RinaRina]

Just came from the vet & she wanted to give my dog a Lyme Disease Immunization.  I'd never heard of such a shot before.  I told her I'd "think about it".

Is this standard procedure these days?

[GingerPeach]

Hi @RinaRina

It would very likely depend on whether you live in an area where it's common (although I've been hearing lately it is showing up in areas where it didn't used to be common).

It might also depend on whether you take your dog to a lot of public places, or walk him in or near areas where ticks might live (like grassy fields, etc.), or if he'll be mostly a homebody.

Since you are sort of "starting over" (not sure if that is the best phrase), you might want to look into subscribing to Whole Dog Journal.  It's only about $20 a year and it's full of information about just everything connected with dogs.  The publication has no advertisements. 

[Carmie]

It's not standard procedure and the vaccine is not 100% fool proof.

My two dogs both receive the Lyme immunization because they spend most of the summer near a lake and they run through the weeds surrounding the woods near the lake. There are a lot of biting ticks present.

If they were not exposed to this type of environment, I would have passed on it.

They got 2 shots two weeks apart the first year, and have been getting one annually after that.

[RinaRina]

---

@GingerPeach wrote:

Hi @RinaRina

 Since you are sort of "starting over" (not sure if that is the best phrase), you might want to look into subscribing to Whole Dog Journal.  It's only about $20 a year and it's full of information about just everything connected with dogs.  The publication has no advertisements. 

*************************************

Thanks, I will.

LOOK at this!  Just scared the cr@p outta me.  GLAD I didn't do it.

---

https://www.vetinfo.com/canine-lyme-disease-vaccine-side-effects.html

I'm on the East Coast and I KNOW there are deer ticks here with the disease because my old dog that just died contracted it (deer ticks and lyme) when I adopted her.  Oh well ... I think I'm gonna skip the dog park this week-end. 

[RedTop]

I am in southern WV, and one of our German Shepherds tested positive for Lyme at his spring checkup.  We had no idea he'd been bitten by a tick, so the vet prescribed a month long treatment of Doxycycline, and retested him a month later.  The second test was negative, so the bite was apparently recent, and treatment was successful.  Our dog received a booster vaccine at that time.   I definitely recommend the vaccine.  

[luvmyteddy4]

When I lived outside of town I had deer ticks on me and my 2 dogs all the time. It was the late 70s. I spent every night pulling 50 ticks off of each dog and checking myself. I guess I missed one on me because I ended up with Lyme Disease and they never did.

It's a good idea to check your dogs every night. They said we didn't have them here but obviously they were wrong.

[JeanLouiseFinch]

This is a definite must for us.  Our property has a wooded area where our dog likes to go and there are deer in the outlying areas that have been known to wander into the subdivision.  I'm not taking any chances.  

[Abrowneyegirl]

Here in the NE it is standard.  We live in the suburbs, not a wooded area by any means but after several of the neighbors dogs had lymes disease we made a point to get the Lyme disease immunization every year since we added our first dog to our home 4 years ago.

[Kachina624]

Did you know that there is even a rattlesnake immunization?  People here who have working dogs on ranches give their dogs these shots routinely.