lepto and lymes vaccines

[SquishTheBunny]

I vaccinate for lepto, as its prevalent in my area. Lots of forested areas with raccoons and deer which seem to be the main culprits. I have never seen a bad reaction to the lepto shot (but here we always pre-treat with benadryl), yet I have seen many dogs die due to lepto.

Vaccine doesnt cover all strains, but it does cover some and really decreases the morbidity of the disease if acquired.

Thankfully, lyme is not a current problem in this area. I dont think a lyme vaccine is even offered around here.

[Bacardi1]

[QUOTE=cowboymom;6362482]
Poets write with succinctness. You’ve been a pill in another post that I read this week and it’s not impressive. You’re no judge of my maturity based on what you’ve been posting.[/QUOTE]

Well bless your sweet pea-picking little heart. :lol:

[cowboymom]

[QUOTE=Bacardi1;6362710]
Well bless your sweet pea-picking little heart. :lol:[/QUOTE]

Oh for pete’s sakes, bless you right back. You are something else.

[Marshfield]

I expect to add Lepto for my crew this year as we’re seeing it more frequently. I go back and forth on giving the Lyme vaccine. I’m comfortable with the safety data on the newer one from Schering-Plough/Intervet. But, I worry more about anaplasmosis for which there is no vaccine. That said, we do seem to see Lyme nephritis more frequently.

So much of what preventative care your dog should have is really going to depend upon lifestyle and region of the country.

[irkenequine]

Lyme not available in our area.

Have always and will continue to do Lepto. Never had a side effect, even on the never-before-vaccinated and allergic to everything Bull Terrier and the deafblind sickly kid.

Former protocol at old clinic was DHPP x 2 across 8 weeks then booster DHLPP twice after that, so you aren’t doing lepto at like, 8 weeks. Our vet wouldn’t do it on anything smaller than 10 pounds too, personal preference on his part.

If you’re hesitant, tell the vet you’ve had bad experiences with vaccine reactions in the past and block out two appointment spaces so you can stay and wait out past the anaphiylactic period.

[IFG]

Live in a swamp, fairly close to where Lyme was initially detected. We vaccinate for both.

[wendy]

We live in a heavily tick-infested area and my vet recommends it. I don’t have the time to research every vaccine or treatment; I rely on my vet to do it for me. Since I trust his judgement (especially given the risk factors in our area), I follow his recommendations.

you really shouldn’t do this- blindly trust a health professional; at the very least, spend five minutes googling a new suggestion to see if there any hints of controversy. At this point in time, there is no way anyone, including your vet, knows if the latest lyme vaccine is safe. If you opt to give it at this point in time, you just enrolled your dog in a big experiment. Which is your choice, of course, and the rest of us eagerly await the results; but it would be nice if people did this only with truly informed consent rather than “well yeah vet do whatever you want.”

I personally don’t like to use new medicines/treatments until they’ve been out for at least five years- that’s usually long enough for the Whoops ones to crash and burn.

Big concern with lyme vaccines is that it may trigger an autoimmune syndrome that will basically afflict the dog with incurable lyme-like symptoms- this is what the poster who said it “caused lyme” actually meant. Prior versions of lyme vaccines were yanked from the market due to this problem. Only way to find out if this going to be happening with the new vaccine is to track a lot of vaccinated dogs for several years to see if some of them get sick with an untreatable disease.

harms/benefit: lyme disease itself is easily treated in dogs, it responds dramatically and quickly to antibiotics. Anything you might use to prevent such an easily treated disease therefore must be extremely safe. So far, lyme vaccines have failed repeatedly to meet this standard.

[IFG]

[QUOTE=wendy;6363389]
I personally don’t like to use new medicines/treatments until they’ve been out for at least five years- that’s usually long enough for the Whoops ones to crash and burn. [/QUOTE]

In general, this is an excellent policy, and I agree with you. However, there is a cost-benefit trade-off. In the case of Lyme vaccine. I did do research (and this is what I do for a living, so I am pretty good at it), and at that time, there were no bell-ringing reasons not to use it.

I do know dogs that have had Lyme, and the had long-term chronic infections. I would not assume that all Lyme infections are quickly detected and treated.

For me, in my area, it is worth the risk to vaccinate.

[wendy]

we have heavy lyme in my area, and I’m waiting for at least two more years before seriously considering it. I still haven’t heard anything really good about this latest vaccine that makes me want to add it to the routine preventative care list; most vets seem to feel the same way, it isn’t a vaccine that is heavily endorsed by anyone. My own vet doesn’t suggest it, but will give it if people ask for it. He doesn’t think it’s very effective, and reports a lot of bad post-shot reactions.
I figure focusing on stopping the ticks is a far better strategy.
Another strategy that some use in high lyme areas is to just give all the dogs a month-long course of doxy every year.

[S1969]

[QUOTE=wendy;6363389]
you really shouldn’t do this- blindly trust a health professional; at the very least, spend five minutes googling a new suggestion to see if there any hints of controversy. [/QUOTE]

I disagree with you completely on this point. My five minutes of Google research is nothing in comparison to my vet’s experience and education. I don’t blindly trust a health professional - I trust him based on the experiences I’ve had with his practice over that past 15 years, the experiences my friends have had with him, and our working relationship. I know for a fact that they are very careful with vaccines, always recommend the fewest necessary, always recommend splitting them up, and suggest titers instead of vaccines whenever possible.

It’s not possible for me to be as knowledgeable as he is (and his wife, also a veterinarian, and the other 4 or 5 vets they have on their staff.) If I don’t trust him to vaccinate my dog properly, how can I trust him to do anything else?

[S1969]

[QUOTE=wendy;6363436]
I figure focusing on stopping the ticks is a far better strategy. [/QUOTE]

What’s your strategy?

[Rbow]

I do Lepto because I live in a high risk environment. I don’t really like to but agree it is the lesser of two evils.

I will never again give any animal a Lyme vaccine (endemic area). I will strongly consider any and all information a veterinarian can provide but I find the ones that have really researched this disease usually do not recommend the vaccine. If you live in an endemic area it should not be necessary and there is no evidence I’ve seen (yet) that indicates it would provide any advantage over the previous exposure the animal has had.

[LauraKY]

Well, I guess since the expert on all…Bacardi, has spoken, we can just take her/his word for it. Because you see, in her personal experience the Lyme vaccine worked…well, it sort of worked. That should be proof enough for us.

[SquishTheBunny]

[QUOTE=wendy;6363436]
we have heavy lyme in my area, and I’m waiting for at least two more years before seriously considering it. I still haven’t heard anything really good about this latest vaccine that makes me want to add it to the routine preventative care list; most vets seem to feel the same way, it isn’t a vaccine that is heavily endorsed by anyone. My own vet doesn’t suggest it, but will give it if people ask for it. He doesn’t think it’s very effective, and reports a lot of bad post-shot reactions.
I figure focusing on stopping the ticks is a far better strategy.
Another strategy that some use in high lyme areas is to just give all the dogs a month-long course of doxy every year.[/QUOTE]

Do vets in your area really recommend long term antibiotics as a preventive? Sorry, its not prevalent in my area so I am unfamilliar with the newest protocols. I would think this would be a BAD idea and can see why MRSP has become a big issue if antibiotics are being used as preventive therapy. But…then again, if 90% of dogs in the area have lyme then I suppose its necessary?

Funny, guess depending on which side of the bridge you come from, lyme is a non-issue or a major issue, and MRSP is ignored in most places I guess?

[CdnRider]

I moved to Ontario from Alberta - my dog got 4 or 5 ticks last year when we first moved here. I immediately vaccinated her, but our 4DX test this year shows she has Lyme. Of all the bad luck! She was on Revolution as well, which doesn’t stop tick attachment but it is supposed to start killing them to the point that they should drop off in 48 hours. Lyme is supposed to take about 48 hours to transfer but somehow I ended up with a dog with Lyme. I wouldn’t say I’m in an endemic area either. Even working at a vet clinic I didn’t think of vaccinating because I didn’t feel our risk was high enough.

She wasn’t, nor has she been symptomatic. We did a Quant C and treated with Doxy after the positive snap. We will restest with the Quant C in October.

She is vaccinated for Lepto as its the core vaccine group. And we do have quite a bit of wildlife around here.