I just gave my pups the vaccine as one pup was positive. They seem now very lethargic and painful at injection site. They just has the shot this morning…???
Sorry, not understanding why you’d vaccinate a sick dog instead of waiting until it recovered? I think you need to call the vet and let them know about the side effects.
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Ill dogs should not be vaccinated, did you do this on the advice of your vet? Both mine have add their lyme vaccine with no adverse effects, I would contact your vet immediately. Also why I will never vaccinate my animals myself, not worth risking a reaction with no recourse.
I believe that a positive to a Lyme test means only that the dog has been exposed to the organism that causes Lyme. It is a very low percent (3-5) of positives that actually go on to get the illness. Veterinarians differ in their opinion of the value of giving the vaccine to positives. In 1988, my dog and myself were found to be positive to the Lyme test. I showed evidence of joint issues while my dog did not. We both were put on antibiotics and since the Lyme test shows positive for decades to forever once one has a positive, I was put on antibiotics anytime I had future joint pain. I stopped being concerned after a few years. It’s close to 30 years ago and no arthritis or problems. However, I still tell people to get a Lyme test if they are having issues with joint pain to heart problems, even if no tick bite was present. The symptoms minic many serious health issues.
You need to tell your vet. Some dogs have side effects to vaccines or to the carriers of the vaccine - and your vet will know what is most likely.
I agree with sistersiouxz - a positive SNAP test doesn’t mean the dog is sick, and doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be vaccinated for Lyme. It might mean that, but not definitely. Once a dog is positive for Lyme, it might be several years for the SNAP to not show a positive effect, even if treated for Lyme. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vaccinate, either.
Oh, just realized that you gave the vaccinations yourself. I’d definitely get on the phone with the vet and make sure your dosage was correct, and that it was administered properly.
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Whether they are positive for the actual disease depends on the test. The most common test, the 4DX, tests for antibodies. This means exposure, not necessarily the disease.
Soreness at the injection site and lethargy are common side effects to all vaccines. You are stimulating the immune system, so they often get a fever and therefore, lethargy.
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I did not give any vaccines myself not sure where people came up with that. My vet gave the vaccine and said this would take care of the positve lyme test. ALL ALL of the shots are being given by Acton animal hospital. My only question was any side effects other people suffered…
No no where did you get that idea?
Because you said this…
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No I brought her to the vet…sometimes you people are awful.
Why are we awful? You said “I just gave”…not “the vet just gave.” Lots of people do their own vaccines. 
Did you call your vet? The old Lyme vaccine that my dogs got 15-20 years ago tended to produce a lot of side effects. One of my dogs would get a huge, hot painful lump.
The current Lyme vaccines seem to produce fewer side effects. One of my dogs has occasionally had a mild injection site soreness, but none of the others have ever demonstrated any issues. Soreness would be something I would let the vet know to mark in your dogs’ file so that you can watch for it in the future.
“Very lethargic” - is not normal. That would have been an immediate call to the vet for me.
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Hold up - that is totally not the case. Did your vet really say it would take care of the positive Lyme result?
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yes my vet did say that and it was a brand new vaccine…seriously do you think I made that up? In any event they are all fine now so you can stop being so nasty now…thanks for asking though…ha.
I don’t really understand how vaccinating can “take care of” a positive titer. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Did the vet think your dog actually had a present infection? Because I don’t see how a vaccination would help that either.
Frankly, I’m confused by what is going on/what your vet advised because on what you’ve told us (the grammar isn’t the clearest). But I’m glad your dog is ok.
Some dogs really do have STRONG reactions to vaccines (some horses too) and it can be really unexpected. My dog growing up had vaccines every year without any issue and then once, randomly, had a reaction to a different carrier and we had to rush her to the emergency vet because she was in such distress. She’s had the vaccine before, no issue. The formulation had changed. It happens. For sure I would tell the vet even if your dog is now better because I believe the manufacturers track reports of side effects.
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The vet said this new vaccine pulled the bacteria from the blood so they no longer need month of treatment on tetracycline. Beyond that I cannot explain further but the vet told me this multiple times I’m an intelligent concerned pet owner and successful pet sitter despite what some people here would like to believe.
I don’t believe there is a therapeutic vaccine for lyme. Or even an off-label use of current vaccines that way. So there is no current regimen for treating lyme in dogs by giving a vaccine. The treatment is antibiotics, which I highly suggest if indeed your dog is infected.
Even in the few therapeutic vaccines in experimental stages, the vaccine doesn’t “pull bacteria from the blood.” The vaccine stimulates and assists the immune system to kill off whatever is causing the disease. So even in theory if your vet was deciding to try to use a current vaccine this way, off-label, the explanation of how the vet things it will cure the disease makes no sense?
I’d be really concerned if I had an infected dog and I’d be getting a second opinion 
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OK you must be right my vet and I made it all up…you caught me…congratulations.
I’m wondering how long you have been a vet?
Oh please, no one is being nasty.
There is no “new” Lyme vaccine that will change the positive exposure on the SNAP test. This is an area of controversy - whether or not a dog that is positive for Lyme is “immune” to Lyme in the future or not. My vet and I have discussed this because I live in a tick infested area and have treated dogs for Lyme twice and Anaplasmosis once. My 7 year old dog is still positive for Anaplasmosis on the 4DX test even though he was treated for it over a year ago. Now it is difficult to know whether or not to even bother testing him because we know that will show up as positive for some time…but the other panels are still useful so we will probably continue to test him and only plan to treat for symptoms, not test results.
I do give the Lyme vaccine to my dogs, even those that have tested positive for Lyme in the past, because it is not clear whether previous exposure provide immunity or not. The Lyme vaccine is not 100% effective (probably not even 75% effective). But dogs like mine that run off lead through fields daily have a high risk for tickborne illnesses so we give the vaccine anyway. And use tick preventatives, and do routine tick checks, etc. etc.
Rather than be offended at people who are actually trying to help, maybe you could consider that you simply misunderstood your vet. It can actually happen, and no one is at fault. It’s called being human. Your vet may have felt that your dogs’ risk for Lyme was high because they had been previously exposed, and that the vaccine was appropriate.
I would still be concerned about the lethargy reaction, and would make sure your vet records this in your dogs’ files for future vaccines.
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You don’t have to be a veterinarian to understand basic science. If you’ve made it through high school biology, you should have a basic idea of how vaccinations work. Google and see if you can find any credible scientific evidence in the WORLD that a lyme vaccination can pull bacteria from the blood of a dog. Surely if this were true, someone would have published a paper or made some mention of it in a peer-reviewed scientific journal?
Quite clearly you just came here to pick a fight/argue. It’s your dog. Hopefully it’ll be okay and you just misunderstood your vet!?! It sounds quite possible that you did.
What seems far more likely than what you’re insisting to be true is that, instead, that your dog is not actually infected but titered positive. Your vet recommended vaccinating anyway, on the theory that the titer was not evidence of an active infection but rather that the dog could benefit from the vaccine’s antibodies to protect against future infection. She viewed the positive titer as evidence of past exposure, not current infection. She gave the vaccine not to cure an infection but to prevent one in the future. She didn’t want to rely on the titer as evidence that your dog had a full immune/antibody response to ward off infection in the future. She gave the vaccine in an effect to create that immune protection in the future. That all makes sense, and maybe the vet didn’t explain it clearly.
What doesn’t make sense is what you’ve communicated on this thread. Unless you misunderstood, which seems possible.
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