LOL! I can try those too.
From the abstract: Antibody response lasted between 16 and 20 weeks. “The results suggested that many horses respond with low and often short-lasting antibody responses… The current work highlights that commercial Lyme vaccines for dogs induce only transient antibody responses in horses which can also be of low magnitude. Protection from infection with B. burgdorferi should not be automatically assumed after vaccinating horses with Lyme vaccines for dogs.”
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My mare has been fine with me using Freedom 45 spot control for years. She does get a little “ticklish” where I put it on, but that passes quickly.
The one time I tried Equispot instead, she said NO!
My kid had her loading dose today! She’s such a good girl for vaccines, so I wasn’t worried about that, but I feel a lot better knowing she has some extra protection.
Thanks so much for all of the advice and tips!
Just popping in here to see if anyone else has done the Lyme Vaccine.
One of my horses is on his third bout (that I know of) of Lyme reinfection. We pull a titer every fall. Each time has been progressively worse symptoms wise AND getting the ABX into him. If he can even have the vaccine, I’m wondering if it is worth it. My vet isn’t keen on the Lyme Vaccine anymore and doesn’t advise it.
Hi there beowulf. One of my vets discourages the Lyme vax, the others are ok with it. I ask for it. I’ve had too many issues with fulminant Lyme to risk not using it, even if protection isn’t 100%. I figure can’t hurt, might help and it seems to. The one time we thought my horse might have it, symptoms were mild. I don’t recall the titer.
Treating Lyme is no fun and it’s expensive. For me, with my vets’ ok, the vaccination is worth it.
BTW I’ve heard that there’s a new human Lyme vax in testing. I can’t wait!!!
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Where I board (Maine) has many, many ticks and is definitely a high Lyme incident area. We have been using the vaccine for years, with no adverse effects, as someone up thread mentioned: three doses loading one month apart and then one in the spring and one in the fall.
My previous horse was found to have Lyme—I tested him when he had some intermittent lameness. It is quite possible that he had Lyme long before I started vaccinating him, given where he lived before I bought him. I wish I had tested him sooner.
My current horse arrived in Maine in the late fall, past the major tick season although they are pretty much around all the time. I started vaccinating her the following spring. I just had her tested for no reason other than curiosity and a baseline. The test showed her to be negative for Lyme, and it showed a strong response from the vaccine. She was vaccinated in March.
No vaccine is 100% effective, but I feel better giving it.
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My mare was first vaccinated for Lyme in June (2 doses 3 weeks apart.) She suffered no ill effects, and given how much time we’ve spent in the woods, I wish I’d started sooner.
Thanks all, I might push for it. This is my horse’s third flare-up or re-infection, I don’t know which it is, but I do know this is his worse so far and it’s getting increasingly difficult to get the Doxy into him. I wanted to try Oxytet but there were several extenuating factors that made my vet advise against it. I think next time I’ll push for him to stay at the clinic for a 14-day Oxytet drip because it’s getting increasingly difficult to get the Doxy into this horse. He won’t touch it in his grain and he’s getting difficult to catch. Thankfully he’s good once you catch him, but he isn’t making it easy for us. I’m swapping dosing a placebo dose of Apple juice & molasses, and then dosing the medicine, and I’m following with a chaser of Apple juice and he still hates it. Last time he went off his feed even with oral dosing.
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My horse has been getting the Lyme vaccine for the last 5 years. He does react to it, gets a pretty big lump where he gets the shot. I Bute morning of and a few days after. Still totally worth it as I’m in MA and Lyme is awful here. He’s also one that need Doxy/minocycline syringed so I do anything to avoid that.
It’s been three years since I last was treating active infection, so maybe protocols have changed. At the time (I treated two actively infected horses within about 4ish months of each other), vet did 5 days IV oxytet followed by 30 days Doxy, and that protocol really helped both of mine. For the 5 days, it was a farm call vs. overnight stay. One of those mares never had any positive titres following, and the other tested low grade chronic for many months after but never showed symptoms. Both have since had an annual Lyme vax and neither show any symptoms.
I have a new mare that was negative when she came, we did 2 Lyme vax shots with her and after the second she got a weird lump on her neck with a bit of swelling in her chest. She did panic a bit and fly backwards down the barn aisle when the shot went in (my fault, she had been fine the only other time she got a shot and I did not anticipate her going backwards so she caught me totally off guard), so not sure how to interpret the reaction.
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