Lyme Vaccine For Dogs Pros And Cons

The lyme vaccine is all risk and no benefit.

Lyme vaccine for dogs pros and cons.

The potential dog lyme disease vaccine side effects. Dogs are very susceptible to tick bites and tickborne diseases. Ixodes scapularis black legged tick and the western black legged tick i e. Holistic vet dr patricia jordan urges pet owners to avoid the lyme vaccine for their dogs.

Even dogs that receive year round tick control products and don t spend a lot of time outside may be at risk for exposure to tick borne diseases. She claims the lyme vaccine is more dangerous than lyme disease. Lyme disease is an infection in dogs caused by the bacteria borrelia burgdorferi humans and rarely cats can also become infected. Ticks must be attached for at least one to two days to pass the infection to a dog.

However the vaccine is not necessarily recommended for all dogs. Yes the lyme vaccine is in the top 8 vaccines lower half non core recommended by a trusted task force that has the purpose of sharing vaccination recommendations in both the united states and in canada. Tick bites on dogs may be hard to detect. Betsy brevitz dvm a vet in fanwood new jersey and author of the complete healthy dog handbook.

For these reasons it s important to use a tick preventive product on your dog. I tell owners that the lyme vaccine is belt plus suspenders for dogs with heavy exposure to deer ticks. The belt is a spot on product that kills deer ticks and the lyme vaccine is the suspenders says dr. There is no justification for taking this serious vaccination risk with our dogs.

Vaccines are not available for most of the tickborne diseases that dogs can get and they don t keep the dogs from bringing ticks into your home.