For previous posts in this series, click on each title below.
- Part 1 – Why I Questioned
- Part 2 – Safe Practices
- Part 3 – Titer Tests
- Part 4 – Rabies
- Part 5A – Non-Core; Leptospirosis & Bordetella
Disclaimer: I want to make one thing clear: I am not against vaccinating your pets, but I am concerned about over-vaccination. I will be sharing our experiences, as well as information I have learned through research and from our own veterinarian. My intent is only to share information that might be important for pet families to know. You should always consult your own trusted vet when it comes to the care and safety of your own pets’ health.
In this part I am covering the non-core vaccines for Lyme disease and Canine influenza. Core vaccines are those recommended for all dogs, non-core vaccines are special vaccines that are recommended based on lifestyle and exposure to certain diseases. Most non-core vaccines only last for one year.
Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is well known in our part of the country – it originated in the area of Lyme, Connecticut, where it got its name. In my immediate area, it’s not unusual to know several people that have contracted it. It’s a tough disease in humans. There is no vaccine for humans, but there is a vaccine for dogs….even though the disease is not quite as bad for most dogs.
It is, however, easy and common for dogs to be exposed to it, even if they don’t spend a lot of time outside. The disease is spread by the deer tick, also known as the black-legged tick. If a deer tick bites, the disease can be transmitted in 24-48 hours. There are not a lot of hard statistics available, but I read that in New England, it’s possible that 50-75% of dogs have tested positive for Lyme; but of those, only 5-10% might become very ill. Many will never show any effects from it. It is treatable in dogs with antibiotics, but it can lead to more serious kidney disease in some cases.
Symptoms of Lyme in dogs can include joint pain and swelling, as well as fever, lethargy, and lameness. Sometimes symptoms can be mild and non-specific (that goes for humans too…it is often difficult to diagnose). This disease is NOT transmittable between humans and dogs.
Non-core vaccines tend to get more adverse reactions. When Cricket had her first vaccine reactions, the Leptospirosis was suspected first, and then after that Lyme. However, we have never seen reactions in any of our other dogs. This vaccine requires two initial doses about 3 weeks apart, and then yearly boosters. Two things are worth noting: that it may not be 100% effective, and that deer ticks carry other nasty diseases as well.
To me that means if you live in one of these high risk areas, you might want to focus more on tick control. The vaccine is not going to protect your dog from everything they can get from a tick bite. There are many options for prevention, both chemical and natural, and that’s a subject for another whole post which I plan to re-visit! Also, if you do decide your dog should have the vaccine, they should be tested first. Our vet will test for Lyme at the same time as heartworm. We also separate Lyme from any other vaccines needed at the time.
Other than Cricket, we have always gotten this vaccine for our dogs, up to this year. We passed on Sheba because of her past cancerous tumor (I want her immune system to focus on any new cancers that could arise). Luke has serious issues with going to the vet’s office, so we were lucky to get his core vaccines done this year. We decided this one wasn’t worth the battle. As always, consideration of lifestyle and your location are the big factors here. If we spent a lot more time in the woods hiking, etc. we might make a different decision.
Canine Influenza
I don’t have any personal experience with this vaccine, as it has never been recommended by our vet since there have not been any outbreaks in our area. But because there have been some outbreaks this year in the Chicago area, and currently in Atlanta, I wanted to cover it briefly.
Canine influenza is a dog flu that can progress from mild cold like symptoms (cough, runny nose, fever) to a more severe form including bacterial infections and pneumonia. Most dogs will have a mild form with symptoms that are similar to kennel cough. It is highly contagious between dogs. In mild cases it can resolve on its own with no treatment needed in 10-30 days.
This flu originated in 2004 as H3N8 and there was a vaccine developed for it. The current strain is H3N2, and the vaccine has not proven to be effective for it. They do say, however, that it could help reduce the symptoms of the current strain.
My dogs mostly stay home, so if I lived in an outbreak area, it probably wouldn’t affect me. But if your dogs go to daycare, dog parks, or training then you might want to avoid those places if you can, and consult your veterinarian as to whether the vaccine would be worthwhile or not. I think of it the same way as human flu vaccines…they may or may not work for the current strains so it’s a personal decision of whether or not to get it.
All vaccines should only be given to healthy dogs.
For further information:
- Lymeinfo.com – Lyme disease in dogs
- Lyme Disease – The Feared Canine Disease That’s Mostly Benign (Healthy Pets by Mercola)
- Canine Influenza Virus Outbreak in the Chicago Area (Cornell University)
- Canine Flu Rising Fast in Metro Atlanta (Fox 5 Atlanta)
Next in our series we will cover vaccinations for cats, and I will do one final post with a summary of key points.
Today we are joining the Thursday Barks & Bytes blog hop. Thank you to our hosts 2 Brown Dawgs blog, and Heart Like a Dog. Please visit other blogs through the links below!
As usual, I’m a bit behind in my reading and commenting. (This past week has been so miserably hot/humid that I haven’t wanted to do anything, including read.). Good to know that ticks don’t like to feed in hot/humid months I doubt I’d be able to find one on any of my girls unless it made the mistake of not trying to hide. I found a tick on Callie’s head once, just inches above her right eyebrow.
I, too, need to be better at using the daily treatments. We’ve been lucky so far with the fleas. I’ve only seen one, and it had fallen off the.comb, into the box I was using to hold the brushes and comb out in the yard. As soon as I saw the little bugger, I squashed him with my finger tip. No one has been scratching. Poor Ducky was miserable from the ant bites for a while, but the Benadryl helped a lot. And, she got another bath at daycare yesterday to make her feel better, too.
We do use a flea/tick tag from Only Natural Pet on the dogs, and I think it works on repelling fleas and even other biting bugs. Luke was covered with bites on his belly last year but this year has only had a couple. It doesn’t work on the ticks though, and the tags are pricey too.
When it comes to the boys I worry about everything. So fortunate to have a vet that is a minimalist when it comes to vaccines. I trust her completely, and we talk it through – in detail. I am also grateful for all the research bloggers such as you do to help heighten awareness about so many different concerns we pet parents have. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend.
You are so welcome! I know how important it is to be able to get good information and advice, and sometimes we don’t want to bother our vets with every little question, especially if something comes up that we think of after a visit. I am a worrier too so totally understand that. Hope you have a great weekend too!
Great information. I’ve seen lyme nephritis and it isn’t fun and deadly for a dog so since I do lots of hunting if I can cut down even a bit on my dogs getting lyme disease by giving them the vaccination I am. I vaccinate each dog each year and Norman had it for 13 years without any problems. I am very lucky that I have dogs that vaccines so far haven’t harmed them. I also vaccinate against the influenza shot being that I am always at tests where there are many different dogs from around the country and they all touch the same ducks so better to be safe. Thanks for this post.
In your situation, I would take every precaution as well. Do you see many ticks on your dogs after being out there training? Even when using spot on treatments we were still always picking them off ours. I’m kind of at a loss as to what really works at repelling them.
I use Vectra 3D on Gambler and Nellie, I usually only find one or two on them in a season, but at the end of the month from when I put vectra on gambler I ran him in heavy cover and he ended up with 6 ticks on him so I took it as it was time to put more stuff on him. Glory on the other hand I use a pill call bravecto and it lasts for 12 weeks. She was due for her next dose in June but I didn’t do it as I bred her and I didn’t want to give her anything 15 weeks later I pulled one dead tick off her so the medicine was still working 15 weeks later. The pill doesn’t repel them they do need to bit them to die but they die before they transmit any diseases.
I hate ticks and am so thankful they are not a problem where we live. When we lived out in the country, we were invaded by miniscule ticks. They looked like ground pepper on your socks until you saw them crawling. We could not go outside without getting literally hundreds on our legs. We never knew why they came, but it was awful. We moved!
Ugh, if they ever get that bad here, we’ll be moving too!!
Hate ticks! We do not get either of those two vaccines. I asked my vet about the canine influenza vaccine when I was having Storm’s teeth cleaned and she said she was sort of at a loss to recommend since the current strain was not the one the vaccine was supposed to prevent. Her best advice, if it was her dog, was to get it if the dog was boarded or went to daycare. We opted against but are vigilant for signs of flu. Thanks for sharing on the hop. 🙂
I’m glad to hear your vet is wise about the flu vaccine. It irritated me when the news media was hot on the Chicago story and kept talking about the vaccine. Only later did I finally hear one say that it wouldn’t work for the current strain.
Since we just don’t really see Lyme disease down here, we don’t really ever give that vaccine. I like your suggestion about focusing on tick control. We did have the flu vx though, but weren’t giving that out very often. I think the most popular non-core one down here is the Rattlesnake one. Out of all the vaccines I’ve given, that one seemed to cause the most reactions. Nothing super severe, but almost every dog that got it would have some sort of reaction.
Do you know why the non-core vaccines seem to cause more reactions, Ann?
I’m glad we don’t have to worry about rattlesnakes here, the ticks have me freaked out enough! LOL
Well, that’s a really good question but I guess I don’t know the answer… rattlesnake one would cause itching, soreness for quite a few days in the area where it was given, and even vaccine nodules which are lumps that come up after the injection. They usually go away after a few weeks. We had one case where one of these nodules actually ruptured. I think that was the worst reaction. We have ticks here, and I hate them but they aren’t a problem for us in my particular location. I’ve never seen a rattlesnake before thank dog!
I’ve heard (and I can’t remember where) but it is not just the deer ticks carrying Lyme anymore. Those little suckers are hard to find, even when they are engorged. From what I’ve heard it can be treated very successfully in dogs (have you heard that as well?) I use a daily flea/tick product during the months they are most active. My vet says when it is really hot and humid (think June, July and August) that the ticks don’t feed. I haven’t found hard research on it yet (but then I haven’t REALLY looked), mostly because researching them makes me a little nauseous. LOL
Thank you for joining the blog hop, I’m really enjoying this series!
I hadn’t heard that other ticks were carrying Lyme, but I did hear they were carrying other diseases. I have also heard that Lyme can be treated very successfully though.
We treat our yard, and we have flea/tick tags on the dogs, but we are still finding them on them. I need to do better at using the daily treatment as well. It’s been so bad this year I’ve almost caved more than once and gotten chemicals. Then I think of all the cancer we’ve seen, and I feel strongly that those chemicals contribute to that. Luke is the worst, because he knows when one is on him and he will not let us near it. We have to catch him off guard.
I can’t wait for it to get hot and humid. We have always noticed that they get better during the middle of the summer, and need to remember they’ll be back in the fall though. Ugh…they make me sick too!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the series!
Lyme disease is so super scary! Luckily we don’t have a huge tick problem here, we have more fleas in these parts than anything :/ but not so many ticks. I do take care of a couple stray cats though, and twice one of them came home with a tick right in his head, so wherever his travels took him, he certainly found ticks. Nasty little buggers.
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
The first time I ever saw a tick was on one of our cats…it totally freaked me out! That was quite a few years ago when we still had outdoor cats, and before the ticks got bad around here. We didn’t even know what it was at first. I hope they don’t make their way north to you!
They say the ticks aren’t as bad with cats, because the cats will groom them off…but I’m sure they can’t get to them if they’re on their head. The nasty ticks probably know that…LOL.
We get the Titer tests done
Snorts,
Lily & Edward
Good for you! That is one of the safest ways to go, I think.
Thank you for posting the picture of the sizes of the ticks. I had no idea that deer ticks were that small. In Tennessee our ticks are usually the middle size. How would anybody ever find a tiny deer tick on a dog that has a dark coat?
Also your picture showing which areas of the country are the highest risk was very helpful.
I learned so many things from your article.
Rebecca
I don’t know how/if anyone ever finds a deer tick, unless it has already bitten and is enlarged. Even on short haired dogs it is difficult to find the large ones. They have a way of finding where their fur is the thickest, like around the neck.
I am so glad the map and the article were helpful to you!
I had no idea that non-core vaccines were more likely to cause adverse reactions? Is that because they’re not used as much and there has been less development and testing on them?
I’ve been very lucky to have vets who take the question of appropriate vaccination seriously and keep up on the latest scientific literature. I’ve never felt one of my vets was pushing a vaccine my dog didn’t need.
Unfortunately, not everyone can say that about their vets.
That is a good question, Pamela. It also might be that they use different ingredients (there’s also something about “killed” and “non-killed” viruses that I don’t understand yet). I’m going to look into that for my final post, because I am curious too.
Having a good vet that is up to date on the protocols is really key, I think, as well as one that listens to your concerns (mine is good about that).