Lyme Disease Vaccine And Prevention
Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted by ticks. Any pet or person that goes outside is exposed to ticks. Pets that are most at risk are those who accompany their owners camping, boating, fishing, hiking, visiting dense forest areas or any park or preserve with tall grass. Lyme disease is spread by ticks and can not be transmitted directly from a person to an animal or vise versa without a tick as the interim host. Lyme disease causes arthritis symptoms, eventually leads to kidney disease and in rare cases can cause heart disease or neurologic issues. Signs may not appear for weeks or even months after a tick bite. While Lyme disease is not usually life-threatening and can be cured relatively easily with a short course of antibiotics, due to it's prevalent nature in this region we recommend dogs be vaccinated especially if they are in the high-risk category. In addition to Lyme vaccination we also recommend flea and tick control.
Our protocol at Wise Road Animal Hospital is to vaccinate puppies as early as 9 weeks of age and booster them 3-4 weeks later. Older puppies and previously unvaccinated adult dogs would also receive one vaccine plus a booster 3-4 weeks later. Adult vaccinated dogs would then receive one booster annually.
