Does your dog need the Lyme vaccine?
The Lyme vaccine may be a great way to protect your dog. Thanks to the wonderful job parasite preventives do at combating the ticks that carry Lyme disease, the Lyme vaccine is best used as a safety net for dogs whose risk of Lyme disease is particularly high.
Ask yourself these questions to decide if your pet could benefit from the added layer of protection the Lyme vaccine provides:
How common is Lyme disease where you live or travel to?
One specific kind of tick is to blame for spreading Lyme disease to dogs and people: the deer tick, also known as the blacklegged tick. Deer ticks are mainly found in the Midwest and eastern United States, as well as throughout Canada, making these areas the highest risk for Lyme disease.
The Lyme vaccine is recommended for all dogs living in or traveling to areas where Lyme disease is common.
The Lyme vaccine together with year-round parasite preventives is the best possible protection against Lyme disease. If you live in an area where Lyme disease is rare, regular parasite preventives are plenty to protect your pet.
If you live in an area of low risk, where Lyme disease occurs but not terribly often, here are a few more questions to help you decide:
Does your dog’s lifestyle take them into tick territory?
Outdoorsy dogs who hike, hunt or otherwise spend lots of time in grassy, wooded or sandy areas are at higher risk of picking up ticks, and therefore, Lyme disease, too.
Do you ever forget to give your dog their flea and tick preventives?
No judgment! Missed or late doses of preventives happen to the best of us. But these gaps in protection gives ticks a chance to attach to dogs and pass Lyme disease along, meaning that a Lyme vaccine may be a good idea, just in case.
Bottom line? Speak to your veterinarian. They know your hometown risk better than anyone else, and they can help you weigh that along with all the other important factors.
