Lyme Disease And Tick Prevention

[Sighthounds4me]

As many of you know, I no longer have Greyhounds, but still have sighthounds (Borzoi and a Deerhound). Henley, the four year old Borzoi, had an exam recently, and was diagnosed with Lyme disease. He's on doxycycline, and doing fine.

 

But this brings some questions to my mind: should I vaccinate the others (assuming they titer within tolerances)? What are the pros and cons of vaccinating? In researching, it seems that the vaccine is not always effective, and may cause a severe case of Lyme that is untreatable. But in discussing this with my vet today, he says this is old information, and the vaccines his clinic uses is newer, is a killed bacteria, and does not cause the disease.

 

He does, however, suggest that if we decide against vaccinating, we should use a collar like Preventic brand, using Amitraz. My research on that indicates that it might not be safe for sighthounds, though it is very effective against ticks.

 

We live in a semi-wooded area, and hike a lot in the woods. Lyme is a real concern in this area, but I don't want to waste my money on something useless, or worse, potentially harmful to our dogs. Can anyone with experience chime in? Thanks!

[GeorgeofNE]

Preventic collars are fine for Greyhounds. I don't know about your dogs. George gets the Lyme vaccine. I take him to Nantucket and they have way too many cases for me to NOT get the vaccine even if it isn't always effective. I recently found out that the town we live in has also had an "outbreak" of cases. He's never had any kind of reaction to it. I see no reason to avoid it--pretty much everyone in my family has had Lyme disease--except George!

[Guest KPS915]

Lila gets Frontline and we also gave her the Lyme vax. We live in a wooded area chock full of wild life and pulled a tick off of her last summer shortly after we brought her home. She had no reaction to the vax.

[Houndtime]

Once we started camping, I gave the guys Lymes vaccine. Now, I just do it, as we live near lots of wooded and farm areas.

[DonnaBehr]

I was in the Vet's office last night and picked up a brochure about a new Flea and Tick product made by Merial - who makes Frontline and Frontline +. It's called Certifect and it supposedly has one more ingredient in than Frontline Plus, but it doesn't say what it is. Have to find out if that "extra" ingredient is safe for greyhounds. Anyone ever heard of it?

[Neighsayer]

I vaccinate and use the preventic collar. That brand of collar is safe for our guys. I live in the woods, and find more tics on me than all five of my dogs! I was tempted to order an extra collar for myself. I would sometimes find several tics a day on me.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Neighsayer

[MaryJane]

My area has many Lyme cases in both people and dogs and my property has quite a few trees and a brook with deer regularly coming by for water and because of this, my dogs are getting ticks every few days when it is the season. I have been vaccinating my dogs for a few years now. The newer vaccines are better and there are less reactions than previously. One of my dogs has seizures and I even vaccinate her as I will not use any flea/tick preventive on her or on the other dogs (because of her seizures).

[JJNg]

I was in the Vet's office last night and picked up a brochure about a new Flea and Tick product made by Merial - who makes Frontline and Frontline +. It's called Certifect and it supposedly has one more ingredient in than Frontline Plus, but it doesn't say what it is. Have to find out if that "extra" ingredient is safe for greyhounds. Anyone ever heard of it?

 

The extra ingredient in Certifect is amitraz, the same active ingredient in Preventic collars. However, that doesn't automatically mean that it's safe since it's delivered in a different form. I'm not aware of many people using Certifect, so can't really comment on safety. I know of 1 greyhound that had an allergic reaction (significant rash and hairloss at the site of application), but that's something that can happen with any topical product.

 

Merial also has another new product called Frontline Tritak, which is Frontline plus the added ingredient of cyphenothrin, a pyrethroid compound. Both Certifect and Frontline Tritak are supposed to kill ticks significantly faster than Frontline and thus decrease the risk of transmission of TBD (Tritak also kills fleas faster). Personally, I tend to be cautious with new products and prefer to see them out a bit longer so that there's more info about their safety profile before trying them on my own dogs or recommending them to clients.

[DonnaBehr]

My vet doesn't like the Amitraz in Preventic collars and said she defintely would not recommend the Certifect.