Lyme Vaccine? or Tick Preventer

[BarbV]

All my dogs are on Interceptor for heartworm year round at my vet's recommendation. It also handles many other worms.

So you use both Interceptor and Advantix?

 

[Calliesmom]

This also depends on your area.

Another Rachael theory: Just like we have antibiotic resistant bugs, because of the overuse of antibiotics, we probably have pesticide resistant fleas.

I have found Frontline to be 100% useless. I used Advantix once, and two of the dogs had mild reactions to it. When I asked my vet last year what was best for fighting the mild flea problem we had, she recommended Advantage. She feels that Advantix is bad for dogs and bad for the environment in general, and she concurred that Frontline doesn't work in this area. So check with people in the area to see what works, at least for now. We will have to go to stronger and stronger pesticides, just like we have with antibiotics.

we also gave up on Frontline a couple years ago- some friends also had no luck with it that summer and most of us switched to Comfortis for fleas.

 

[Ann]

So you use both Interceptor and Advantix?

Yes. They don't overlap. I never administer them together though. I do Interceptor on the first of the month and Advantix on the 15th.

And you do realize that even if you get the Lyme vaccine, you'll still need to use a flea/tick preventative. The vaccine doesn't eliminate the need for prevention.

 

[take4roll10]

I also use both interceptor and advantix. They're administered two weeks a part. I give interceptor year round. I stopped advantix in November. Bailey just got her first dose of the season two weeks ago.

I'm surprised your vet doesn't have your dog's on heartworm medicine. If you do get heartworm pills, make sure you get a heartworm test first. I believe it's very dangerous to give a dog heartworm pills if they are all ready infected. The only way to find out is with a test.

As for the Lyme vaccine, I did it last year, but wont do it again this year. I don't live in a high risk area. We occasionly go to parks with a higher risk, but not often enough for me to justify the vaccine.

 

[The Quahog]

I have always preferred to use one product for flea (and/or tick) prevention and another for heartworm prevention.
The reason is simple - they are indicated at different times of the year.
For heartworm prevention in this area you have two choices - seasonal - test in the Spring and go April-December, or year round, testing periodically (opinions differ on how often.)
Ticks peak in April-May but can be seen throughout the year. There is a surge generally in about November, and oddly we see a lot of ticks in January if there is no snow cover.
Fleas arrive August 10th. Ok, thats a bit of an exaggeration, but its pretty close. They are basically an August to October problem, though of course we do see them earlier if conditions are correct.
And yes, we do approach fleas and ticks with different protocols,depending on risk.
So unless you want to treat for heartworm/fleas/ ticks year round - and on a message board where the concerns of 'overmedication' appear to be paramount that would seem to be seen as excessive (and I would agree)- I would generally argue against the combined medications. - Dr. Mac

 

[BarbV]

Thanks everyone!

I too am surprised that my vets did a miss on the heartworm as well. I think Bacca had been on Revolution before which is a combined flea and heartworm.

But when we found the tick on him, the vet switched us over to Advantix. I never even noticed until late last fall that Advantix didn't have heartworm in it.

I'll be starting his Advantix on May 1st. But will be calling the vet about the heartworm as well. The boys aren't due for checkups until July but I think I will move this forward. I need to get Bacca's blood re-tested anyway for his liver and thyroid.

 

[KarenCurtis]

Yup I live just east (30miles) of the tick capital of the world. The deer (actually deer ticks that are carriers of the lyme disease) are soo numerous here its getting dangerous to drive ( I almost hit some today..the deer not the ticks)..so the sheer number of the ticks are out of control...but anway back to the topic, I used to get the vaccine when it first came out gave it, however since than its proven less than effective against preventing it, so its an extra shot that really is not proven effective, so no mine dont get it.

That was funny!
On the Cape, in Massachusetts, lyme disease is a real danger. People here get it often- some of my 6th graders already have had it. We do give the vaccine.

 

[Emmasmom]

I was told Revolution does ticks too.