Cornell University’s School of Veterinary Medicine researchers suspect long-term side effects are associated with the Lyme disease vaccine for dogs, but nothing definitive has been documented or exhaustively studied, says Allen Schoen, a doctor of veterinary medicine in Sherman, Connecticut. “These side effects may vary from rheumatoid arthritis and all the major symptoms of Lyme disease to acute kidney failure." If you’ve recently vaccinated your dog against Lyme disease and it is exhibiting Lyme disease-like symptoms, it may be experiencing an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Consult your veterinarian for appropriate treatment. Treating presumptively with antibiotics is prudent, particularly if the dog shows side effects shortly after receiving the Lyme vaccine.
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Painful Joints After Vaccination
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Arthritis and painful joints typically are the first signs of possible Lyme infection. While the majority of dogs infected with Borrelia borgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, shows no signs of disease, some dogs develop painful joints and stiffness weeks or months after vaccination, according to 2ndchance.info. “Simple arthritis is usually constant in the joints it affects,” states 2ndchance.info. “But lameness due to Lyme disease often shifts from leg to leg.”
Vaccine-Induced Lameness
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Adverse reactions to the Lyme vaccine are more common in puppies and senior dogs. Lameness differs from arthritis, which typically causes swelling in the joint or joints. Lameness usually affects one front leg or both following vaccination, and the lymph node in the affected leg may be enlarged, according to 2ndchance.info. Dogs may yelp in pain when walking and shuffle stiffly, indicating lameness, arthritis or a combination of both. Dogs may not want to walk at all. Sometimes a low-grade fever accompanies these side effects.
Kidney Failure
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Veterinarians treat dogs with vaccine-acquired Lyme disease with antibiotics. If side effects don’t occur right after vaccination, it doesn&'t mean your dog is completely safe. It can take months after vaccination for side effects to appear, giving the vaccine-induced infection a chance to quietly attack other organ systems. Destructive inflammation from vaccination can occur in the dog’s heart and nervous system, though this is extremely rare, says Mar Vista Animal Medical Center of Los Angeles, California. “The dog’s most serious long term potential regards &'glomerular disease.&' This is a type of kidney damage that occurs when the immune system is stimulated over a very long time by a latent infectious organism,” MVAMC states. Dogs with vaccine-induced contamination might not display outward side effects, even though the infection is wreaking havoc internally.
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