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Last time I went to my local Travel and Immunization Clinic (which WAS in Kansas!) there was a family with 3 little boys who were being given preventative immunizations against rabies because the family was going to be in Africa for an extended period. I didn't know such a thing existed; I was there for pills to prevent malaria.
Yes, it’s a series of three immunizations given over a one month interval. It doesn’t eliminate the need for post- bite treatment, but the post-bite treatment is simpler (2 doses of vaccine given 3 days apart instead of immediate injection of rabies immune globulin at the bite site plus a series of four immunizations), and the treatment doesn’t have to be given immediately. So it buys you time to get to a location where you can be properly treated. (In some parts of the world it could take a week or more to get back to a place where rabies vaccine is available.)
There is no law where I live requiring cats to be licensed. Not in my state, county or city. The state of NY (my state of residence) requires all domestic dogs, cats, and ferrets to be vaccinated and kept boostered for rabies.
If cats are not licensed and indoor only, how are they going to know a person has a cat? If a cat never goes outside, how are they going to catch rabies? If you don't take the cat to a Vet, nobody will ever know.
Even if her doctors had been told right away that she’d been traveling in the Philippines a few weeks earlier, they might not have immediately thought of rabies as a possibility. The initial symptoms of human rabies are sufficiently vague that the disease can be confused with a lot of other, more treatable conditions. Remember, to most Norwegians (including most doctors) rabies isn’t “real” as they’ve never seen a case in an animal, much less a person. It’s always easier to diagnose diseases that are common where you live, as you’re quicker to consider them as a possibility.
Anyway, once this young woman began to show symptoms she was doomed. Only a handful of people have ever survived rabies, even with the best treatments available. It’s essentially 100% fatal. That’s why prevention is so important!
But if they'd been told she'd been to the Philippines *and bitten by a dog*? (The article says the dog was "nibbling" on her fingers. Um, no. "Nibbling" does not break the skin and draw blood. Also, it's something I hope she worked to nip in the bud if she was planning on taking the dog home... it's never cute anymore once the tiny adorable puppy is a big strong dog and only doing things it was allowed to do and considered "play" all its life.)
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Originally Posted by Soccernerd
I kind of wonder if the "puppy" was actually that cute and innocent looking. I thought a lot of Asian countries have a problem with feral dogs running around because there are even fewer people who get their pets spayed or neutered and that there’s cultural belief that dogs are sacred(??).
I'm sure he was cute. And many dogs in Asia have been rescued from the street and are nice dogs (same for cats). But. Even nice dogs can be infected with rabies. Even nice dogs can bite if they're threatened or frightened or hurt. And even dogs owned by people may not be well-socialized, or vaccinated. (Or, there was an issue a while back where they discovered some rabies vaccines in Thailand were substandard-- can't remember how-- and so the incidence of rabies was up in Hua Hin (maybe elsewhere).)
Quote:
Originally Posted by athena53
Last time I went to my local Travel and Immunization Clinic (which WAS in Kansas!) there was a family with 3 little boys who were being given preventative immunizations against rabies because the family was going to be in Africa for an extended period. I didn't know such a thing existed; I was there for pills to prevent malaria.
I hope that if you were going to an area with rabies issues that they would have advised you that you might want to think about it... It's often considered optional, based on the circumstances of your travel, but hopefully they would at least let people know it might be wise to consider it.
If cats are not licensed and indoor only, how are they going to know a person has a cat? If a cat never goes outside, how are they going to catch rabies? If you don't take the cat to a Vet, nobody will ever know.
Only an idiot doesn't take their cat to the vet.
And cats CAN get outdoors. My cat has been giving me the slip lately every time I try to go somewhere; unfortunately for her both entrances to our apartment involve double set of doors, so the closest she gets to outside is the stairwell to the ground floor of a 2-family house.
FYI, the only state that requires a cat license is Rhode Island.
And cats CAN get outdoors. My cat has been giving me the slip lately every time I try to go somewhere; unfortunately for her both entrances to our apartment involve double set of doors, so the closest she gets to outside is the stairwell to the ground floor of a 2-family house.
And there’s always the possibility of a rabid animal getting inside the house. Bats, like mice, can slip through very small openings.
And there’s always the possibility of a rabid animal getting inside the house. Bats, like mice, can slip through very small openings.
Yes. The cat may not get out, but rabies can get in. Mice, voles, shrews, rats, bats get in buildings following plumbing from basements and crawlspaces, attics, inside walls, HVAC grills, from attics and roofs, under doors.
And there’s always the possibility of a rabid animal getting inside the house. Bats, like mice, can slip through very small openings.
That too. I know someone who had that happen to her, thankfully before she had any cats. It was flying around her apartment. Now she has 4 cats, and she is very protective of them.
I hope that if you were going to an area with rabies issues that they would have advised you that you might want to think about it... It's often considered optional, based on the circumstances of your travel, but hopefully they would at least let people know it might be wise to consider it.
I'm pretty sure they would have, and so would the tour company. I was going to India and Nepal and the person at the clinic went over my itinerary in great detail to determine which were malaria areas (Delhi and Nepal are not) before determining exactly how many pills I needed and when to start them. I'll be back for a yellow fever shot before I go to Bolivia in March!
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Now she has 4 cats, and she is very protective of them.
