Rabies!

    One of the scariest words in veterinary medicine is “rabies”.  Recently right here on the Olympic Peninsula a domestic cat was diagnosed with rabies.  Several people, including the owner of the oddly behaving cat and a veterinary technician, are undergoing rabies treatment, according to the article in the Peninsula Daily News (November 5, 2015). 

     The reservoir for rabies in Washington State is bats.  That means even strictly inside cats and dogs need to keep up to date on their rabies vaccines- since we know many stories of bats getting into houses.   It is county law and state law (and a darned good idea) to vaccinate puppies and kittens for rabies as soon as 16 weeks of age.  We are pretty aggressively pro vaccine here at Family Veterinary Clinic and rabies is a must.  Until a few years ago rabies was a uniformly fatal disease to humans.  Only a few cases of people surviving the virus are in the textbooks and those people were put into comas until they outlasted the virus!  Rabid bats are easy targets for cats and dogs.  If you find a bat that is not normal (out in the daytime, stumbling, flying unstable, chewed on by your pet, etc) DO NOT TOUCH IT.  Use a gloved hand to pick it up and put it in a plastic bag.  DO NOT FREEZE IT, double bag it and refrigerate it until you can get in touch with someone from the health department or a veterinary clinic.  Funding for rabies testing is very low these days unless human exposure is suspected, so you will have to pay to have any bat tested that your dog or cat plays with out of your own pocket, it is very expensive.  There will be charges from your veterinarian and the health department.  Our last case was in excess of 200 dollars just for the health department charges and overnight shipping!

     Rabies virus vaccines are killed vaccines so there is NO possibility of your vaccinated pet getting rabies from the vaccine.  And the only preventive measure against rabies is vaccination.  After the first rabies vaccine the next vaccines last 3 years which decreases how many vaccines a pet needs through its lifetime.  The vast majority (99% here at Family Veterinary Clinic) of animals vaccinated have no significant adverse reaction to being immunized against rabies.

    If you are opposed to vaccines we still urge everyone to have their pets get that first vaccine for rabies.  Yearly or every 3 year titers can be done to verify immunity after that.  Titers are much more expensive than a vaccine every 3 years though!  If your unvaccinated pet bites someone it is possible they could require your pet to be euthanized to be tested if you cannot show that it has ever been vaccinated for rabies.  Better to be safe than sorry.