BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Animal Life A tale of woe and a valuable lesson learned

A tale of woe and a valuable lesson hard learned about Rabies...

Rabies. I never really thought about it before. I knew "about" it, everyone does... Last Saturday my 19 yr old daughter's cat died. He was sick and most of his symptoms were neurologic. He staggered around as if he was drunk. His eyes couldn't track; his eyeballs wouldn't move and he had to turn his head when he wanted to look at something. When his front feet were lifted off the ground his legs cycled with claws extended as if he was riding a bike and/or seeking purchase on something solid. Yet he was hungry and ate well. We'd planned on worming all the cats (all 14 of them) when we returned from our trip to Wi. Hadn't gotten around to it yet with still too much to do after the trip. He appeared to have lost a good bit of weight and very quickly, in under 2 weeks. So I decided to worm him and in doing so had to stick my fingers in his mouth as we use a paste wormer. Sigh. Wrong thing to do. None of our cats have had rabies shots. We've always lived away from other people and stray wild animals have never been a problem til recently. We had a coon decided to attempt to move into our old storage trailer. Apparently the cat had some contact with this coon and I found out, belatedly, that in Virginia all coons are considered rabid until proven otherwise.
It never even crossed my mind that it could be rabies til I talked to my oldest daughter. She's an animal tech at Virginia Tech. She told me the animal needed to be tested just to be safe.

I couldn't find the cat on Sunday and on Monday my worst fears were realised when we found his carcass. I called Animal Control immediately and went round with them all day because they said the state would not test an animal unless it had bitten someone. Sheesh. Tuesday morning I called the health dept and explained the situation, about my daughter and I worming the cat and having had our fingers in his mouth. The woman told me to put the cat on ice, which we did and someone came out to pick him up later that afternoon.

Unforunately, the brain was too decomposed to get a good tissue sample for testing. The Health Dept recommended we get the rabies vaccine shots including the initial immune globluin shotS. Yes, shots. We had to go the nearest ER to get them. The intial shots are based solely on body weight. I had to have 5 different shots (including the first rabies vaccine) and my daughter had to have 6. We go back Monday for the second shot of the vaccine series and 3 more after that.

I've got a call in to our vet since Thursday this past week and no call back yet. Got to get all the animals vaccinated including the horse I think...

This has been an expensive lesson: 125.00 per shot for the 4 from the Health Dept. And of course the cats shots which are only 6.00 a piece. The loss of my daughters cat... And not knowing if it was rabies is the corker. Even cats kept indoors are at risk. Not just ones that stay outside all the time or alot of the time. So *please* get your animals vaccinated. I wouldn't want anyone else to go through the week I have... Not all animals show the classic Rabies symptoms. Some do as our cat did. Protect yourself, your loved ones and your animal loved ones.