Rabies (cont.)
In this Article
Pets and Rabies
1. Q: How can I protect my pet from rabies?
A: There are several things you can do to protect your pet from
rabies. First, visit your veterinarian with your pet on a regular basis and keep
rabies vaccinations up-to-date for all cats, ferrets, and dogs. Second, maintain
control of your pets by keeping cats and ferrets indoors and keeping dogs under
direct supervision. Third, spay or neuter your pets to help reduce the number of
unwanted pets that may not be properly cared for or vaccinated regularly.
Lastly, call animal control to remove all stray animals from your neighborhood
since these animals may be unvaccinated or ill.
2. Q: Why does my pet need the rabies vaccine?
Although the majority of rabies cases occur in wildlife,
most humans are given rabies vaccine as a result of exposure to domestic
animals. This explains the tremendous cost of rabies prevention in domestic
animals in the United States. While wildlife are more likely to be rabid than
are domestic animals in the United States, the amount of human contact with
domestic animals greatly exceeds the amount of contact with wildlife. Your pets
and other domestic animals can be infected when they are bitten by rabid wild
animals. When "spillover" rabies occurs in domestic animals, the risk to humans
is increased. Pets are therefore vaccinated by your veterinarian to prevent them
from acquiring the disease from wildlife, and thereby transmitting it to humans.
3. Q: What happens if a neighborhood dog or cat bites me?
A: You should seek medical evaluation for any animal bite. However,
rabies is uncommon in dogs, cats, and ferrets in the United States. Very few
bites by these animals carry a risk of rabies. If the cat (or dog or ferret)
appeared healthy at the time you were bitten, it can be confined by its owner
for 10 days and observed. No anti-rabies prophylaxis is needed. No person in the
United States has ever contracted rabies from a dog, cat or ferret held in
quarantine for 10 days.
If a dog, cat, or ferret appeared ill at the time it bit you or becomes ill
during the 10 day quarantine, it should be evaluated by a veterinarian for signs
of rabies and you should seek medical advice about the need for anti-rabies
prophylaxis.
The quarantine period is a precaution against the remote possibility that an
animal may appear healthy, but actually be sick with rabies. To understand this
statement, you have to understand a few things about the pathogenesis of rabies
(the way the rabies virus affects the animal it infects). From numerous studies
conducted on rabid dogs, cats, and ferrets, we know that rabies virus inoculated
into a muscle travels from the site of the inoculation to the brain by moving
within nerves. The animal does not appear ill during this time, which is called
the incubation period and which may last for weeks to months. A bite by the
animal during the incubation period does not carry a risk of rabies because the
virus is not in saliva. Only late in the disease, after the virus has reached
the brain and multiplied there to cause an encephalitis (or
inflammation of the
brain), does the virus move from the brain to the salivary glands and saliva.
Also at this time, after the virus has multiplied in the brain, almost all
animals begin to show the first signs of rabies. Most of these signs are obvious
to even an untrained observer, but within a short period of time, usually within
3 to 5 days, the virus has caused enough damage to the brain that the animal
begins to show unmistakable signs of rabies. As an added precaution, the
quarantine period is lengthened to 10 days.
For more information on recommendations about biting incidences, quarantine,
and postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), see:
Compendium of Animal Rabies Control, 2000 and
Rabies Prevention - United States, 1999 Recommendations of the Immunization
Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP).
For more information on dog bites, please see the
bibliography maintained by th National Center for
Injury Prevention and Control.
Next: What happens if my pet (cat, dog, ferret) is bitten by a wild animal? »
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