Rabies Question

[TonyaW]

Ever since I have become a mom, worry has come home to stay. I really hope someone could put my mind at ease.

Anyway, last week I was worried about tetanus this week rabies. I can't help it even though the possibility is very unlikely.

My son was bitten by a cat on a farm which we visit frequently. It was an unprovoked bite, just because it didn't wan to be petted. This animal always attacked playfully and was always scratching. It was fully vaccinated and up to date with the the rabies vaccine.

The farmer wouldn't quarantine the animal, she just had major surgery and had her husband put it down due to the fact that it had scratched previous visitors and always was a feisty animal.

So, do I have any reason what so ever to worry? Can rabies be transmitted from a vaccinated animal if it was exposed by some chance to a rabid animal? The cat looked fine and didn't have any injuries that I noticed, so most likely it had no contact with a wild animal other than mice.

[Marnica]

I would NOT worry about the scenario you have described. This was not a feral cat, but a pet who was fully vaccinated. This is really nothing to think twice about. Motherhood is full of worries. Believe me I may be an expert worrier, but to worry about what you have described would be just a waste of your energy. Save the worry for reasons where it makes sens to worry!!

[Otto]

Originally Posted by TonyaW

The farmer wouldn't quarantine the animal, she just had major surgery and had her husband put it down due to the fact that it had scratched previous visitors and always was a feisty animal.

This doesn't even make sense. What would be the point of quarantining a cat that was known to have been vaccinated against rabies? And why have it killed?

[TonyaW]

Originally Posted by Otto

This doesn't even make sense. What would be the point of quarantining a cat that was known to have been vaccinated against rabies? And why have it killed?

Any animal that bites another person is suppose to be guarantied regardless of vaccine status according to my doctor. They put down the animal because it had hurt other people as well.

[Otto]

Originally Posted by TonyaW

Any animal that bites another person is suppose to be guarantied regardless of vaccine status according to my doctor. They put down the animal because it had hurt other people as well.

And so what was the result of the postmortem?

[Arduinna]

Originally Posted by TonyaW

Any animal that bites another person is suppose to be guarantied regardless of vaccine status according to my doctor. They put down the animal because it had hurt other people as well.

yep.

In fact I was told years ago to quarantine our dogs that got a skunk, we lived in the boonies where rabies was not unknown.

In town though, with a vaxed animal I wouldn't even worry about it.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

The farmer wouldn't quarantine the animal, she just had major surgery and had her husband put it down due to the fact that it had scratched previous visitors and always was a feisty animal.

Originally Posted by Otto

And so what was the result of the postmortem?

From this quote it sounds like the farmer himself "put the cat down" not a vet. But I might be wrong.

This is the first time ever I have heard of killing a cat over "aggression" cats bite and they scratch all the time that is just a cat being a cat.

[Otto]

Originally Posted by MCatLvrMom2A&X

From this quote it sounds like the farmer himself "put the cat down" not a vet. But I might be wrong.

It seems odd that the authorities would insist on a quarantine but be indifferent to the carcass.

[TonyaW]

The farmer put the pet down, though I tried to convince her not to. I wanted her to at least take it to a shelter. She personally called and spoke to her veterinarian about the situation and didn't feel that there was any chance of rabies due to the pet being vaccinated. They didn't want any animal on the farm (this was and outdoor cat) that could injure any other people, especially children I think since there are plenty of kids who come around.

My dog was sprayed by a skunk about 5 years ago. It never even occurred to me then that we might need to quarantine her. Yikes! We have so many skunks around and I'd say there is a fairly likely chance she will get sprayed again some day.

I think I am just being paranoid about the whole situation! I don't know why! There is really such an unlikely chance to contract rabies in this situation. But I tend to dwell on unlikely chances though I am not at all worried about most so called vaccine preventable diseases.

[peainthepod]

If it makes you feel better, we don't vaccinate at all but rabies is the only vaccine-available disease that worries me. Like, really worries me. We live in the country and rabid foxes, skunks, coyotes, feral cats and dogs, and other small mammals are not unheard of here.

About ten years ago I took in a stray cat, probably feral, that had serious aggression issues. He drooled a lot from gum disease and frequently bit me hard enough to draw blood. Only later did it occur to me how stupid it was to assume he wasn't rabid just because we lived in the middle of a large city. Ever since then, I've been kind of paranoid about rabies.

What helps is reading about rabies statistics in my area and knowing that as long as exposure is detected early, it's completely treatable. Getting rabies shots is supposed to be a pretty miserable experience, but it sure beats dying of rabies...

[TonyaW]

I am not at all concerned that the cat was rabid since it was vaccinated for rabies. My only concern, which no one has been able to answer, was whether the cat could have possibly eaten a rabid animal or been exposed to a rabid animal before it bit my son, could it transmit rabies. My logical thought process is yes this could happen. People don't seem to think about this or worry about these kinds of things like I do. I worry about these things. There isn't really anything I can do about it now unless I was to have my son treated for rabies. I wouldn't do that unless I knew the animal was rabid, which I know it wasn't. So, here I am worried about the smallest, most remote possibility in to world and why, I don't know? That's the way I am! But talking about it and hearing what others think helps me process this.

[Otto]

Originally Posted by TonyaW

I am not at all concerned that the cat was rabid since it was vaccinated for rabies. My only concern, which no one has been able to answer, was whether the cat could have possibly eaten a rabid animal or been exposed to a rabid animal before it bit my son, could it transmit rabies.

The putative vectors are pretty remote. I'm not crazy about quoting old sources, but lacking the time right now to go deeper, Bell & Moore reported (Am. J. Epidemiol., 93, 176 [1971])

The present study establishes that striped skunks may be fatally infected by eating one infected mouse; ferrets and cats were not infected, the latter even when they consumed 25 infected carcasses. Ingestion of virus did not elicit formation of humoral neutralizing antibodies. Rabies virus was not found in the mouths of cats or skunks at intervals of 1 hour, 1 day and 1 week after they ingested infected carcasses but the virus was commonly detectable in the saliva of animals when they developed signs of illness.

Now, you know that the cat in question did not itself have rabies, so it wasn't producing virus to transmit through saliva. It appears from the foregoing that any virus ingested by way of infected prey doesn't readily make it back up, if at all. I'm not entirely sure what else you might envision by way of "been exposed," but it seems as though it would have had to have been exceptionally prompt, such as the cat having had a fresh bit of infected mouse brain stuck in its teeth immediately prior to the bite. I'll try to look more at it tonight if I get a chance.

[peainthepod]

Originally Posted by TonyaW

I am not at all concerned that the cat was rabid since it was vaccinated for rabies. My only concern, which no one has been able to answer, was whether the cat could have possibly eaten a rabid animal or been exposed to a rabid animal before it bit my son, could it transmit rabies. My logical thought process is yes this could happen. People don't seem to think about this or worry about these kinds of things like I do. I worry about these things. There isn't really anything I can do about it now unless I was to have my son treated for rabies. I wouldn't do that unless I knew the animal was rabid, which I know it wasn't. So, here I am worried about the smallest, most remote possibility in to world and why, I don't know? That's the way I am! But talking about it and hearing what others think helps me process this.

If the cat wasn't rabid but had just, I don't know, licked the drool off a rabid animal's face, or eaten the brain of a rabid animal and had some rabies virus in its mouth, then I suppose there is the incredibly remote chance that it could have transmitted rabies to your child. But if you're going to worry about such remote possibilities, I don't know what to say. I don't think that you're going to find many epidemiological studies dealing with this sort of infection, if it's even possible.

Animals that go outside get into the nastiest things imaginable--you don't even want to know what my dog dragged onto our porch the other morning. But at least with dogs, their saliva is mildly antiseptic. Cats may have filthier mouths, but I really doubt they've evolved to survive as long as they have by wantonly eating rabid creatures and then getting infected--in the absence of rabies vaccines--and passing on the virus that way. The only cases of rabies transmission I've ever heard of happened via biting and licking--infected saliva to open wound, usually.

Otto's source should be pretty encouraging.

[TonyaW]

I have no idea what "putative vectors" are? Otherwise, what you say is reassuring! I don't think rodents are carriers or rabies, at least rarely and the chance that a cat would break through bone to eat brain seems fairly low. So all to say, even more reassuring.

[Delicateflower]

Originally Posted by TonyaW

I have no idea what "putative vectors" are?

You could say proposed or potential or suspected modes of transmission.