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Exposed to a rabies positive animal!

JordanAng420

JordanAng420

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I've been in the veterinary industry for a LONG time. I've worked at a LOT of different animal hospitals and i've dealt with a LOT of different situations. However, I have NEVER dealt with a confirmed positive rabies case.

To make a long story short, I had a cat that boarded at my animal hospital for about 10 days, ended up developing neurological symptoms, and was then euthanized and sent out for rabies testing (11 week old kitten, found on the street). Yesterday the Broward County Health Department called and told us this kitten tested positive for rabies.

So now that i've been exposed to this cat, I have to go and have my rabies series done again. The last time I had it done, which I think was when I got my certification 11 years ago, I was sick for 2 weeks, and I ended up in the hospital for a few days.

I never thought my job could possibly threaten my life. I'm scared to death.

Wish me luck with the idiots at the health department tomorrow. :eek:
 
Ouch.... I've heard it's a rather difficult and painful series to have to go through. Hope things have changed for the better since I last read up on this and it won't put you down for two weeks again.
 
Best of luck Maia, hopefully you won't have as bad a reaction as before.


Boy am I glad my snakes can't carry anything like that.....
 
Wow, that's horrible. Feral cats are the fourth most common vector of rabies in Georgia and it scares me how few people realize that. I hope everything turns out well for you. It may be best for you to invest in getting a rabies vaccine after this. If you're vaccinated, the follow-up shots after exposure are much less painful and intense.
 
From what I understand, and what i've been told by a few other coworkers that had their treatment done today, it's a total of 20cc in an injection, split up into 3 areas. 8cc on each side of the rear end, and 4cc in whatever arm is opposite to your dominant. The only side effects i've heard is the obvious soreness, feelings of being lightheaded, and just generally "out of it". Due to my previous experience, I will most likely be given something beforehand to lessen the possibility of me having a reaction.

I have to go back and have it done again for a series of 4 in 3 weeks, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks.

I must say, I have learned my lesson, and I will be taking MANY more precautions after this experience.

Thanks for the support, everyone. :)
 
I worked with animals in the UK in the 1980s, and I remember getting inoculated when we had mice imported from the USA, which only caused a day or so of mild light-headedness.

At that time the treatment if exposed was a series of injections directly into the stomach muscles :ack2: ...... so this may be faint consolation but I think it's a LOT less painful now, and probably many more degrees effective.

Good luck, hope you just have a hazy day and are back in action quickly.

You weren't actually bitten or scratched, right? Just handled the animal?
 
No bites or scratches, but I was giving oral antibiotics at one point.

We also spayed this cat and I placed and removed the tracheal tube, I put it's IV catheter in...I was all over this cat. :eek:
 
I hope all goes well, that you do not have more than local reactions, what a job you have!
 
Good luck to you. So sorry you have to go through that. I'm glad you're getting the shots though; you can't take any chances with rabies.


Noelle
 
Sorry you have to go through this, but why dont you mention to the idiots at the health center that the last time you had this done, you were put into the hospital?
Cant they just send the request to the ER or something you go to the hospital, that way they can give you preventative meds?

Dealing with rabies is a very real thing to those in the animal care industry.
As an ACO myself, sometimes it freaks me out when we've got one of those dogs foaming at the mouth thats been brought in because they bit someone and broke skin.
Ugh.
I feel your pain.
 
Well, so far so good. The first day, I was at the health department for 5 hours!!! They did give me two injections beforehand, which I believe was an antihistamine and a steroid to lessen the possibility of a reaction. The first day I had the actual rabies vaccine itself, and the rabies immunoglobulin. Thankfully, I didn't have a severe reaction like I did last time. I WAS pretty spacey all day long, and at one point I was slurring my words. I felt like I had too much to drink. I also had a lot of hot flashes and I was extremely irritable all day long. I wasn't working that day, so I got to go home and sleep it off. Yesterday, I had to go back for the second shot in the series. I tolerated it a lot better than I thought I was going to. I have to go back on Friday, and then one more time after that.

I feel like the vaccines are messing with my head a little bit. I'm cranky after I get them, and they make me feel like crap. Can't wait for this to be over.

I hate people that let their un-vaccinated animals run loose outside.

I had a guy at work yesterday who told me he doesn't believe in vaccinating his animals. He has 4 cats that haven't had rabies vaccines since 2006 and they all roam the neighborhood, and they're all ferocious. I think he's been reported before, but no one ever follows through.

And here the media/government/general public is making this HUGE deal about the feral burmese pythons in the everglades...which I do admit is a problem... but that does not seem to be the problem that needs attention here. Lets take care of these damn feral, unvaccinated, rabid cats!
 
JordanAng420 said:
And here the media/government/general public is making this HUGE deal about the feral burmese pythons in the everglades...which I do admit is a problem... but that does not seem to be the problem that needs attention here. Lets take care of these damn feral, unvaccinated, rabid cats!
Click to expand...

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

Glad it's not too bad so far........
 
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