Minor feral cat scratch that bled 6 days ago. Rabies possibility?
I feed a feral cat and her litter of 4 5-week old kittens in my backyard. I got a small scratch on my hand which bled for a few minutes and heard it hiss. That's when the mom came and proceeded to lick it. After freaking out for a bit, I decided to go the ER and was given the first dosage of post exposure shots (2 on each arm, and 1 at the site of the scratch).
I didn't go to the ER three days later as I was supposed to. I don't have a way to quarantine all the cats but they do house themselves in a shed. Every so often, I check on them and I don't see any neurological differences, salivation, or any other telltale symptoms like disorientation or aggression. On any of the cats, I don't see any injuries. I'll still continue to observe each of them, especially the one that scratched me which allows me to pet it, as I still have a 1% doubt since it hasn't been 10-14 days since I started observation.
I would continue the vaccinations but money is a concern as well. Also, I looked up a report of rabies cases in my county (Hudson of NJ), and I was very surprised to see that there have only been 5 cases of rabid cats from 1989 to 2016 and only 18 raccoons in the same time frame. It's the only county in NJ to have a total of double digit cases among all reported animals while the other counties were in the several hundreds.
What is the risk vs benefit of getting the next rabies shot?
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Follow your doctor's advice and complete the post-exposure prophylaxis.
Yes, the risk of rabies is low. But the reason that it is treated so seriously is that if you contract rabies it will invariably be fatal.
Even though the kitten is behaving normally now, you cannot be sure at this point that the kitten does not have rabies. If it is rabid, by the time it shows signs it may be too late for you to initiate effective post-exposure prophylaxis.
Additionally, if you complete the vaccine series now and are ever bitten again, you will not have to undergo the immune globulin and entire vaccine series again. If you don't complete the vaccine series this time, you would have to start again with everything should you be bitten again.
Not long ago I saw a case of a cat with rabies, and while we don't come across it often you have to be aware that it is out there.
This cat may be harboring rabies that will be discovered up to 11 months from now, in one rare case 6 years. The typical incubation period for rabies runs 21 to 240 days. Hence, the usual legal 6-month (183 day) quarantine for possible rabies infections in any animals -- that duration is just beyond the peak of this incubation-range curve. A 6-month quarantine is still not safe, it's just "safer". Keep in mind too that giving a wild-harvested cat a rabies-shot does not cure it of rabies if it already has rabies -- nor are rabies-vaccines at all effective on the undeveloped immune systems of kittens. A cat or kitten may or may not show any symptoms of harboring rabies up to the point of its death. Not all animals exhibit the so-called "furious rabies" symptoms during the 2 weeks before death from rabies. 1 out of 5 (~20%) of all rabid animals only exhibit minor symptoms of lethargy, paralysis, or disorientation; called "dumb rabies" or "paralytic rabies".
Thanks to TNR practices and free-roaming cats you are now four times more likely to contract rabies from any cat than any other domesticated animal. This is why even the CDC has issued direct warnings against the use of those failed TNR (trap, neuter, re-abandon) programs anywhere and everywhere: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zph.12070/abstract
That being said, rabies may be just one of your problems now.
These are just the diseases these invasive species vermin cats have been spreading to humans, not counting the ones they spread to all wildlife. There are no vaccines against many of these, and are in-fact listed as bio-terrorism agents. They include: Afipia felis, Anthrax, Bartonella (Rochalimaea) henselae (Cat-Scratch Disease), Bergeyella (Weeksella) zoohelcum, Campylobacter Infection, Chlamydia psittaci (feline strain), Cowpox, Coxiella burnetti Infection (Q fever), Cryptosporidium Infection, Cutaneous larva migrans, Dermatophytosis, Dipylidium Infection (tapeworm), Hookworm Infection, Leptospira Infection, Giardia, Neisseria canis, Pasteurella multocida, Plague, Poxvirus, Rabies, Rickettsia felis, Ringworm, Salmonella Infection (including the most dangerous new super-strain found only in cats), Scabies, Sporothrix schenckii (Sporotrichosis), Toxocara Infection, Toxoplasmosis, Trichinosis, Visceral larva migrans, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. [Centers for Disease Control, July 2010] Bird-flu (H1N1, H5N1, H7N2), Bovine Tuberculosis, Sarcosporidiosis, Flea-borne Typhus, Tularemia, Rat-Bite Fever, SARS, an antibiotic-resistant strain of Staph aureus (MRSA -- Meticillin-Resistant Staph aureus) "The flesh-eating disease", and Leishmania infantum; can now also be added to CDC's list.
Yes, "The Black Death" (the plague) is alive and well today and being spread by people's cats this time around. Many people have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA; all three forms of it transmitted by cats -- septicemic, bubonic, and pneumonic. For a fun read, one of hundreds of cases, Cat-Transmitted Fatal Pneumonic Plague -- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8059908 www.abcdcatsvets.org/yersinia-pestis-infection "Recommendations to avoid zoonotic transmission:
Cats are considered the most important domestic animal involved in plague transmission to humans, and in endemic areas, outdoor cats may transmit the infection to their owners or to persons caring for sick cats (veterinarians and veterinary nurses)."
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