Next Doc Question - Rabies Exposure

[Toonces]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the responses. I feel silly that I didn't google the fact that mice are not carriers, but I knew those little buggers carried rabies. I am plenty happy to be wrong in public and look a little foolish. Hanta is exceedingly rare in WI (freshly researched), so that's not much of a concern.

As for not using the 10mm, I did the pliers thing because I've had escapes when trying to move rodents that were not well glued down. But next time I'll use a 12 gauge or 416 Rigby to make up for this situation.

Toonces

[Hambo]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the responses. I feel silly that I didn't google the fact that mice are not carriers, but I knew those little buggers carried rabies. I am plenty happy to be wrong in public and look a little foolish. Hanta is exceedingly rare in WI (freshly researched), so that's not much of a concern.

As for not using the 10mm, I did the pliers thing because I've had escapes when trying to move rodents that were not well glued down. But next time I'll use a 12 gauge or 416 Rigby to make up for this situation.

Toonces

Throw trap in bucket of water.

[UNM1136]

I’d be more concerned about Hanta virus, but you’re fine.

A running joke at one of my wife's former employers, back when Hanta was nebulous mystery disease that was ravaging the Four Corners region (before DNA typing and pretty sure this discussion predated the actual, public accessible internet; think dial up modems, email and usenet) was that she wanted to create a unique, exportable New Mexico Foodstuff. She declared that she was going to wrangle Four Corners Deer Mice and milk them to produce.....

Drumroll.....

New Mexico Four Corners Hanta Pinon Cheese.

Little commercial interest was realized and the concept never got off the ground for practical reasons....

pat

[BobM]

I’d be more concerned about Hanta virus, but you’re fine.

That was the first thing I thought of too. I don’t really know how prevalent that is either though.

[Sensei]

No apology necessary. I didn't consider the cost of the RIG. I've only had one animal bite (semi-stray cat) that required medical attention. I didn't use that to try to get the vaccine even though the the NP that I saw was very disturbed about me not being able to monitor the cat. I was sure thankful for the antibiotics though!

I know that the number of people in the US who die from rabies every year is in the single digits if not zero, but the unsettling thing to me is that some of those people don't know how they got rabies. To circle back to the point of this thread, none of the listed fatalities in the CDC's table appear to involve mice (LINK).

No worries.

Cat bites are a completely different story and need antibiotics. I’m also a big proponent of severing the cat’s head to have the brain biopsied for rabies - even if it’s a neighbor’s domesticated cat. In fact, you may want to bring in a few heads of neighborhood cats to get tested and make sure rabies hasn’t spread. Just bring the bag of heads with you to the emergency department and we will do the rest….

[Hambo]

No worries.

Cat bites are a completely different story and need antibiotics. I’m also a big proponent of severing the cat’s head to have the brain biopsied for rabies - even if it’s a neighbor’s domesticated cat. In fact, you may want to bring in a few heads of neighborhood cats to get tested and make sure rabies hasn’t spread. Just bring the bag of heads with you to the emergency department and we will do the rest….

Sharpening my machete...

[Caballoflaco]

No apology necessary. I didn't consider the cost of the RIG. I've only had one animal bite (semi-stray cat) that required medical attention. I didn't use that to try to get the vaccine even though the the NP that I saw was very disturbed about me not being able to monitor the cat. I was sure thankful for the antibiotics though!

I know that the number of people in the US who die from rabies every year is in the single digits if not zero, but the unsettling thing to me is that some of those people don't know how they got rabies. To circle back to the point of this thread, none of the listed fatalities in the CDC's table appear to involve mice (LINK).

That CDC list sure would make me think about either trying to get the vaccine before going to central/South America or Asia, or at least cutting my trip short and going home for some sweet vaccination if I got hit by anything.

Around here we have a high raccoon population and you can’t really tell the difference between distemper and rabies when one is stumbling around in the middle of the day. That’s one reason there’s a company suppressed .22.

And since this post is a list of rabies related thoughts your state health department probably has a list of confirmed rabies cases by county and animal. The most interesting thing I saw for AL was that a couple of years ago the State health department had to deal with a rabid donkey.

[0ddl0t]

N=1 and all, but my sister had an exposure while working as a vet tech as an undergrad and got the vaccine (paid by worker's comp). She gets pretty much any vaccine she can and usually has no reaction, but she said the Rabies vaccine was "horrid" due to severe & prolonged injection site pain. The only other vaccine she found unpleasant was for Yellow Fever.


Incidentally, my region had one of the first well-documented rabies survivors, but "survivor" is almost an overstatement since she was left with substantial life-long neurologic deficits.