Replies

DallasDeb;BerryDingle;ZX12R;nickcarraway;
afraidfortherepublic

Here in Panama we just don’t have a big problem with rabies. It is mostly talk. I wouldn’t recognize rabies if an animal with rabies bit me. Hence, my ignorance shows in this area.

I would be concern if a vampire bat bit me as I slept because a few carry rabies, but that is beyond rare.

Thank you for your replies.

P.S.

Next time I see my Dr. Vet, I will ask him about this. I am now curious.

Thank you for your input.

Here in Panama we just don’t have a big problem with rabies.

Humans contracting rabies is rare everywhere, but it does happen. But considering that it is always fatal, if you think you may have been bitten or scratched by a rabid animal, it is best to make sure one way or the other. The best way would be to kill or contain the possibly rabid animal, so it can be checked for it. If not, you may have to undergo treatment to just to be sure.

As stated elsewhere on this thread, you suspect rabies any time a wild animal acts abnormally friendly. Especially nocturnal animals walking around in the day time. In early stages they don’t look different, but in later stages they may staffer, or may foam at the mouth. It doesn’t take much exposure to catch the disease, and it is almost always fatal unless treated immediately with a series of shots.

We had the case of a young girl here in Wisconsin exposed when she found a bat on the floor of her church at choir practice. She picked it up and carried it outside. In so doing, the bat scratched her; but she didn’t think anything about it. She fell sick several weeks later and was saved by a doctor with an experimental treatment. She lost a year of school and had to be retrained to walk and talk. She’s in college now (or has just graduated) and wants to become a vet. Unfortunately, the treatment that saved her is yet to be replicated in anyone else. The patients all died.

She is a miracle.