By this time her husband and grown son came running. They killed the skunk and wrapped the head in a plastic bag and headed for the hospital.
All three of them had to have the shot. But it was 100% effective. The skunk was positive for rabies. All three of them lived.
The hospital told them that skunks with rabies hiss and spray droplets of infected saliva into the air. They were all exposed, especially my friend with the bite on her leg.
This happened 15 years ago in Calif.
Several years ago, my dad was down the hill at his shop and my mom heard their yellow lab frantically barking & sometimes yelping in their backyard. She looked out and saw a fox attacking him. She opened the sliding door to let the dog inside but the fox ran towards it and she slammed the door on its head. That happened several times and still the thing kept fighting with the dog as if it was uninjured. Finally Mom called my dad at the shop and he drove to the house and at 76 and having Parkinson’s and poor eyesight, he killed the thing with nothing but a huge stick. The dog had his rabies shots current so was ‘quarantined’ for a time for safety. I always felt like the poor guy probably thought he was being punished.
My ,now 12 year old, granddaughter picked up ,what she thought was a Halloween decoration in her preschool playground. It was a dead bat. Her teacher jumped into action and had her immediately was her hands and called my son and the health department. They took the bat, had it tested and sure enough it was rabid. Emily immediately underwent the series of shots and all turned out fine. She didn’t find the shots to be too bad as they’re now given in the thigh. A little boy ,who was playing with her, also had to be vaccinated because, although he said he hadn’t touched the bat they felt they couldn’t trust what a 4 year old telling them.
My ,now 12 year old, granddaughter picked up ,what she thought was a Halloween decoration in her preschool playground. It was a dead bat. Her teacher jumped into action and had her immediately was her hands and called my son and the health department. They took the bat, had it tested and sure enough it was rabid. Emily immediately underwent the series of shots and all turned out fine. She didn’t find the shots to be too bad as they’re now given in the thigh. A little boy ,who was playing with her, also had to be vaccinated because, although he said he hadn’t touched the bat they felt they couldn’t trust what a 4 year old telling them.
My 23 year old daughter just received the rabies pre-vaccine, which is essentially the same as post-treatment; three shots in the arm at some intervals. She said it wasn’t bad.
She works as a wildlife biologist for the feds and traps and handles skunks and raccoons.
It was kind of pricey and her agency would not pay for it. I told her I would, get it. Turns out her insurance picked up a fair bit of it, she just had to get it under the guise of foreign travel.
If she is bitten, she still has to get two shots but has a very good chance of not developing the disease.
I hope.
A half grown raccoon walked right up to our dog and bit her on the face. Then it bit my daughter when she pulled the dog off. Thank God for the vaccine.
10% of bats found in homes have rabies.