I've been really paranoid about rabies lately. About two weeks ago I was bitten playfully by a cat that regularly drops by our weekend home in a municipality at the edge of our city. I immediately contacted my primary doctor and was told not to worry about it, but also was referred to an infectious diseases specialist in our city. The specialist practically laughed at me when I showed my bite mark but also told me there was nothing to worry about, rabies has not occurred in animals in our country for a little over 10 years, usually, we don't even vaccinate dog/cat bite victims for rabies, only tetanus. This did not calm me down and I spent 11 days feeling (imaginary) rabies symptoms and checking up on the cat whenever we went to the weekend home again. Today was supposed to be the last day, the 11th day if the cat was healthy then my worries were supposed to be gone. The cat was healthy but had relatively fresh claw wounds behind its ears like it had been fighting with something. The cat has a habit of standing up on its hind paws and reaching out to you with its front paws when playing. I wanted to check out its behavior in order to verify it's not in the beginning stages of illness (fear, changes in behavior). I did not dare reach out with my hand, In case it decided to bite again, I did not want to worry another 10 days. I reached out with my phone. As expected the cat purred and reached up and rubbed its head on my phone. I immediately thought of the idea that the claw marks on the cat were from a rabid animal.. I stuck the phone down in my pocket and washed my hands thoroughly for 20 seconds with soap. I stuck a wet wipe down my pocket making sure not to make direct contact with the phone itself and wiped the backside a bit, to perhaps allow me to reach down and silence calls. As soon as I got home I rubbed the phone with 65% isopropyl alcohol disinfectant gel and left it for some time to dry out. Thinking the crisis is over I began to use it normally, but soon after I read that alcohol has no effect on the rabies virus. So now I'm terrified that my disinfection procedure actually spread the virus all over my phone which later touched my hands and my laptop and my face and while working I probably touched my eyes/nose/lips without thinking. I also touched my girlfriend's face/lips/hands and kissed them soon afterward. How crazy is this? If anyone has experience with rabies/health anxiety, can you please tell me how should i proceed, I'm absolutely terrified that I may have doomed myself and her with this action. Our country has run out of rabies shots since they don't buy them often since rabies is considered to be extinct here, they can be received in case of emergency (really bad bites) but I don't think I can tell a doctor this story and not get laughed at. The cat is not domestic in the sense that it's not vaccinated for parasites (domestic cats are not required to be vaccinated for rabies here, only dogs) and not under 24/7 watch from somebody, but It rarely hunts for food since there are constantly people that feed the local cats and they travel from house to house, begging for food and pets.
Rabies exposure anxiety
- Thread starter stefanp
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Matticus1983
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I always answer to these texts because I am a taxidermist. Now I e had my hands in some nasty situations with 100's of animals. Carnivores and herbivores. Sometimes with gloves sometimes without,cuts on my hands etc. My hands in the mouth and saliva areas, a thousand tick bites as well. The chances of you catching rabies are EXTREMELY LOW, especially from a neighborhood kitty cat. Just trying to make you feel better! Prayers
Thank you so much for your answer! It definitely helps. Just out of curiosity, have you heard of any stories of rabies in your field at all?
Matticus1983
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Very, very few and far between. The ones I have heard of "knew" that they contracted it! Trust me like a thousand other diseases, you would know something is seriously wrong! But that doesn't mean rabies would actually be fatal! Here's some food for thought and I know this sounds crazy! I never wore a mask or gloves during the COVID pandemic. My family even caught it. I never once caught the virus, not once and I worked in commercial atmospheres for a living touching door handles, etc. I have this weird theory that because I've caught so many animal strains of the common cold it gave me immunity. Lol ...But there's 1000s of taxidermist, so I'd say yea there is a superficial chance of catching rabies. We tend to catch Lyme Disease before anything else but I really don't worry about that either cause the chances are so low.!
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Same, I’m currently obsessing over a skunk encounter. My dog got sprayed, I watched it happen, but I still come up with a scenario where I missed the skunk biting her or getting saliva on her and then infecting me when I picked her up and bathed her.
Also I went out to the garbage late at night to put something out and was literally a foot away from a skunk getting into our garbage. I slowly made it back to the porch and it retreated raised its tail but lowered it and left.
Told my wife what if it bit or scratched me without me knowing and I need rabies shots. She looked at me with a blank stare haha. Checked our camera and I was in and out of the house in literally one minute.
I really wish I could find a good affordable behavior specialist, unfortunately the are not many good ones in my area and with insurance I get billed $350 for three sessions.
Also I went out to the garbage late at night to put something out and was literally a foot away from a skunk getting into our garbage. I slowly made it back to the porch and it retreated raised its tail but lowered it and left.
Told my wife what if it bit or scratched me without me knowing and I need rabies shots. She looked at me with a blank stare haha. Checked our camera and I was in and out of the house in literally one minute.
I really wish I could find a good affordable behavior specialist, unfortunately the are not many good ones in my area and with insurance I get billed $350 for three sessions.
One thing I always say is that this forum shows we aren't alone in our irrational thoughts when we think we are the only ones who comes up with these ideas. We create stories and what ifs that in reality didn't happen....