By Stephen Smoot
Last week, according to Brooke Hott from the Pendleton County Health Department, a Circleville resident noticed a raccoon behaving oddly on his porch, “staggering” strangely. Just as with a rabid dog famously depicted in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the raccoon moved with a strange and almost drunken stagger, typical of animals with that deadly and dangerous disease.
Hott stated that the resident acted properly when confronting a feral animal with obvious symptoms of rabies. “Staggering is a common symptom,” she noted. The resident dispatched the animal and notified his local veterinarian. That starts the process overseen by county health departments as they work to keep both human beings and their beloved pets or working animals free from the ravages of rabies.
A specific protocol governs instances of rabies. As Hott explained, the veterinarian will submit samples from the animal. “They send it off to Charleston where the rabies lab is to test the brain.” Also “we get the call from the veterinarian about a cat dog, raccoon or any other animal suspected of carrying the disease.”
After two or three days, Hott related, the health department receives the call from the Charleston laboratory to get the results of the test. Immediately, the person who submitted the animal will also receive word from the health department about the results, should they return as positive that the creature had the disease.
Hott related that this makes the fifth animal found in the past 12 months. Four were reported and confirmed last year, the first appearing in February. Hott remarked that “it’s an off time to have it, in the cold weather, but you always have to be aware. You never know.”
One of the more recent tasks involved in tabulating rabies lies in gathering and reporting to the state a precise GPS location of where the rabid animal was found. Health department officials perform this work.
Hott took the opportunity to remind animal owners of the best way to protect them from rabies in the first place, following the recommended vaccination regimen. Pets should receive their first vaccination within three months of birth, a booster after a year, then booster shots every three years.
She added that the best way that people can protect themselves lies in following a good piece of advice, “If you don’t know who the animal is, leave it alone.” Many do not understand the broad spectrum of animals who might carry rabies. She stated that last year they confirmed rabies in a beaver. “That was my first time finding a beaver with it in my 13 years here,” Hott remarked.
Bats, very common in areas of Pendleton County with cave systems, are one of the most common carriers of rabies.
“No exposure to people or animals is a perfect case,” Hott shared, talking about when a rabid animal is found, but has not come into contact with people or pets.
If a human has direct contact with a rabid animal in such a way that may transmit the disease, he or she must take a post exposure prophylactic shot. While highly unpleasant, the pain is significantly better than what happens as the virus runs its course.
“Rabies virus gets into your body when the saliva . . . of an infected animal gets into an open wound (usually from a bit states the Cleveland Clinic). The next part is what should give pause, “it moves very slowly along your central nervous system. When it reaches your brain, the damage causes neurological symptoms. From there, rabies leads to coma and death.”
The Centers for Disease Control reports that “the incubation period may last for weeks to months.” Once it sets in, people may feel weakness, discomfort, or headache, along with irritation at the bite location.
As the virus breaks down the brain and spinal cord, symptoms may include anxiety, confusion, agitation, delirium, hallucinations, acute fear of water, hypersalivation, seizures, and more
Pets that have had their booster shots, yet still come into contact with an infected animal, must receive a booster, then go into a 45-day quarantine period, at the end of which the Health Department will call to give the “all clear.”
Owners of animals who have gone too long since a rabies shot, or who never had one, have two options if they come into contact with a rabid creature. The first lies in euthanizing it before the virus can infect the pet or working animal.
Other owners may choose a specialized six month quarantine. This requires a double pen system where the animal resides in, and does not leave for six months, a primary pen. A second enclosure also surrounds the area where the human may feed or water the animal.
“It’s probably like agony,” stated Hott, because the animal cannot leave the primary enclosure for any reason until the health department gives notice. It can have no direct contact with any other animal, including its owner. That quarantine protocol will take six months and, again, the health department will call when the quarantine period has passed.
Of course, by keeping up with ones’ animals’ rabies vaccination schedule and following the rules when rabies is suspected or encountered, Hott says, “This protects you from getting it too.”
A resident in Circleville reported the fifth rabid wild animal in the county in the past 12 months.
Photo courtesy of the Monongalia County Health Department.
