|
1-10 of 13 messages
|
Page 1 of 2
Next
|
|
for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by BigBend66 on July 9, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
my son and I found 6 baby coons in the road around 12 am. the mother was 100 ft away dead from a car we grabbed up 3 of the young but 3 got away. I was scratched abd bit by the little guys in the process and of course my Dr. wants me to get rabie shots. I can't imagine those babies would have contracted rabies that young and probably very seldome away from the den.what do you think? I value your opion on most issues. I have raised many coons but for some reason my doc has got me freaked out.....
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by spydrhunter1 on July 9, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Don't take the chance..rabies is 100% fatal. I work with zoonotic diseases in a state health department and racoons are the number one carrier of rabies. The animals will also need tested, unfortunately that means the will have to be killed.
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by pitbulllady on July 9, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Rabies can be passed down from the mother to the young while the babies are still in utero. Recently here in South Carolina, on Hilton Head Island, over 40 people had to be given Rabies shots after they were exposed to the disease by a baby raccoon that was no more than three weeks old. Someone had found it, apparently abandoned, before its eyes were open, and was hand-raising it. They took it to a family reunion, where it got passed around from person to person. Many of the people kissed it on the mouth, put their fingers in its mouth and allowed it to lick them. Just a couple of days later the raccoon got sick and died, but not before being taken to a vet. The vet was concerned about Rabies, and sent the raccoon's head off to the state's Health Dept.(DHEC)for testing. Sure enough, it came back positive-and the health officials had quite a time tracking down all the people who'd been around the raccoon at the family reunion. The caretaker had been keeping it in her house, so it had had no exposure to any possibly-rabid animals during that time, and had most likely contracted the disease either before birth, or shortly afterwards, through its mother's milk.
DON'T TAKE THE CHANCE! Take your doctor's advice, and get the shots for you and your kids. In South Carolina, you wouldn't have a choice-they can force you to have the shots if exposure to the disease is likely, because this disease is virtually 100% lethal, and can be transmitted from human to human easily.
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by Chris_Harper on July 9, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I've had the Rabies Vaccinations, and if I was bitten, I have to have a booster. If you haven't had the vaccination, GET THE RABIES SHOTS ASAP. Spydrhunter1 is absolutely correct. Rabies is 100% fatal once symptoms appear. DO NOT PLAY AROUND WITH RABIES. It's not worth the risk.
Chris Harper, webmaster
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by JoeCrotalid on July 9, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Collin
Raccoons are among the most notorious carriers of rabies and has been already stated in addition to the risk of tetanus and bacterial infection from such a bite. Rabies is 100% lethal. Have the animals been turned over for testing which would be the only way to 100% confirm whether the animal is rabid. If the animal tested negative then I might forego the pain of the shots, but pain is certainly more preferable to death.
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by BigBend66 on July 10, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Thanks guys, and I got the first set of shots last night. 5 in all, 4 in the butt and 1 in the shoulder. Got to go back 4 more times for 1 shot each.....
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by AquaHerp on July 10, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Info is dead-on. There was one case of a young girl actually treated with a cocktail of antibiotcs for rabies and did survive. What the papers fail to say is that she is far from recovered, and never will be. Rabies is indeed as a general rule 100% fatal once symptoms have begun.
DH
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by LarryDFishel on July 10, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I have no direct experience, but I did quite a bit of reading on rabies a while back (thinking about getting vaccinated).
One thing no one mentioned though you can sort of infer it from Callin's response, is that Rabies shots these days are much less severe than they used to be (or maybe just less severe than the stories).
Don't risk your life to get out of a few needles in the butt...
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by Cro on July 11, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
There was also a teenage boy who survived rabies he got from the bite of a bat. This was about 25 years ago. He was placed in a medically induced coma and kept alive on heart and lung support machines. He made a full recovery. Apparently, the neurological effects of the virus were prevented in that way. However, there was concern that he might be a carrier of rabies after that, and he was not allowed to attend schools.
On two different occasions I have seen large dogs with rabies, and it is a very scarry thing to see. They could hardly walk, and stumbled every few steps. They were foaming at the mouth, and snapping, growling, and biting at the air. One was walking down a creek bed, and kept snapping at each pool of water it came to.
Rabies is also called "hydrophobia" because animals are unable to drink when they have the disease. This is probably due to swelling of the throat. This probably creates a terrable thirst in the animals.
The dog i saw in the creek bed became more and more inraged as it tried to drink from the water pools. Sure made it easy to see how the name hydrophobia originated.
Best Regards John Z
|
| |
|
RE: for chris h, raccoon bite.
|
Reply
|
|
by BigBend66 on July 11, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
I"ve caught baby coons, foxes, skunks and everything else in my day but for some reason I felt really strange about this encounter and I am glad I am getting the shots. There was no pain at all in the 5 shots , just hate waiting in the emergency room all night to get them.....
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
