Rabies & Tetanus

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If an animal bites you, wash with soap and water and do not delay in seeking medical attention, Demma says. Call animal control or a wildlife conservation agency for assistance with capturing the animal. If professional assistance is unavailable, use precautions to catch the animal safely and submit it for testing to local authorities.

If the domestic cat or dog that bit you has up-to-date vaccinations, you may not need post-exposure treatment. You only need post-exposure treatment if the dog or cat shows rabies symptoms within 10 days.

PROTECT YOUR PETS

Your best bet for avoiding health — and legal — complications with rabies is to keep your pets’ vaccinations up-to-date. Rabies laws vary from state to state, but most states require that you vaccinate pets after they are 3 months old, even outdoor cats, and keep their boosters up-to-date. According to Nancy Peterson at The Humane Society of the United States, despite concerns that we may be overvaccinating our pets, rabies is a special case because it has human health concerns. “Follow your municipality’s laws and keep all your pets vaccinated,” she says.
After biting a human, even a healthy pet that is up-to-date on vaccinations must, by law, be quarantined for 10 days and observed for signs of rabies. This can often be done at home.

If a pet is bitten by a wild animal and the pet hasn’t received the rabies vaccine, it should be euthanized immediately or placed in strict quarantine, according to the CDC. Veterinarians consider animals with expired vaccinations on a case-by-case basis; your unvaccinated pet could be placed in isolation for six months and then released one month after a vaccination. Pets with up-to-date vaccinations are kept under observation for 45 days after being bitten by a wild animal. Boarding costs alone can be considerable in any of these circumstances.

TETANUS

Also known as lockjaw, tetanus is a serious and potentially fatal disease caused by a neurotoxin produced by the Clostridium tetani bacteria. Early symptoms include stiffness in the jaw, neck and abdomen, and difficulty swallowing. If left untreated, it can cause a fever, higher blood pressure, respiratory failure and severe muscle spasms. Tetanus is not contagious from person to person. About 18 percent of people who contract the disease die, especially people over the age of 60. For the other 82 percent, treatment can be long and hard, and usually requires hospitalization.
From 1947 to 2002, annual tetanus deaths in the nation dropped from 560 to 25. Most of these cases occurred in people who had not been vaccinated or had not received a booster in the preceding 10 years.

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