Rabies & What We Have Wrong!

When you ask a person to think of rabies, a few animals come to mind right away. Such as dogs, rats, raccoons, mice, foxes, bats, skunks, cats, and possums, but do all of these commonly thought of animals really deserve all this bad press? The answer to that question is what we’ll briefly cover here, as well as a couple common misconceptions related to this horrifying incurable disease. 

     Firstly we’ll talk about which of these prior listed animals commonly do carry rabies. Those carriers being bats, foxes, skunks, raccoons, and cats! With cats being number one in terms of domestic animals according to the New York state “Among domestic animals, cats are most frequently diagnosed with rabies in New York State.” As stated on the rabies section of their website. As for some of the animals that don’t commonly carry rabies we have mice, rats, many other rodents, dogs, and opossums (which are marsupials not rodents). Which is quite surprising to most people; the thought that most commonly rodents and dogs carry rabies less often than cats, raccoons, foxes and skunks comes as quite a shock.

More often than not we as people associate rodents with filth and disease, but it is instead some of our cutest animals we need to watch out for most when it comes to disease! As for some common misconceptions when it comes to rabies past just rodents not being the primary carriers, we’ve got the idea that if you get bitten by an animal with rabies you’re just completely screwed. Which is only the case if you don’t take action after being bitten by an animal and that animal happens to have rabies; once symptoms present, yes you are most likely dead, but if you

immediately take action after an animal bite, and receive proper post-exposure prophylaxis as it’s put by the CDC, your chances of survival spike up dramatically, as this whole procedure of PEP is “is nearly 100% effective if administered promptly.” States the CDC’s rabies page.

Another misconception about rabies is that it can only be transmitted through bites, which isn’t quite the case; in truth “the virus can be transmitted when saliva enters any open wound or mucus membrane (such as the mouth, nose, or eye).” says a rabies article from the IAMAT. Which means that things such as scrapes, spits, and licks as well can transmit this flagrant frothy disease to your body! 

     Hopefully you learned something new and useful from this article, and maybe next time you won’t say that a cat’s got your tongue, but a rat instead, at least if you don’t want rabies that is!