Animal control came out and shot the poor guy, then took it away. Sadly, they are not going to test it. The Officer said they only test if the animal came in contact with a person or animal! So, while I am 90% sure it had rabies (I studied the virus in University, it was my senior thesis project), we'll never know for sure. Why am I disappointed that the county will not test the raccoon? Because, it will not be recorded in the statistics.
How will we know if we have an epidemic?
We need to test all animals that are exhibiting behaviour that is odd enough to pose a threat.
Why is this my pet peeve? I have a great deal of respect for viruses, I love them! They thrive, survive and are quite brilliant for an organism that has no brain! At one time in my life, my job was to grow live AIDS virus! I grew it and harvested it in high concentrations... I knew how to treat the virus with respect -as it deserves respect.
BUT, I can honestly say I am much more terrified of the rabies virus, than I am of concentrated live AIDS virus!
Why? Because people have no respect or understanding of the lethal virus vectors hiding under their porch, in their attics or in their garden!
I decided that I will spend the day writing about why this is a really scary virus and hope you will realize that it's in your community! You may never know how many rabid animals are disposed or how bad the problem is locally, so it is a good idea to respect this enemy!
The Enemy: Rabies
- Death from rabies occurs within days or weeks of infection!
- Any mammal animal can become infected, even cattle and sheep!
- The virus evades the immune system by hiding in the nervous system, it can enter any type of nerve and then rapidly moves to the CNS, central nervous system where it multiplies.
- Once the virus enters a nerve, any treatment like vaccine is pointless and chance of death 100%
- After being exposed to the virus, a vaccine can kill the virus; but, only if the virus has not made it into the nervous system. If the bite tears open and exposes a nerve, the virus can enter the nervous system immediately and death would be inevitable.
- All warm blooded vertebrates can be infected, but only mammals pose a viable threat to humans.
- A rabies infected cow can pass the virus through milk and raw milk has been known to infect humans who drink it!
- There is a documented case of an early-stage, infected human mother passing the virus to her baby!
- The only rodent who lives with the infection long enough to infect is the groundhog. But, a dog or cat could become infected by catching an infected rodent, thus becoming vectors.
- The virus' action is neurotoxic rather than causing direct damage. So, research aimed at interrupting binding mechanisms hold a real promise of a cure.
- You do not need to be bitten! If you get infected saliva on your hand and rub your eyes, put your finger in mouth or nose. You are delivering virus to the mucous membrane and worse, eyes deliver straight to brain!
- Animals like infected bats, monkeys, raccoons, foxes, skunks, cattle, wolves, dogs and cats are the biggest risk to humans.
- Vaccines are available for humans and people working with animals like vets or their assistants are required to stay up to date.
- A bat can infect you without your knowledge! If you have slept in a space where a bat was present, you will be advised to take the vaccine! A bat has an numbing substance in it's saliva, so it can land on your hand and quietly take a drink of blood without waking you! So, if you can't catch the bat and test it you will need treatment.
- In the past, rabies treatment required 23 to 30 shots into the abdomen and were very painful. Treatment now is usually 5 shots, spread out over a period of time. The first shot shot is injected at the bite site, with the rest of the shots injected into the shoulder muscle, but children may get injected in the thigh. The shots hurt like tetanus shots on discomfort.
Rabies is a neurotropic virus and a neuroinvasive virus; in fact, it has both high neuroinvasiveness and high neurovirulence. Meaning it infects the CNS fast and once infected, it becomes extremely deadly! Lot's of big scary words huh?
Why Rabies is so deadly is actually quite simple: our bodies have a wonderful defense system called the immune response. Flowing through our blood is one of the best military fighting forces around, our immune system! The immune system attacks, fights and defeats almost everything that we come in contact -viruses, bacterias, etc! And it gets smarter and better as we grow older and get more exposures. Where there is no immune system? In our nervous system, that's where! The is a barrier between the blood and the brain, our spinal cord, nerves etc. But, the CNS is a very well protected area. We have a very good blood/brain barrier, very little can get past it! Sadly, a few very smart viruses like rabies and Encephilitis learned that if they can get past the blood brain barrier, they are invincible! They grow, live and replicate without fear of an attack from the immune system. The infected brain makes the host crazy and it's behavior is perfectly tuned to maximize the hosts opportunity to infect others!
Imagine a game: where the goal is for the enemy to make it to a safe zone as fast as they can. Then, they can build and plan a huge attack without fear of getting caught all from within their victim's territory. They kill from within.
Some Interesting facts:
- Groundhogs are the only rodent in the United States that can carry rabies long enough to infect humans. Squirrels, chipmunks, rats, mice, and rabbits usually die before being able to transmit rabies virus to humans, and human disease has not been documented from these mammals. But, that does not rule out the possibility of infection by hunters or taxidermists.
- Due to a remarkable slow metabolism, opossums are highly resistant to rabies; although, never say never! This maybe because they are marsupials. An opossum is a safer pet to humans than cats or dogs! But, a possum will not fetch a stick or curl up in your lap! They are really cute though!
- The rabies virus has a cylindrical shape, while most human viruses have a cube shape, cylindrical shaped viruses are widely typical in plant and insect viruses. The rabies virus has a P protein that acts like interferon and suppresses the immune system.
- A delivery man told me one of the 'other' drivers found a raccoon on the road and took it for 'something' and they were afraid it was rabid and he was infected. I asked, did he have series of shots? The driver said, Oh no! He heard they were painful and he didn't want to miss work, so he decided to just wait and see what happens. -really? OMG! If he did have rabies, his whole family would be at risk, not to mention the other drivers on the road! Given the choice I would choose a few shots over death!
- Our vet has a Pet of the Month feature on their web site. Last month it was a dog who'd been bitten by a wild animal. The owner had let the rabies vaccine lapse, so they were given a choice: board the dog in an approved facility for six months or euthanize it. They chose to board their dog for six months. I would think that avoiding the cost of 6 months of boarding would be enough to get people to vaccinate their animals!
- Rabies Virus on Wikipedia
- Rabies an article from British Columbia
- Rabies, a Medscape reference
- Frequently asked questions about rabies
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