>From:    Ilena Ayala <[log in to unmask]>
 
Marie Schatz wrote:
>Let me just add to this - I don't have a complete list of mammals that
>carry rabies but no not all mammals.  Chipmunks don't (I asked the vet
>because of Giesela's encounters), squirrels don't, I don't think rabbits
>do?  Mostly it seems to be bats, racoons, skunks, fox and of course cats
>and dogs need rabies shots.
 
then Ilena responded:
>Just a note here, it's not that they can't.  It's that they generally
>don't.  It's so highly unusual to find certain species such as mice and
>squirrels with rabies that they are considered to be 'no risk' if someone
>is bitten by one.
 
Here in metro Boston it is not so unusual to find squirrels with rabies, at
least not in the last few years.  I think the squirrels are for the most
part too wrapped up in their own misery to try to bite anything else, but
it does occur (sometimes people's reactions can be more dangerous than the
rabid squirrel-- like the time a policeman was trying to shoot a rabid
squirrel with his service revolver near my parents' home, bullets
ricocheting off the pavement!).  So if your ferret should happen to tangle
with a squirrel, be aware that it's a possibility.
 
Regina
 
"I'm grazing with the dinosaurs and the dear old horses..."
                                                -- Nick Cave
Regina Harrison
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http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083
[Posted in FML issue 2797]