Several of you have emailed to me privately expressing your concern
about my bout w/the rabies vaccinations I received in February.  I
was truly touched by your concern.
 
Since everyone is asking the same questions, I thought I'd respond here.
 
My dogs are okay - they were current on their RV, so the Health Dept was
not concerned about them.  Interestingly, they took my word that the dogs
were current and did not ask for proof - a dangerous practice I thought.
However, after speaking w/my vet, we both felt it would be a good idea to
boost their protection, and so they both received RV the following day.
 
Second, yes the rabies virus is carried in saliva - not blood - however,
since there was no way to know if any saliva was mixed w/the blood, and
because I had fresh scratches on my hands (from clipping cat nails that
AM!), they felt the safest thing to do would be to have me go thru the
series.
 
The miracle part of this to me is that both dogs got away w/only 1 scratch
each!  My vet told me I was very lucky; he said that raccoons are tough
little animals.  The warm winter this year has confused them (we had
55-degree days in Feb!) and they were coming out of hibernation, but still
very groggy.  He said if it had been summertime, my dogs most likely could
have been severely injured.
 
Thanks to all the people who wrote -
 
Debbie Riccio
WNYFLFA
[Posted in FML issue 1169]