Watch for Future Rabies Clinic

Cost: $5.00 per pet
Location: Animal Control Shelter 921 First Street Extension Nashville
For more information, call 459-9855

Driving Directions

What you need to know About Rabies

A rabid cat in Cary, a rabid bat concerns in Chapel Hill? What does that mean to residents of Nash County? Well, the season for concern about rabies is upon us. It's warm; people are participating in outside activities more, and therefore are closer to wild animals.

Rabies is caused by a virus and transmitted from animal to animal mostly by bites. Scratches with salivary exposure can also transmit rabies. Most rabies is found in wild animals because pets are required to have vaccinations to prevent rabies. In North Carolina, rabies is found mostly in raccoons, foxes, and bats. In fact, bat rabies is "enzootic" throughout North Carolina. This means that rabies affects or is peculiar to most bats in North Carolina.

Bats, or other wild animals, should never be handled by untrained and unvaccinated persons, or be kept as pets. Rabies post exposure treatment is recommended for all persons having direct contact with a bat unless the exposed person can be certain a bite, scratch, or mucous membrane exposure did not occur, or the bat tests negative for evidence of rabies.

Treatment for rabies exposure includes wound cleansing, one dose of Rabies Immune Globulin, 5 doses of post exposure vaccine, and possibly antibiotics over a 28-day period. Treatment can cost thousands of dollars.

Important Dos and Don'ts:

• Do keep all your pets vaccinated against rabies!
• Don't ever handle wild animals, alive or dead, and teach your children not to handle them!
• Infected wild animals often act "friendly", or move slower, or are seen during daylight hours. These are not normal behaviors; do report this to Animal Control.
• Don't leave food trash or food for animals in your yard-it might attract wild, rabid animals.

Call Nash County Health Department at (252) 459-9819 if you have questions about rabies.

Additional information regarding:

Rabies is on the rise in North Carolina. It is a serious disease that is caused by a virus that mainly affects wild and domestic animals, but humans can also become infected.? Each year, it kills more than 50,000 people and millions of animals around the world.? Most deaths from rabies occur in developing countries where prompt medical attention and preventive vaccinations are not readily available.

Rabies is transmitted from saliva, usually from a bite of an animal that has the disease. In North Carolina, rabies is mostly found in raccoons, skunks, foxes, bats, dogs, and cats.? Humans can get the rabies virus if scratched or bitten or if a fresh break in the skin is directly exposed to saliva from a rabid animal.

The symptoms of human rabies include:

• Sore throat
• Fever
• Headache
• Pain or tingling at the site of the bite
• Hallucinations (for example, seeing things that are not really there)
• Alternating periods of irritability and anxiety
• Paralysis (unable to move parts of the body)

Tips for preventing rabies exposure:

• Vaccinate your pets regularly. North Carolina law requires owners to vaccinate dogs and cats by the age of four months, one year after the first vaccination, and then every three years thereafter.
• Teach children not to approach strange animals
• Teach children to tell you if they are bitten or scratched by any animal
• Do not feed wild animals or entice them into your yard in any way
• Do not allow your pets to roam. Roaming will allow them more opportunity to come in contact with infected animals.
• Don't touch dead animals, especially without gloves
• Close all vents to prevent the possibility of an animals entering into your home

If any animal bites you, don't try to determine yourself whether the animal is rabid. Clean the bite site with soap and water. Try to identify the animal, notify animal control officials or local law enforcement officials, and follow their instructions.

The Nash County Animal Control Office sponsors an annual rabies vaccination clinic in the spring.? For more details please contact Nash County Health Department at (252) 459-9819.

Links

Rabies statistics in North Carolina by county
http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/rabies/state.html

Additonal information: http://www.cdc.gov

Just for kids http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/kidsrabies/