Conference moira::parenting

    Well, one thing that comes to mind... make sure your children know not
    to touch dead animals.  A few weeks ago some high school students
    thought it would be fun to decapitate a dead raccoon and play with the
    head... they then presented it to another student at school.  The
    janitor tossed the head away, and by the time he thought better of
    this, it was already collected.  All the kids have to go through rabies
    shots, as a precautionary measure.
    
    
    M-L

    I don't know alot about rabies but I thought one had to
    be bitten by the infected animal. Why would touching a
    dead animal give one rabies?
    
    Diane 

    Hi Diane,

    If you happen to have a wound on your hands/arms, and get the saliva or
    blood in the wound... it can lead to disastrous consequences.
    
    
    M-L

Also, rabies can be treated (and I don't think that the treatment has any 
particularly bad side effect) but rabies, if caught, is a very serious 
condition.  So if anyone may have been exposed, they are treated as a 
precautionary measure.  Sort of like giving tetanus boosters for any puncture 
wound.

Clay

"Rabies can be treated" is something of a mis-statement.  In fact, there is no
treatment for rabies -- if someone gets the disease, they die.  I believe that
what the article was referring to is that even after you're exposed to rabies,
it isn't to late to be vaccinated for it.  Thus, someone who has been bitten
by, or otherwise exposed to, a possibly rabid animal will receive rabies
innoculations.  But once someone starts showing symptoms, it's too late.

We were warned by our vet that some number of people are exposed to rabies
by a sequence like this:

	Pet animal gets into a fight with a rabid wild animal.

	Pet animal gets saliva from the rabid animal on its fur.

	Owner, who has a cut or scratch, handles the pet, getting the saliva
	in the wound.

Also, note the last line of the new report in .0:  even a vaccinated pet needs
to have a booster shot within five days if it is bitten by a rabid animal.

	-Neil

>"Rabies can be treated" is something of a mis-statement.  In fact, there is 
>no treatment for rabies -- if someone gets the disease, they die.

Not "something of a mis-statement," it IS a misstatement.  In my .4, 
"treated" should be "prevented" and "treatment" should be "preventive."  
There may be very small chance of catching rabies by handling a dead animal. 
But the consequences are fatal.  So getting innoculated is, imo, a 
no-brainer.  Thanks for the correction.

Clay

    Any question - how long does it takes for the symptoms to appear?
    I'm just thinking about if one's pet is exposed but the owner
    is unaware of the exposure.
    
    I'm just nervous about this subject as our town has had several
    case of rabies and I have two dogs and I'm expecting twins. I hate
    to have something happen even though I know it's not likely.
    
    
    Diane

    Indeed this makes it a more serious problem.
    The stats in .0 gave "amount of people needing treatment" and by this
    I suppose we mean the preventative. Are there stats for how many
    deaths are attributed to this? What I mean is, how likely is it for 
    the senario in the previous note about owner touching pet that his been
    exposed in which the owner is UNAWARE that the pet has been exposed?
    
    Monica

I believe there is one case on record of a rabies survivor.  So it isn't
100% fatal, just 99.9999% or so.

re .8:

Yes, there are statistics.  The number of deaths, at least in developed
countries, is quite small -- I'm pretty sure it's in the single digits
or very low double digits annually in the U.S.

    We had a vet come to our Sheep Organization and talk about
    Rabies in Massachusetts....He showed some films of a variety
    of animals that had contacted Rabies.  Its a very serious problem.
    It has now spread from Conn to Mass, but not in quite the way
    that was expected.  The initial outbreaks were expected to be near
    the Conn border.  Instead they were in a town North of Fitchburg...
    I forget which one.  Turns out that the town has a landfill that
    takes Trash from Conn, from some of the areas of serious RAbies
    problems...and that a bunch of Racoons had likely traveled inside
    dumpsters to the landfills.  It has now spread to towns
    along the Conn border as expected.  It also has been reported
    in Belmont..He had no idea why Belmont.

    A few other things that I recall.....the human vaccine is in VERY
    short supply and is very expensive....I think it costs about
    $300 to be vaccinated.  If you are exposed, the 'treatment' is slightly
    different and I think it costs about $1200 to be 'treated'.

    I also think he said that about 10,000 people a year in the world
    die of Rabies...most in India.
    bob

    I live in Cambridge, MA. So far, there have been two confirmed
    rabid raccoons found near us, in the Fresh Pond area. So this 
    is now becoming an urban problem, which is not surprising, 
    as raccoons, skunks and opossums are well-adapted to city life.
    
    Lucy

    This isn't a "scary story" as much as it's a success story.

    I live in Northboro, a Central Mass. town just east of Worcester.  For
    the past few months, we've been seeing stories in the local paper 
    about rabid raccoon sightings.  Our house is near a wooded area, so my
    husband and I discussed the problem of sick raccoons with our 5 year
    old son and taught him what to do, should he ever encounter one.

    My son then wrote this story to share with his friends:

    "Normal raccoons are afraid of humans.  If you see a raccoon in your
    neighborhood, that means it's sick.  You should run away from it and
    tell a grownup."

    Last Thursday afternoon, a rabid raccoon got into my house while I was
    in the backyard with my son, a friend of mine, and her two sons.  We
    didn't discover it for 15 to 20 minutes after we came inside ourselves. 
    The boys spotted the raccoon as it was walking down the staircase from
    the second floor.  They ran away from it and told me right away.  

    We hustled everyone out the back door, then called the police.  They
    responded quickly, caught the animal, and took it away.  

    Needless to say, I was really proud of the kids for getting away from
    the raccoon instead of trying to pet it.  A catastrophe was avoided
    because they had been taught how to act.

    The most unpleasant part of the experience was cleaning up afterward. 
    The raccoon had chewed on toys and furniture;  the local vet advised me
    to wear heavy rubber gloves and wash everything with a bleach solution. 
    Yuck!

re .11:

I saw a dead raccoon in the middle of Mass Ave in Cambridge a couple of
months ago.  This was near City Hall, nowhere near Fresh Pond Parkway.
Raccoons live in surprisingly congested areas.

re .12:

>    "Normal raccoons are afraid of humans.  If you see a raccoon in your
>    neighborhood, that means it's sick.  You should run away from it and
>    tell a grownup."

Urban raccoons are definitely not afraid of humans.

BTW, how do you know the raccoon that got into your house was rabid?  Did
the authorities test it?

    Re: .13
    
    Well, "normal" for Northboro, I guess.  Adjust appropriately
    for your own geography.
    
    As for testing, the police officer said they weren't going to bother
    because no one was bitten and because it was obvious to him that it was
    rabid.  I didn't ask him what those obvious signs were.

    
    I'm not sure what the "official" signs are, but from watching movies
    like Old Yeller  and CUJO, I'd have to suggest;
    
    foaming/frothing at the mouth
    sudden temperment change
    easily irritated
    sensitive to noise/light
    
    Feel free to correct any of these ... !
    
    Patty

    Actually, I have heard that the symptoms shown in movies
    are extreme.
    
    Instead, I've heard:
     - seeing a normally-nocturnal animal during the day
    
     - lethargic, moving slowly
    
     - thin?
                        
    Noranne
    
    

    Isn't the treatment for rabies painful in that it consists of
    daily injections to the abdominal area for a month?
    
     Perhaps it haws changed?

    I think one of the final symptoms of rabies is hydrophobia
    (fear of water). In fact, hydrophobia is synonymous with 
    the word 'rabies' in the Webster's dictionary.	
    
    Jodi-

re .17:

It's changed.  I think it's something like 5 shots, and I think they're less
painful.

    re a couple back...  the treament is now 5 shots in the arm, period.
    
    The thing of a month of abdominal shots is no longer....
    
    my source was a week long series on the Worcester T&G radio station
    last week.  One more scary thing, it is ALWAYS 100% fatal to humans!
    
    FWIW, questions are very willingly answered by the Tufts school of
    veterinary medicine in Grafton (MA).
    
    Lyn

    re .20, 100%
    
    Gerald is right--one person _did_ recently survive rabies.
    It made all the science news pages and magazines because it
    was a first.
    
    		-John Bishop

There's a discussion of rabies vaccines in NOTED::ASKENET_V4 note 3698.

    Raccoons are normally nocturnal ... but you may see them in the
    day ...
    
    They are definitely NOT afraid of humans ... they have such natural
    curiosity that they need a lot to frighten them.
    
    Seeing a raccoon that is not afraid, or one during the day does
    not make it rabid.
    
    Stuart
    

    We had an interesting success story with rabies in Europe about five
    years ago.  The disease mostly infected the fox population and was
    spreading to cats that came in contact with them.  They tried killing
    the fox without much success in eliminating the rabies but were getting
    almost too successful in that they almost totally eliminated the fox
    population and the rodent population started taking off like wildfire.
    
    They began a program to inoculate the fox.  They put out food all
    across areas where rabies was discovered with a vaccination in it.  The
    fox ate the food and became vaccinated.  After five years we now have a
    healthy fox population and much less incidence of rabies amongst the
    rest of the animals, although there are still outbreaks from time to
    time.
    
    One thing we were warned about.  If you go berry picking in the
    forests, you should wash the fruits before eating if there are rabies
    around.  The saliva from infected animals can infect the fruits.  Sad
    because we always love to go up in the hills and sit there and stuff
    ourselves with blueberries from the bush.
    
    ccb

    A further note on urban raccoons - I used to live a few houses
    away from City Hall in Cambridge (MA), the area in which Gerald
    saw a dead one recently. There was a raccoon nest in the eaves of
    the house next door to us. Now and then there would be a 
    horrific screaming fight up in the trees at night. People would
    come running, call the cops, etc, because it sounded like murder.
    The raccoons paid no attention to our flashlights, dogs, or noise.
    Their only enemies are automobiles. I've avoided them since then,
    even before the rabies thing, because of their sharp teeth and claws
    and confident attitude.
    
    Lucy

    
    	In our area,(Ottawa/Canada)they have spring air drops of food
    with a rabies vaccine for the wildlife. They broadcast on the radio when
    the air drops occur so that people know not to clean up/dispose of the
    food (I believe it's pellets). The news travels pretty fast by mass
    media if there is any suspicion of rabid animals in the region. 
    	I often wonder, when I'm reading books to Paris, what she thinks
    when we have lovely stories about animals with human qualities, and
    then we have to teach her not to go near them!  In our area, it's quite
    common to see wildlife. When driving to the sitter's
    in the morning we regularly see foxes and deer, and have rabbits in the
    back yard. At the cottage there are bears and raccoons (yes, they go
    on the offensive if there are young ones around!).
    Candace
    

    The symptoms in humans involve spasms of the larynx and epiglottis which
    are extremely painful.  Attempting to drink water (swallowing) causes
    MORE spasms which is why the fear of water, actually its a fear of
    swallowing because of the pain.  Thirst is intense because of the
    inability to drink.  Death results from asphyxia and exhaustion.  Lots
    of 'fun' huh?  Rabies can exhibit itself in a manic form (the type you
    read about and associate with foaming mad dogs), or a comatose form.
    
    I read up on this last night so the symptoms are still fresh on my
    mind.
    
    Jeff