# how dangerous is it to handle a passive rabid animal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-it-to-handle-a-passive-rabid-animal/533660 "2010-03-24T19:24:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-it-to-handle-a-passive-rabid-animal/533660/21 "2010-03-25T22:06:59Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > ☹ Poor kitten. I’m amazed it even survived the initial exposure - it probably got into a fight with a rabid animal, right? It was young… like really, really young. When we found it, we figured the mother had abandoned it too early. However, I’ve since been told that it was probably abandoned _because_ it was sick. How’d it get exposed? No idea. We didn’t see any signs of an attack on it, the poor thing. It’s also possible that the mother was exposed and passed it on to the kitten. We’ll never know. > [@KarlGrenze](#): > > They couldn’t test the kitten? Did it bite you or any of your family members? They tested it, and it was positive. They knew as soon as they saw it, though- they described it as having “dumb” rabies (ie, not raving or foaming). It wouldn’t eat anything and the only way I could get it to even drink water was to suckle it off of my finger. I’m pretty sure it never actually broke the skin when it did that, but who wants to take that chance? It did manage to scratch my friend and draw blood, but probably didn’t get any saliva into the wound. Again, though- why take the chance. The worst part of the whole thing was the cost of the shots. I didn’t have insurance; my son, ex-wife, and friend did. Since I was employed, I couldn’t qualify for any sort of cost break- so my shots ended up costing me about $1500… which was a huge amount back then (1988 or so). ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-it-to-handle-a-passive-rabid-animal/533660/22 "2010-03-25T22:40:21Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > It was young… like really, really young. When we found it, we figured the mother had abandoned it too early. However, I’ve since been told that it was probably abandoned _because_ it was sick. How’d it get exposed? No idea. We didn’t see any signs of an attack on it, the poor thing. > > It’s also possible that the mother was exposed and passed it on to the kitten. We’ll never know. > > They tested it, and it was positive. They knew as soon as they saw it, though- they described it as having “dumb” rabies (ie, not raving or foaming). > > It wouldn’t eat anything and the only way I could get it to even drink water was to suckle it off of my finger. I’m pretty sure it never actually broke the skin when it did that, but who wants to take that chance? It did manage to scratch my friend and draw blood, but probably didn’t get any saliva into the wound. Again, though- why take the chance. > > The worst part of the whole thing was the cost of the shots. I didn’t have insurance; my son, ex-wife, and friend did. Since I was employed, I couldn’t qualify for any sort of cost break- so my shots ended up costing me about $1500… which was a huge amount back then (1988 or so). Ah, thanks for the explanation… And OUCH! on the costs… In some states, at least, if there is enough probable cause, the shots are covered. That is why I asked if it was tested. I’m not sure, though, if the shots are covered but not the administrative fee… ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-it-to-handle-a-passive-rabid-animal/533660/23 "2010-03-25T22:45:11Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > How could they be sure the person didn’t have some later contact with rabies after the first, known, contact but several months before showing symptoms? Or were there symptoms for the 6 or 7 years? See here: [Reexamination of Human Rabies Case with Long Incubation, Australia - PMC](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2634648/) > [@from the abstract](#): > > Long incubation periods are an occasional feature of infection with rabies virus and should be considered in human cases of acute encephalitis in rabies-free countries where there has been a history of travel to rabies-endemic areas (1). Until 1987 Australia had recorded only 1 case of travel-acquired rabies. However, in 1990 an extreme case of long-incubation rabies was diagnosed. **The patient was a 10-year-old girl of Vietnamese origin in whom rabies developed after she had lived continuously in Australia for almost 5 years (2). A thorough investigation of the case history by public health officers concluded that the likely source of infection was Vietnam, which the girl left in July 1984, suggesting an incubation period \>6.5 years. Preliminary sequence analysis of a fragment of the rabies virus genome extracted from postmortem samples taken from the patient confirmed that the likely origin was Southeast Asia (3).** ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-it-to-handle-a-passive-rabid-animal/533660/24 "2010-03-26T02:34:52Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > The worst part of the whole thing was the cost of the shots. I didn’t have insurance; my son, ex-wife, and friend did. Since I was employed, I couldn’t qualify for any sort of cost break- so my shots ended up costing me about $1500… which was a huge amount back then (1988 or so). > [@KarlGrenze](#): > > Ah, thanks for the explanation… And OUCH! on the costs… In some states, at least, if there is enough probable cause, the shots are covered. That is why I asked if it was tested. I’m not sure, though, if the shots are covered but not the administrative fee… Ouch indeed! I once foolishly let my rabies vaccine lapse – the disease is endemic in Thailand – and was bitten by one of the mangiest looking dogs I’ve seen here when I inadvertently strayed too close to her pups. I had to get the entire series, but the local office of the Red Cross charges only a nominal fee. It cost next to nothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-it-to-handle-a-passive-rabid-animal/533660.md?page=1)