Bobcat that attacked goat in Mariaville free of rabies

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MARIAVILLE – The bobcat that attacked a domestic goat here on Wednesday did not have rabies, according to Maine Department of Human Services officials.

“I’m really glad,” Stephen Broschat, the owner of the goat, said Friday. “I was getting a little worried – for me as well as for the goat.”

It was Broschat who shot the bobcat as it clung to the goat’s neck. He’s been treating the goat with penicillin since then, hoping that he would not have to put the animal down. If the bobcat had tested positive for rabies, the animal would have had to be destroyed, he said.

He and his family are just hoping that the goat, Sasarparilla, will recover from the injuries sustained in the attack.

“All we have to do now is hope that she doesn’t develop an infection or some problem that I can’t see,” he said.

A family in Deer Isle, however, was not so lucky.

The six members of the Michael Billings family in Deer Isle are now receiving rabies treatments after one of their cats tested positive for rabies earlier this week. Six other pets, five cats and a dog, which had been exposed to the rabid animal, were destroyed on Friday

The cat, which had not been vaccinated, scratched Carmen Billings, the girlfriend of Michael Billings, according to Charles Berhalter, Deer Isle animal control officer. The animal had not been acting normally, Berhalter reported. It wasn’t eating or drinking, and it moped around the house, unlike the other animals.

The animal was taken to an Ellsworth veterinarian to be put down and then sent to the DHS lab in Augusta to be tested. When the test came back positive, the entire family – including both Billings, Michael Billing’s three children and his mother – began the series of treatments to prevent them from becoming infected. A television installer, who had been at the house and had come into contact with the cat, also is receiving treatments as a precaution.

The Billings initially planned to keep their other animals, all of which appeared to be healthy, even though that meant keeping them quarantined for several months. That proved to be too much for the family, and the animals were euthanized on Friday.

Berhalter said it was a shame, particularly since it could have been prevented.

“That’s why it’s so important that your cats have the rabies shots,” he said. “All of this could have been prevented if those animals had been vaccinated.”

That caution is especially timely since incidents of rabies have increased dramatically in Maine since the virus was reintroduced in the state in 1994.

According to DHS, rabies is a viral disease of the central nervous system that is almost always fatal. It lives in the saliva, brain, and spinal cord tissue of animals and is spread when they bite or scratch.

The virus also can be spread if saliva or nerve tissue touches broken skin or a mucous membrane, such as those in the mouth, nose or eyes.

The incubation period in dogs can be from two weeks to six months; in cats two to six weeks; and in human beings, two weeks to one year.

The rabies treatment for those who have not been immunized involves a series of six shots given over the course of a month, according to Nancy Farrin, a microbiologist in the rabies section of the DHS Health and Environmental Testing Lab in Augusta.

The rabid cat from Deer Isle was the third animal that has tested positive for rabies this year, Farrin said. A fox from Calais tested positive, as did a skunk from Lagrange.

Last year, the DHS lab tested 850 animals suspected of being rabid. Of those, 139 tested positive. More than half of them were from Hancock and Penobscot counties.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife suggests ways to prevent rabies, the first being neutering and vaccinating pets against rabies.

Others include:

. Avoiding contact with wild animals, especially bats, skunks, foxes, raccoons and woodchucks.

. Discouraging wild animals from sharing your lunch.

. Teaching children to keep a safe distance from wild animals, strays, and other animals they don’t know.

. Preventing your animals from roaming at large.

. Avoiding handling sick or injured wild animals, including baby animals.

More information about rabies in Maine can be found on the Department Human Services Web site: http://janus.state.me.us/

dhs/etl/rabies/rabiesfacts.htm.