On weighing the worth of a rabies vaccination

Recently, a friend mentioned she does not vaccinate her indoors-only cat against rabies. While I usually avoid advising friends on pet care, I did not hesitate to do so in this case. Here is what I told her.

You might say I read the book “Old Yeller” at an impressionable age. That’s the novel by Fred Gipson about a beloved yellow dog who saves his master from being attacked by a rabid wolf, only to die miserably, foaming at the mouth, from rabies. The book was made into a 1957 film starring Fess Parker, Kevin Corcoran and Tommy Kirk.

But that’s not the only reason rabies scares me. From personal experience, I know rabid animals can gain access to one’s home. A few years ago, a bat was hanging out on the main floor of my house. After observing my cats behaving in an inexplicably agitated manner for days, I saw one of my cats tangle with the bat. It seemed likely that the bat had been in our living quarters throughout the days that the cats had been acting so strangely.

I immediately phoned my medical doctor and the vet. Because the bat flew out of the house, we could not have it checked for rabies. In that case, the doctor said all household members should get a series of rabies shots, since we had likely been living with the bat for days, including overnight when we would not notice if it brushed against or bit us. I was told the bite of a bat is little more noticeable than the bite of a mosquito. Although my cats were up to date with their immunizations, the vet told me to get rabies booster shots for them. She said this is always recommended when there is exposure to a potentially rabid animal. If the cats had no rabies protection at all, if the bat carried rabies, and if I had not seen the bat encounter, we might have been exposed to a cat that was coming down with rabies.

While my cats needed only one booster shot, the people in my house needed a series of four shots. They are not the hellish abdominal injections that used to be required, but they were given in the arm, like normal vaccinations. While they were no fun, they were much more bearable than would have been a foaming-at-the-mouth, Old Yeller-style end.

As I told my friend, rabies is an incurable disease. It can be lifesaving to protect your indoor pets. If you cannot afford rabies shots, look for free or low-cost rabies clinics in your community.