This is a painful story to relate, but it's a valuable reminder to keep your pets up to date on their immunizations.
In early March, we had a new 8 week old Brittany join our family. She instantly bonded with the DW and me. She's smart, and learning very fast. We took her to the vet right away to make sure she's up to date on all her medications. She checked out to be a healthy girl and is growing fast. She had all her shots and heartworm treatment that are needed for her age. However, they don't give a rabies vaccination until puppies until 16 weeks.
Last Tuesday, I took her out in the back yard to do her business. Being a puppy, I have to constantly see what she's trying to put in her mouth. She ran a few feet in front of me, and I saw her stop to investigate something. I yelled at her to leave it alone, and went to investigate what it was. To my horror, it was a bat that was either dead or dying. I don't know for sure if our puppy bit it, licked it, sniffed it, or just looked at it. So I moved the puppy away from the area, and put a rock on top of the bat so it couldn't fly away if it was still alive. I grabbed a heavy duty plastic bag and flicked the bat into the bag with a stick. Then I double bagged the bat and put it in the refrigerator.
I tried to call our local animal control department, but they were closed for the night. At 8 the next morning, I took the pup to the vet to be examined for any evidence of a bite mark around her mouth or tongue. There was nothing obvious, but sometimes bat bites are very difficult to see. The vet and I decided to give her a rabies shot even though she's not old enough. It might help ward off rabies if she was infected. At 10 am, our animal control office opened up, and they sent an officer to pick up the bat for rabies testing.
We received a call from our county health department at 5pm on Friday afternoon that the bat had rabies! Oh my God. The health department asked us to pen up the dog, and wanted me to verify that I'd had no physical contact with the bat. If I had, I'd have to undergo rabies treatment immediately. Fortunately, when I described what had occurred, they felt that the treatment was not warranted for me.
Now, we are faced with some very difficult decisions regarding the puppy.
The first option is to have our pup euthanized immediately. Sorry, but we've already bonded with this little girl, and I can't see condemning the dog to certain death when we don't even know if she was infected.
The second option, is to put the puppy in quarantine at a veterinarian's facility for six months. If the puppy shows signs of rabies, she'll be euthanized and examined for rabies. We could not imagine the living conditions a new puppy would be subjected to in a sterile environment such as this. She'd have very little social interaction during this period, and her development and socialization skills would be hindered. BTW, we checked with some local vets, and the cost for a six month quarantine is $4000 minimum.
The third option is the one we went with. We are going to quarantine the puppy at our house. We spent the weekend building secure enclosure facilities on our property to make sure she has no contact with other animals or people. My wife and I will interact with her as best we can while still maintaining rigorous safety standards. We will not be able to touch her unless we're wearing full protective clothing such as leather gloves, boots, face mask, etc. We need to keep an eye out for any changes in her demeanor which would signal the onset of rabies. If so, she'll need to be euthanized.
We've done a ton of studying to assure that we'll be safe and to make sure that we recognize the signs and symptoms. If there is an accident and she comes down with the disease, we'll have to be treated for rabies ourselves.
Even though the typical incubation period for rabies in dogs is 2-8 weeks, we need to keep her isolated for 26 weeks to be certain she was not infected. So we'll be staying home this summer instead of taking her on the road with us. But we're praying for a successful outcome and a healthy doggie. At the end of September, she'll hopefully be released, and we'll hit the road.
Please make sure you watch your puppies and get them vaccinated as soon as possible. This is a horrible event to deal with.
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