Homing a new pet? Check for rabies, other health issues | Pet Peeves – The Northwest Florida Daily News

Dear readers,
There are a lot of kittens looking for homes this year. Kittens are being found by good Samaritans. Some are only weeks old and need to be bottle-fed.
Finding a kitten and raising it can be a blessing. But in rare instances, finding a kitten in the wild can be as dangerous as finding a baby racoon.
Many years ago, I had a friend whose husband worked construction. Her husband found a kitten on one of the job sites and brought it home. The kitten was old enough to eat cat food, but was still very tiny. When my friend brought the kitten to a veterinarian to begin vaccines, it was noted that the kitten had an abscess, an infected sore, on its leg.
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It was started on antibiotics and the owner was told to bring the kitten back for a recheck in a week. When the kitten was returned for the recheck, it was not doing much better and had become very quiet. It was not eating well, and the vet changed the pet’s antibiotic.
The kitten continued to worsen, and when it was returned again to the vet, he determined it was actually showing neurologic symptoms that led him to suspect rabies. The kitten was tested for rabies and found to be positive. My friend, who was pregnant at the time, had to go through the rabies vaccination series, as did several other people.
The journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association has been quoted as saying “Cats were the most frequently reported rabid domestic animal in the United States during 2017 and have been so since 1992.”
Symptoms of rabies in an animal can vary from aggression to depression. The aggressive, or “furious” form of rabies is what we all know to look for. These animals attack and keep attacking until they are killed.
But some symptoms, especially early in the illness can be difficult to detect. These animals can be quiet, lethargic and not wanting to interact. They may have difficulty swallowing and not want to eat. As the disease progresses the animal has trouble walking, and it may stagger or reel. 
It can take as long as two months for a bitten cat to show any signs of illness from rabies, but once a cat is shedding the virus and is infective, symptoms of illness always develop within 10 days. That is why the quarantine period for a pet that has bitten someone is 10 days.
In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had data showing 62 dogs and 276 cats testing positive for rabies. Outdoor and feral cats live a lifestyle similar to a wild animal, foraging for food, fighting and hunting.
Often cats will congregate in areas where there is free food. They become a colony and a reservoir for the virus, since most of these cats cannot be caught to be vaccinated.
Being diligent to keep all your pets vaccinated for rabies is a big step in reducing exposure, but also think twice before picking up a stray animal if it is acting depressed or neurologic. Contact an animal control agency and let them handle those situations. 

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