URGENT - maryland residents, feline rabies report! :(

[Buddafly]

http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/29044

The St. Mary’s County Health Department is reporting a stray kitten, collected from Bayside Way in California, Maryland, has tested positive for rabies. Rabies is a potentially fatal virus transmitted through a bite or saliva contact from an infectious animal. Four other kittens and a mother cat related to the rabid kitten remain at large and are considered to be potentially rabid. Residents living in the area are urged to avoid contact with unfamiliar animals and to report stray animals to St. Mary’s Animal Control at 301-475-8018.

As a general rabies prevention reminder, pet owners are urged to maintain current rabies vaccines for owned cats, dogs and ferrets. Do not feed stray animals or leave food unattended outdoors for pets. Keep pets on a leash or in a fenced area when outdoors.  Parents and guardians are urged to instruct their children to avoid contact with stray or unfamiliar animals. Stray animals or animals behaving unusually should be reported to Animal Control at 301-475-8018 during normal business hours or 301-475-8016 during after hours. All animal bites should be reported to the St. Mary’s County Sherriff’s office at 301-475-4200 Ext. 1900.

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just passing this info along because I know there are some MD people around here, and I imagine some of you have kids.  it would be horrible for a child to be bitten by one of these poor kittens

[partypony566]

moving this to off topic for you~

[invaderhorizongreen]

ohh that sounds scary i hope they can find those kitties though it sucks they will have to be destroyed.

[Buddafly]

moving this to off topic for you~

thank you!

[kaoskat]

Oh no! That's not good!

[melodys_angel]

Thats soo sad to hear

Stay safe guys <3

[Eviecorn]

Thanks for the info!  It's pretty important stuff!

[hyenacub]

Ugh!  Frigging rabies!  >C  I hate rabies.  Sending goog thoughts for people and animals alike in MD  C: C:

[flyawayraven]

Yikes! I better let my parents know. One of their cats is indoor/outdoor and while she's vaccinated, I still wouldn't anything happening to her or them.

Edit: Looks like it's only affecting Southern Maryland and a very low population area at that. That particular part of the state is surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay, so it won't have an easy time spreading to high pop areas.

Still, I hope no one gets attacked!

[Heliodor]

I'll let my g/f know, she's got cats.

[rybett]

Better to be put down by vets than suffer the full blown disease.  Poor kitties.

[HavACrumpet452]

Great, people will be popping off every stray cat they see with bb guns afraid they all have rabies. For the record, rabies in ferrets is extremely rare and they usually die from it so fast its hardly a threat. I don't vaccinate my ferret (but then again I don't let him outside).

[Buddafly]

I highly doubt people will be shooting cats in fear of rabies - and a lot of animals are low risk of rabies exposure, but it's a legal issue. 

squirrels are the same with rabies - it's very rare for them to get it, and they die before anyone would ever figure out they had contracted it.

[HavACrumpet452]

You'd be surprised by people. My coworkers killed a little brown bat at work the other day because "bats carry rabies" and they are afraid to work with it in the building despite the fact that I told them they are threatened/endangered, its illegal to kill them especially in their breeding season, less than 1% ever contract rabies and those who do die very quickly which is why the only people who get rabies from bats do so because they find one on the ground dying and pick it up out of compassion and get bit.

Lots of people still get rid of cats because they are pregnant even though toxiplasmosis spreads from being out in the garden and from human to human faster than spreading from cats. Also, most of the human population already is carrying toxiplasmosis with no symptoms and will never know they have it. So a rabies scare is plenty of reason for people to go nuts about killing stray cats.

[Buddafly]

I've worked in an animal hospital for 14 years, and I haven't seen that kind of behavior.  maybe it's just a difference of regions.

we don't have a bat issue, and we educate our clients if the toxo situation arises.