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> If you can, bring in the animal that bit you Don’t they still need to kill the animal and send it’s head to the lab? At least when I was a kid you still need
by Alex3917 8y ago
> If you can, bring in the animal that bit you
Don’t they still need to kill the animal and send it’s head to the lab? At least when I was a kid you still needed the shots because it took a week to get the animal’s results back.
- madeuptempacct 8y agoI was told you could avoid shots by bringing the animal in, but I am not in the field, so I don't know if that's generally true.
- pvaldes 8y agoYes, and if is alive is easier to look for symptoms. People bitten by any species of microbat receive three shots. There is a lot of difference between risk depending on the bat species, so it helps a lot if can be classified by a specialist.
- seandougall 8y ago> if is alive is easier to look for symptoms As I understand it, removing and examining the brain can yield a definitive diagnosis in cases where time is of the essence. In cases where it's not immediately obvious that the animal is rabid, it can take a week or two of observation to look for more overt symptoms. That's how my parents ended up adopting a stray dog, who later became just about their favorite pet ever. By the time they'd watched him for a couple weeks, he wasn't going anywhere. :)