I think the biggest thing is to make sure that all animals are UTD on rabies vaccines because you cannot forsee an incident like this happening.
As for the clean up, make sure that you wear thick rubber gloves and do not let any liquid come into contact with your skin. Rabies is transmitted through saliva and spinal fluid. You can have micro cuts on your hands that you do not know about. Ensure that you wear these gloves the entire time. Wash hands thoroughly afterwards, also.
The rabies virus is killed in warmer temperatures and also cannot survive drying out. Wear the gloves while cleaning up the carcass. Also wear them if you are bathing dogs, etc. That is most likely when I came into contact was when I was cleaning up the dogs afterwards.
The skunk was tested through the health department due to potential human exposure but diagnostic labs can also test. Booster any animals that came into contact with the rabid animal ASAP. The incubation period is typically 10 days. If only a few animals were involved with the rabid animal, keep them separate from all other animals. The 45 day quarantine is a huge pain but I understand why it’s neccesary.
For the human rabies vaccines, you typically have to go to the emergency room for the first vaccine then the rest of the series can be scheduled at an outpatient center or urgent care.
When dealing with rabies, you almost have to overreact a little bit because there is no cure for the virus. I just read on the AVMA that a man in Florida just died of rabies due to a bat. I am usually a wait and see approach to most illnesses and try to avoid the doctor but this was not a joke.
Hopefully this is helpful to someone else!
