Ok So how long does rabies survive outside of the body (in wet saliva?)

[Myalterfornow]

Just a rambling thought, last night I was cleaning out my brush boxes and a couple buckets that had shampoos in them. Of course everything was soaked. (Thanks Irene).

As I was taking my poor brushes out of the muck, I felt my hand brush against something squishy. Ew. It was what appeared to be a hairball. I normally don’t think twice about this sort of stuff (it was gross but just a hairball) except this past summer there were 2 or 3 rabies cases in the town I board in. One rabies case was involved with the BO’s dog.

So I’m just wondering if the offending barn cat had rabies, should I be concerned? Who knows how long the hairball was there, but it had been there for at least two hours from the time I picked up my brush boxes and brought them to the wash room to the time I actually started going through them.

I’ve read conflicting information on the internet so what better place to ask than here…:lol:

[wendy]

surely the barn cat has been vaccinated?

[Nezzy]

Rabies died when the host dies. If it is rewetted, it does not come back. But if it stays wet from the time it was alive, i don’t know…

[Myalterfornow]

There are multiple barn cats, some are ‘feral’ I guess. I am not sure the vaccination history on any of them, nor do I know which one made a mess in my brush box! I’m not overly worried but once the thought crossed my mind I couldn’t help but ask.

[HPFarmette]

Not very likely…

Was the spot it contacted on you an open wound? The virus is not likely to penetrate intact skin. What was the outcome for the BO’s dog? When my dog was bit by a sick raccoon I bathed him and we boostered him. He had been vaccinated; he was fine. We couldn’t catch the raccoon so who knows…

[wendy]

well, if you have a high incidence of rabies in your area and the cats aren’t vaccinated, I’d be quite concerned. I think in most cases the saliva isn’t very infectious until the animal starts showing symptoms, but if a barn cat wanders up and suddenly bites you in the leg you may have to get rabies shots just in case.

[Myalterfornow]

I don’t think I have any real open wounds, I have an old slight paper cut but it’s just a peeled back piece of skin, it never bled. I probably didn’t even touch the ewww-iness with that spot anyway.

The BO’s dog is fine, I guess they caught the animal that attacked it and sent it to be tested and it was positive. The dog had been vaccinated previously though.

[fivehorses]

Its a one way street.
I would call my doctor’s office and ask them. They might refer you to an ACO or in my state, The fish and game officer for my region, who oversees rabies, etc
They might have more information about what would be a viable transmission,etc

[summerhorse]

The virus needs nerve tissue to live so once it contacts the outside world it has only seconds to live. If that. While technically it is possible to contract rabies by flying spittle that might land in your eye or mouth and you have a sore or something I don’t know of any actual cases where that happened. That is why you really need a bite to transmit, the teeth inject the virus into the body where it immediately finds a nerve and is very happy!

In other words catching it from a hair ball would be slim indeed! However you might catch OTHER things from the muck so I’d keep some rubber gloves around.

The barn animals should be vaccinated immediately, you do not want to know the horrors the health department might visit upon a barn with a rabid animal.