View Full Version : Rabies- Need Help with Decision
A client brought an 11 week old puppy to the office maybe 3 days ago and one thing led to another and I am holding this puppy and it licked my lips. My lips were closed and there was no bite. The puppy also licked other coworkers (but I think I'm the only one who got it on the lips).
I don't know anything about this client or the puppy, other than it seemed totally normal and fine. I also know it is a crossbreed, don't know whether a mutt or was intentionally bred since my coworkers knew it was half golden and half some kind of other breed.
Since I was licked, though, I am really not sure whether I should get the shots. I mean, there might be a way for me to get information about the puppy and see if it is still alive and healthy after the holiday break (which would be a little more than 2 weeks).
I have not been worrying too much since it happened, since the puppy appeared very healthy. BUt, now I'm second guessing.
I do have OCD about rabies. It is a recurring intrusive thought, like not with regularity usually, but this is the second incident provoking rabies fear in a month.
Really not sure how to assess this situation. Would you get the shots?? Please answer :-)
I am really not sure what to do. I am in the US where rabies in dogs is uncommon,
There is no way you have rabies. No, no, no, no way. No chance in hell. A puppy licked you. That's it. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but this post is an example of OCD thoughts out of control.
MyNameIsTerry
16-12-17, 05:41
Your anxiety is the one providing the doubt and making you feel uncomfortable.
Forget about that for now and think rationally about the situation:
1. The puppy was healthy & happy.
2. Is the clinet trustworthy, a decent person, etc? (is your perception of them that they would allow such a thing to happen is what I'm driving at)
3. Rabies is uncommon in the US.
4. Initially you weren't worrying, the worry came later.
From your counter evidence, rationally, what is the likely truth here?
Now, after you have written that down do you believe you need to take action? Why? Because you still feel uncomfortable? But isn't that anxiety and something we have to work on learning to accept & sit with?
One place I'm getting hung up is that I don't know the client and didn't meet the client. Ugh.
For what it's worth, NOPE!
Positive thoughts
There is no decision to make here. Any doctor who’s not a quack would laugh at you asking for rabies shots, is s/he did not know of your OCD.
Well, my other hangup is that the lick was on my mouth!!! I am not sure that is the same as licking skin, so.....
I am wishing I had not picked up that puppy!!! I am not going to request the shots, but I have to figure out a way to follow up on the dog!
No, you don't have to follow up on the dog. There is nothing wrong with the dog. The problem is you. You need to follow up on your OCD.
I would say I need to follow up on both. You are right about the need for mental health help!
I would say I need to follow up on both. You are right about the need for mental health help!
Nervus... No. Really, there's no need to follow up on a healthy happy puppy. Respectfully, this is truly delusional. You say you have severe OCD and recognize it in your OP. You're asking advice and the advice is sound. Your response is just a compromise that helps feed your dragon. "Ok... I won't get the shots but I'm still checkin' the dog!".
Getting real life professional help in starving the dragon out of you would be the best path to take.
Positive thoughts
Kids all over the world would be dropping like flies if your line of reasoning was true!
You're being duped and led straight into the dragon's den, Nervus :lac:
MyNameIsTerry
17-12-17, 06:45
I would say I need to follow up on both. You are right about the need for mental health help!
But is following up on the puppy a logical thing a non sufferer would be saying?
Your obsession will want definate answers. It's one of the Cognitive Distortions known as all-or-nothing thinking (or dichotomous reasoning). You end up investigating to obsessive levels and probing way to far into problems.
So, you can apply rationlisation to weigh up evidence for and evidence against. Write it down. Then reframe a conclusion based on what you see in this evidence. The anxiety will keep going because it's about retraining the subconscious to stop playing up but you have to remain firm from a conscious point of view to stop it galloping away with itself.
Think about probability. What is the probability of a client's puppy having rabies in a country where rabies is uncommon. Out of all the dogs in your country, look how few cases occur. If the probability is tiny, why go further?
You have a theme about rabies. Look at your previous thread and how you told yourself you are not getting the injections for your child. You can do the same here. Look how your anxiety was at fever pitch there but you came back to the thread later saying it subsided and you felt more in control. That will come again here of you wait it out.
Annaboodle
17-12-17, 09:18
Oh nooo, do not follow up on that puppy. This is your work. Your anxiety has probably already taken you to thinking, "but it'll look ok if I just innocently ask after that dog that was brought in". It won't. It'll seem really odd and weird.
KK- I have been duped many many times, and yes I do things that prolong my own suffering. The thing I CAN'T move on from is that the lick was directly on my lips, which I have since found is considered high risk exposure b/c even the exterior lips are mucous membrane. I know the pup is REALLY unlikely, like really really unlikely, almost impossibly unlikely to have rabies...but...I still can't get past having read about the lip issue.
Evidence isn't really helping me, Terry, b/c there is rabies in our area. Not in many dogs. I have to imagine most people guard their little puppies, but I am able to imagine all the scenarios by which a young mutt puppy could get the disease, and I am still hung up!!
Thx Anna....You are right that there are consequences to acting on OCD fears publicly. I need to figure out how to weigh not letting the crazy spill out into the world with my craving to know with certainty that the pup is okay. GUess I have several days to ruminate on that.
It's very hard to get rabies. I was scratched up by a feral cat that they thought may have been exposed to rabies, and I still didn't get the shots. (I used to help rescue strays) That's how hard it is to get. You need to work on letting this go.
I am trying Antsy....actually had a long respite earlier today. But, the thoughts are back.
---------- Post added at 21:45 ---------- Previous post was at 21:43 ----------
Oh...and why didn't you get the shots, if I may ask?
She (the feral cat) didn’t show any signs of rabies. The shots should be a worst case scenario. They have a lot of side effects and are an ordeal in and of themselves. Most vets and other feral handlers only get the shots if they know for sure that they’ve been exposed. In the wild, in the US, rabies is very rare and had been eradicated in domestic animals.
MyNameIsTerry
18-12-17, 07:05
I am trying Antsy....actually had a long respite earlier today. But, the thoughts are back.
I'm glad to hear you had some respite. It must have come as some relief?!!!
Sadly, anxiety can come & go like this. When I was into my recovery I found I cycled between bad, terrible, not so terrible...and over time I started having some good too which became more & more. Earlier on when the good ended (or the "just ok" as it often was back then) the bad would hit me like a train. I would then start to go downhill and no matter how much I reminded myself it will pass as it always does, it felt unbearable.
But the more you keep working on things and the more you get used to this, the less it hits you. I still hate the down periods now but I can handle them with acceptance, my Mindfulness learning and just getting on with things.
So, try to accept the good periods when they come or you will influence the down periods coming back earlier than they could do. If you do it, try to accept the bad periods are just the position you are in with your mental health right now and not reflective of the future. That's really hard to do though but if you can do it even a little bit, it helps stop catastrophising anf low mood.
---------- Post added at 07:05 ---------- Previous post was at 07:00 ----------
Evidence isn't really helping me, Terry, b/c there is rabies in our area. Not in many dogs. I have to imagine most people guard their little puppies, but I am able to imagine all the scenarios by which a young mutt puppy could get the disease, and I am still hung up!!
That's a mistake we often make until our therapist explains to us that counter evidence isn't just about countering with facts against the focus within our current theme (we get too literal at times with our thoughts) - you can counter using past experience of your overall anxiety e.g. you had similiar concerns over your daughter but there was no evidence of anything wrong, that she was bitten, etc so why is there now? Weren't your thought processes the same then and look how you wanted to get her help initially but later come to accept it was just anxiety. Therefore, so can this be.
You have evidence you had contact. However, you had no concrete evidence your daughter wasn't bitten, you came to accept the shades of grey that it was extremely unlikely due to various factors. So, you can do it with this scenario too.
Another way to examine your thoughts is to not bother with yours and examine someone else's. Take someone else's scenario and work though it to dispute it and reframe it. Then look at your own and see the similarities.
Annaboodle
18-12-17, 08:34
I have a puppy. You're right in that we guard them like our babies! The kind of person who brings their puppy proudly along to a work appointment, probably because they're worried about things like "separation anxiety" is guarding their puppy like a bub. I know that there's just no way you (or that puppy) have rabies in the scenario you've described, but I know how hard it is for you to believe that there is no possibility there. You need to work at it in the ways Terry is suggesting in my opinion - dispute it and reframe it.
I'm doing much better today...been able to stop the googling!
I have been able to convince myself that a person bringing the dog to work is a pretty gaga dog person and that rabies discovered in a puppy will make the local news, but I still want to check on the dog in 10 days, lol!
MyNameIsTerry
19-12-17, 04:39
That's a very good point by Anna. And I'm glad your are getting behind rationalising this.
OCD thrives on higher levels of overall anxiety. Obsessive-compulsive cycles intensify, as do intrusive thoughts, and we feel less able to break free from them. We get stuck on autopilot deep in the mire. I'm sure you seen others like this on here and some struggling to even try to deal with it who can seem in denial. I remember being like that and it was gruelling, a total hell each day.
So, indirect work like relaxation can help too.
I'm glad you are feeling better. So, now you have another piece of evidence for future reference as to how your cycles work and why things are not as your anxiety is telling you when it's acting up. Yours seems to fade after a period of intensity due to a trigger if the last two episodes are common.
I'm glad you are feeling better. So, now you have another piece of evidence for future reference as to how your cycles work and why things are not as your anxiety is telling you when it's acting up. Yours seems to fade after a period of intensity due to a trigger if the last two episodes are common.
Good point. That is how my cycles work- very intense for a few days after a trigger. I am very thankful that they don't come on without a trigger, ie. like just walking outside and being afraid I've been contaminated by rabies or the other zoonotic diseases I fear (yes, there are a couple more than rabies :blush: )
I also get cancer panics and my cycle with those are different, in that they also come on b/c of a trigger like a lump (not just vague sensations) or going through the diagnostic process. I get benign lumps all the time for some unknown reason!
I also get a very strong compulsion to google when I am triggered, and that definitely fuels the fire. At times, I am able to limit myself. This is actually a relapse of another period of hypochondria that I was able to "conquer" or so I thought by very deliberate behavioral changes (not just a google moratorium but other things too). I have not had the willpower to work my previous program for some reason. I was able to come up with deep dark psychological reasons for the first season of HA that I experienced about 5-6 years ago. Those reasons and my "story" for why I had HA actually helped me get over it in the moment, but that story no longer applies and I am finding it hard to identify what deeper issue brought this on this time. I am the kind of person who "needs" a deeper issue to understand myself and change myself and I am coming up short this time.
I am working on it, though. IN the meantime, I am going to avoid cute puppies, yes sir :winks:
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.