Rabies fear.

[HelloPanda23]

So I guess I'm back, lol. I haven't been on these forums for a few good months, and that's generally because my health anxiety has been little to none for a while. Even as I write this right now, my health anxiety isn't super bad, however, this recent fear of mine is unnerving. So the other day, I saw a white little puppy get itself through the gate of my house and it started running around my front yard. It even ran up to my door and waited for some one to open it. Once I opened it, it started jumping around somewhat happily around and running. After letting this go on for a few more seconds, I saw its owner, and therefore decided to carry the dog and take it to its owner. While taking it, the dog was very calm and didn't do a single thing, however, just for a second, it felt like I had somehow gotten saliva on my arm. I completely forgot which one it was and where the saliva was "apparently" at, but I eventually handed the puppy over the gate to the owner, and left. Thing is, the owner looked quite weird, as when speaking to me he had a scent of alcohol and was walking around barefoot, though I mean it is in California so it does make sense, but the dog seemed clean and it also had a collar. The issue is, I for some reason feel like the dog might've licked my wrist, and this wrist had a wound that has been going through tissue-regrowth for a while already, and so if the saliva touched that part, I somewhat fear that there's a chance that I might've gotten rabies, if ofc the dog had the infection. The thing with this wound is that it basically has no opening, it's just a minor cut that has been pretty patched up for a while now, and so I assume that even if the dog did lick this part, the saliva couldn't have possibly entered my blood stream (there's no sight of blood on the wound). Either way, the dog was acting normally from what I saw, and it didn't scratch or bite me. The puppy was a Maltese as far as I know, and I'm just really hoping it didn't have rabies. To add on, I have barely researched rabies at all after this encounter. I've just checked the time of onset for this virus, which is apparently 2-8 weeks, and a few videos of rabid dogs in action. I have no idea as to what symptoms this disease causes, and I'm planning to keep it that way. My only problem is, can the onset be years later? Apparently, that's a possibility, and that kind of upsets me because I don't want to waste a few years of my life worrying about something as foolish as this. I also would like for a bit of reassurance over this matter.

Edit: After feeling the saliva, I immediately washed up and even took a shower to ensure that the saliva didn't get through any exposed parts of my body (ie: mouth, eyes)

[Flapj]

I used to dread rabies but then learned these facts which snapped me out of it:

1. There are only 1 or 2 cases of human rabies in the U.S. each year... if that. It is remarkably rare.
2. In the U.S. most human rabies cases come from bat exposure.
3. There hasn’t been a dog to human rabies transmission in the U.S. in decades.
4. The saliva has to enter your body. No bite, no transmission.
5. How would the puppy have gotten rabies? Most small animals don’t survive the bite attack that would have given them rabies.
6. If the puppy had its shots there is no chance of infection.
7. Longest human incubation from bite is around 30-60 days, not years.


But those last facts don’t matter because there is no chance you got rabies from this. Zero. Don’t waste another second worrying about it.

[HelloPanda23]

Dang, that really helped a lot. I was never really afraid, but I had my doubts and bits of scares about getting rabies from the dog, but that has changed because of this post. Honestly, the dog was acting normally and I highly doubt a rabid dog would even force itself through the tiny space between a gate. Rabid dogs are either very aggressive or very distant and this dog was just having a good time and all. So ya, it wasn’t rabid and it didn’t infect me with its nonexistent saliva. Tysm :) Also, are you sure about that longest human incubation because I’ve seen health websites state that symptoms can take up to a few years to develop in very rare cases. That seems really odd but since you actually researched this disease, I think you can answer that best.

[Flapj]

I’m certain about the incubation.

Rabies is actually a really neat (if terrifying) virus. It travels from the bite location along the nerves to the brain. So a bite on the fingertip might take longer to progress to rabies encephalitis than a bite on the shoulder. But it moves fairly quickly. Definitely 30-60 days max. I truly believe that the rare stories of long incubation are surveillance anomalies. It goes like this: a person in Africa dies of rabies and the WHO doctor asks their family when the person was bit by an animal. And the family responds, “two years ago.” That bite didn’t infect the guy but the family swears that was the only time he was ever bit by an animal. This skews the data.

[HelloPanda23]

I’m certain about the incubation.

Rabies is actually a really neat (if terrifying) virus. It travels from the bite location along the nerves to the brain. So a bite on the fingertip might take longer to progress to rabies encephalitis than a bite on the shoulder. But it moves fairly quickly. Definitely 30-60 days max. I truly believe that the rare stories of long incubation are surveillance anomalies. It goes like this: a person in Africa dies of rabies and the WHO doctor asks their family when the person was bit by an animal. And the family responds, “two years ago.” That bite didn’t infect the guy but the family swears that was the only time he was ever bit by an animal. This skews the data.

That makes a lot of sense now...especially in third world countries where its easier for rabid animals to bite people during their sleep (based on their homes), and so obviously nobody would really notice. I thought about it too and years of wait for the virus to spread sounded absurd and so, it makes sense for it to be invalid data.

[Elen]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your problem.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Regards

Elen Admin