Hi everyone,
This is my first post here. I've had anxiety since the age of 9 (am now 15) and I also suffer from OCD, but only recently have I developed health anxiety. It started off with a fear of cancer which is ongoing but today something happened and I'm now scared I have rabies.
About 2 or 3 hours ago, I was playing with my dog. She suddenly licked me on the face, right across my eyes and mouth which I never let her do! I'm 95% sure her saliva got into both my mouth AND one of my eyes. I'm terrified that this has infected me with rabies as I've read you can contract it in this way. I rinsed my eye out immediately but drank water before I remembered and rinsed my mouth so I might have ingested some!!! Either way once it's in I could be infected.
I feel as if I need to go to the hospital immediately and get a jab, but no one's able to take me as I'm home alone probably till after midnight and I fear by the morning it will be too late. How long after getting infected could I get a jab and still be fine?
I'm trying to reassure myself as I live in Switzerland and got my dog in the UK, an from what I've read rabies is rare in both countries. I think (?) my dog has had her rabies jabs but I'm not 100% sure which is making me very anxious as I won't be able to check with my mum till tomorrow.
My dog doesn't seem to have any symptoms of rabies except she has been acting unsettled and restless the past few nights but my mum puts this down to the heat wave. However, I'm scared these are signs she has it and therefore could've passed it onto me.
I'm particularly worried as these last couple of days we've seen a few different stray cats and a hedgehog in our garden and I'm concerned that these could've had rabies and bit/scratched her and passed it on. My dog was also scratched badly by a fox 3 months or so ago, but could rabies stay in her system this long with no symptoms?
I'm petrified at the moment. What should I do? Any advice would be appreciated. Do you think I should go and ask for a jab at the hospital ASAP? I know I'm probably being stupid but I feel so anxious right now I can't think about anything else.
Thank you.
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