Rabies from a cat

[Deepseathree]

At one of the parks I oversee a cat come up to me in the rain and I took sympathy for it. The park has a campground on it and apparently he'd visited some of the campers and ate food with them. I brought him home that day. He's been with us for about a week but I can't escape the fact that it's possible due to him having rabies. He was living around the park and there have been other cats around. I was petting him this evening and he scratched at me. I don't know what to do at this point.

[Pkstracy]

I seriously doubt he has rabies, just clean the wound watch for infection and take the cat to the vet for check up and shots as well as flea prevention and such if you plan on keeping the cat, if not surrender it to a no kill shelter

[Deepseathree]

I don't think he does either. But my anxiety keeps telling me the cat does. He's getting along fairly well with my other two cats and two dogs. He sleeps a lot and really hasn't shown any sign of having rabies I guess. I don't want to look it up. We came home today and he's not around now. So that makes me think he has it and has disappeared.

---------- Post added at 01:41 ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 ----------

And I just read something stupidly about rabies. Cats that are overly tame can be a sign of it. He layed around a lot. He played with our other animals some, but for the most part slept a lot. Worried now since he scratched me. He never bit me. This is becoming irrational.

---------- Post added at 02:16 ---------- Previous post was at 01:41 ----------

The cat has been with us for a little over a week now. He's been in and out of the house. We let him out about 5 hours ago when we were leaving. Came about an hour ago and haven't seen him. My thoughts go to him being dead due to rabies.

---------- Post added at 02:48 ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 ----------

Anyone?

[Pkstracy]

You or the cat do not have rabies, we had a stray living around our apartment that was very loving, would walk in and out of peoples apartments, let us pet her, she didn't have rabies, strays wander off and the city could have picked the cat up to take to shelter or the cat is living the high life at someone else's house you wrote your post three days ago, I assure you it you got rabies you would not be able to post on forum also cats tend to roam for hours, and if this cat is normally an out door cat then it's normal for it to be gone for long periods of time

[MyNameIsTerry]

Perhaps he lay around a lot because he is undernourished due to living wild? Or perhaps he's just loving a comfy bed for once? Maybe a good feed, something he's not had for a while, is making him tired until he adjusts?

Well done for doing a good deed!

You know it's anxiety and that doesn't just switch off when we want it too so accept that it is there and likely borne out of wanting to protect yourself & your animals but that doesn't give you any insight into the cat having it as there are no signs. Anxiety wants action NOW NOW NOW!!! so don't give it that response, sit with this for a time and see it reduce.

[HelloPanda23]

At one of the parks I oversee a cat come up to me in the rain and I took sympathy for it. The park has a campground on it and apparently he'd visited some of the campers and ate food with them. I brought him home that day. He's been with us for about a week but I can't escape the fact that it's possible due to him having rabies. He was living around the park and there have been other cats around. I was petting him this evening and he scratched at me. I don't know what to do at this point.

If it had rabies, you would've known. At my school, there was a possum that just appeared randomly out of nowhere, and it clang onto the clock hung up on one of the walls for over a good few hours. When it came down, it acted off and would stay at one spot and barely move. The school called animal control because the possum was acting weird to the point in which they assumed it had rabies. As far as I'm concerned, you're fine. I don't know much about rabies, but if you can get it checked without wasting much money, go and do so.

[NancyW]

After reading so many rabies threads here, I wondered myself how it looked. I watched every rabies utube video I could find. (I have no fear of rabies) Rabies is very obvious. You would have known if that cat had rabies.

However... even when an animal looks and acts like it has rabies, it may still not have it. Recently we saw a raccoon klung to a tree branch, during the day, shaking, foaming at the mouth... call animal control. The report back from them was the raccoon had distemper.

I'm sure you're fine but seeing that your act of kindness toward this animal is causing you great anxiety, you might not want to bring stray animals home any more.

[Deepseathree]

I feel as if he had rabies he would have exhibited symptoms that would be obvious. Plus after apparently they had only have a ten day period or so where rabies can be transmitted. You observe them for ten days and if they die then it’s probably rabies. If they survive for ten days after the bite, then it’s not. Will all that rationale, it’s still not changing my thoughts. Admittedly though, it does alleviate them.