[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by carboy

Any chance the maid may have been irregular in feeding him in terms of timings or may be skipped some meals? Or may be you feed him on demand whereas the maid fed him at fixed times?

I ask this as a cat person

The two cats we had at that time could well have got more food out of the maid than they did out of me! (And that, although with a different maid, is one reason we currently have one overweight cat)

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

A 5 shot dose of anti rabies vaccine will keep you safe for a couple of years. After that you just need to take 1 shot every year as a top up to boost the anti body titer value in your body.

PS - A shot of rabies vaccine costs 350 bucks.

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I did take 4/5 shots last year, missed taking the last shot. Will take a booster shot tomorrow to be safe.

Off topic perhaps - almost every single day I meet a stray cat or a dog who would probably have a better chance with us. But I just don't have the strength anymore.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I did take 4/5 shots last year, missed taking the last shot. Will take a booster shot tomorrow to be safe.

Hope I'm not arguing with a specialist, as I have no medical training at all, but I think that you should go for the course of three post-exposure injections.

I had the course of five after being bitten by a cat, and a further three when bitten by the same cat a couple of years later. He was a stray, who moved into our side passage way, and I fed him daily. I think that sinking his teeth into my leg was a way of complaining of slow service with his meal! I also think that rabies inoculation was almost certainly unnecessary: I'd known the cat for years.

I just can't live with probably-not when it comes to rabies, as the alternative is death. And getting the injections is simple and easy, and not very expensive.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I did take 4/5 shots last year, missed taking the last shot. Will take a booster shot tomorrow to be safe.

Off topic perhaps - almost every single day I meet a stray cat or a dog who would probably have a better chance with us. But I just don't have the strength anymore.

Rabies is transmitted through saliva so there's far less probability that a scratch from the cat will transmit it to you. Bites for sure.

You'd better stay current on anti tetanus shots though, and anti rabies too if you're around pets of any sort.

A few months back my (growing puppy) dog picked up a garbage bag on the street and when I tried to grab it out of her mouth, she ended up biting my thumb so hard the flesh was exposed. She was immediately sorry for doing it, but well .. I was glad for the anti rabies vaccination, and I did have to endure some painful days and heavy bandaging, still have an inch long scar on the thumb from this experience.

[pgupta]

Originally Posted by blackasta

Few pointers from my end, as I have been dealing with street / stray dog welfare for sometime.

Thanks hserus,am1m,aditya.86,blackasta and all others who shared your experience and advice (for some reason I cant find the "THANKS" button in this thread). For now I am evaluating once again my readiness but certainly you have helped me to be better prepared.

[srini1785]

How does Dachshund breed fare in terms of temperament, longevity, maintenance etc.? I have always been a bit inclined to this breed. I am an apartment dweller.

P.S : I have never owned a dog. I once got a mongrel puppy home and father promptly kicked it out for creating a ruckus at sleep time. This was a long time back.

[badboyscad]

Originally Posted by badboyscad

Here are the little rascals from our place, waiting for supper. The undernourished little one sitting on the doorstep holed up under a crawl space in our terrace during last week's rains and got separated from the mother. Currently I am trying recover it by feeding whiskas kitten food.
Attachment 1912976

And the clowder keeps growing

[hserus]

Originally Posted by srini1785

How does dachshound breed fare in terms of temperament, longevity, maintenance etc?. I have always been a bit inclined to this breed. I am an apartment dweller.

P.S : I have never owned a dog. I once got a mongrel puppy home and father promptly kicked it out for creating a ruckus at sleep time. This was long time back.

You can no more kick out a puppy for making noises at night than you could throw out your baby for crying at night. So please think twice, and ensure that your wife is also understanding about this, before you get a puppy. Especially a pedigreed puppy because such animals won't survive your throwing them onto the street or packing them off to the Blue Cross.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by hserus

Rabies is transmitted through saliva so there's far less probability that a scratch from the cat will transmit it to you. Bites for sure.

You'd better stay current on anti tetanus shots though, and anti rabies too if you're around pets of any sort.

Even a scratch from a rabid cat has potential to transmit the virus since cats have a habit of licking their paws . From a rabid cat, a scratch is as dangerous as a bite .

Anyway if you have taken a 5 shot post exposure course on 0,3,7,14,28 days from the bite then you are pretty protected for life.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Even a scratch from a rabid cat has potential to transmit the virus since cats have a habit of licking their paws . From a rabid cat, a scratch is as dangerous as a bite .

Anyway if you have taken a 5 shot post exposure course on 0,3,7,14,28 days from the bite then you are pretty protected for life.

That at least is true, you're right about cats licking their paws a lot. Thanks for putting me right.

Besides the 5 shot you need annual boosters after the first two years (or is it three).

[sagarpadaki]

Annual booster is one shot.

If one has already taken a 3 shot pre exposure or 5 shot post exposure regime then on subsequent suspected bite, 3 shots are sufficient.

One advantage is taking 3 shot pre exposure regime is that after a first time rabid bite there is no need for a Human Rabies Immunoglobin. This is needed if the person has not been vaccinated and has been bitten pretty badly by a rabid animal to the extent of flesh ripping off during the bite. The HRIG is given along with day 0 vaccine around the area of the bite to prevent the spread of virus since the body takes 1 week to generate enough antibodies after vaccine.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Annual booster is one shot.

If one has already taken a 3 shot pre exposure or 5 shot post exposure regime then on subsequent suspected bite, 3 shots are sufficient.

Excellent, thanks. So you still need rabies shots after the bite even after prophylactic immunisation?

[blackasta]

The thing about rabies vaccines is that doctors do not want to take a chance. It's either vaccine & life as usual, or death. There's no middle way !!

I was bit about a year and a half back by one of the mongrel pups (Big Boss), when I tried to set a splint in his broken front limb. I knew very well that bite was out of pain rather than madness, but the doctor did not want to take a chance, and I had to take the full 5 shots course (Rs 350 each). That fella is happily hanging around till now with zero issues (touch wood).

Then after 6 months, I got bit again pretty deep in my calf muscle while I tried separating two juveniles going for each other's throats. This time, I know that I was vaccinated, the dogs themselves were vaccinated, so I did not bother with rabies shots.

Couple of weeks back, I was handling another unknown dog who had severe problem with it's hind limbs (maybe hit by a car or beaten by someone), and it bit me pretty deep in my left palm. I lost quite some blood, and the doctor decided as the dog did not have any vaccination history, I had to take the 5 shot course again. Completed 4 shots and the last one is pending next weekend. The doc also advised me to get pre exposure prophylaxis done from next year onward, as I deal with a lot of dogs on regular basis who have questionable vaccination history.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18975587

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by hserus

Excellent, thanks. So you still need rabies shots after the bite even after prophylactic immunisation?

Ideally if the bite occurred within one year of vaccination then there is no need for post exposure 3 shots. However, since human life is precious and 1000 bucks is a trivial amount of money compared to human life, it is better to take a 3 shot post exposure schedule if the animal that bit you is rabid, ie, it died within 10 days after it bit you. However if it's alive and kicking even after 10 days then no need for post exposure vaccine. If the animal died then you have to immediately start the 3 shot post exposure regime from the day of animal death. Here is where it helps if you have already been immunized before anytime in your life. You can afford to wait for 10 days to observe the animal and then take a call if you want a post exposure regime. If you are not vaccinated earlier then you cannot afford to observe for 10 days. You have to start your 5 shot regime immediately along with HRIG if the bite wound is severe.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'd rather not wait ten days! As said, the 1k rupees and the time spent on the injections is trivial. One can even go to a hospital casualty department in the middle of the night and get it done.

A friend of mine saw his colleague and close friend die of rabies. Both NRIs, both doctors. The victim had been bitten by a Street dog while visiting family here, and didn't think he needed to do anything about it.