Do I have rabies?

[Helobious 9467]

Sunday, I'm walking through the courtyard at my apartment complex. A 12-13 year old girl coming my direction on the sidewalk is walking a mid-sized, brown & white dog on a leash. The dog sees me and really starts trying to get at me, girl can barely hold him back. I keep walking thinking the dog is just excited. I take a step past them and then I feel a bite on the back of my knee/lower thigh area. I walk away a few feet to try and walk off the pain and create distance between me & the dog. I guess the girl panicked, cause I turned around and they were quickly walking into a breezeway. I hobbled after them but they were out of view. I foolishly decided to go clean & sanitize my wound ASAP instead of trying to find the girl & dog.

A couple days later I go to the clinic. Doctor tells me my wound has healed almost perfectly, no infection. He also said the dog didn't get me that deep. He said he highly doubted that a domesticated dog would have rabies, and that the bite didn't at all resemble the carnage that rabid dog bites usually have. He didn't recommend getting a rabies shot. Problem is my apartment complex says there's no kids or pet owners in the breezeway where the girl vanished, and since I wasn't able to tell the breed of the dog it'd be hard to find. I've been prowling the complex everyday since looking for that fucking dog or the girl. Filed a dogbite report with animal control & everything but that won't help much.

Rabies shots are only available in ERs and cost well over $10,000 out of pocket from what I understand. Would you get the shots if you were in my position? 

 

[XYZ 2154]

I sure hope you don’t have rabies, but why the fuck would a rabies vaccine cost $10k+?

[Jeffrey 90]

Untreated rabies will eventually get your brain. Get checked dude.

[Helobious 9467]

1 minute ago, Jeffrey said:

Untreated rabies will eventually get your brain. Get checked dude.

Unfortunately you can’t “get checked” for rabies. You can only test positive for it after you display symptoms, and once you display symptoms it’s virtually 100% fatal. 

The only things holding me back from getting the shots are the price & the miniscule chance of me having it. It’s a disease that kills less than people 5 people a year in the US. Not only that but it only infects about 70 dogs a year nationwide. 

[TwiceHorn 31554]

CDC says consult public health officials, who I suppose might know if there have been any rabies exposures in your area.  https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/index.html

 

There are also links for numbers for discounts for un/underinsured patients.

Edited January 25, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[El Diablo 4232]

You should probably wear a cone until you're sure, for the safety of others. 

[Upgrayedd 5821]

Tldr 

Rabies for sure.  Maybe Aidsbies too.

[Quagmire 2147]

I sure hope you don’t have rabies, but why the fuck would a rabies vaccine cost $10k+?

Right ?

More like 30 bucks for my dog, maybe you should go to a vet

[Telegraph_it 3359]

You can always do the Milwaukee protocol. 

[Hate 20146]

Milwaukee protocol?  Seems a bit extreme, but I guess you have to die of something.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Hate

[Parliament 14335]

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Not shot, dog bite. Woof woof, not bang bang.

[HouTex 1894]

Not so trivial things that piss me off: people who walk their dogs and parents who let their children walk their dogs that can't/won't control the animal on the leash.

[XYZ 2154]

Yesterday I went to the Barton Creek greenbelt for the first time in a while. It was basically a fucking dog park. Dog shit on the side of the trail or on the trail. Bags with dog shit on the side of the trail or on the trail. And pretty much every dog not on a leash.

[ohchaucer 1443]

33 minutes ago, Llano Estacado said:

Not shot, dog bite. Woof woof, not bang bang.

Rabies? Oh, you don't want that.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Can we get a pool going here ?  What's the over under ?

[RDCanecutter 26476]

11 hours ago, Helobious said:

Rabies shots are only available in ERs and cost well over $10,000 out of pocket from what I understand. Would you get the shots if you were in my position?

For less than that, I bet you can fly to Costa Rica, stay in a nice resort for five weeks, bang hookers every night, and get a nice local doctor to treat you for rabies, and whatever you pick up from the hookers.

[El Diablo 4232]

7 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

For less than that, I bet you can fly to Costa Rica, stay in a nice resort for five weeks, bang hookers every night, and get a nice local doctor to treat you for rabies, and whatever you pick up from the hookers.

He should probably still wear the cone. #SafetyFirst

[RDCanecutter 26476]

1 minute ago, El Diablo said:

He should probably still wear the cone. #SafetyFirst

Well, you know these "reports" never tell the whole truth. OP probably bit both the dog and the girl while foaming at the mouth.

[SDG 3319]

When you filed the case with animal control did they tell you if there has been any recent cases of rabies locally?  That seems like something they would know and probably be a huge factor in determining your odds.  

[HouTex 1894]

When I was in high school the family that lived on the ranch that was next to our deer lease befriended a dog that wondered onto its property. The dog died several days later and though it wasn’t showing obvious signs of rabies when they found it, they took the dead dog to the vet. It had rabies. All six of them had to get the shots. I don’t recall hearing that it was outrageously expensive. But that was around 35+ years ago.
But I think you are fine.

[Kennythetiger 9479]

Nice knowing you. 

[Radical Larry 28664]

At first, I thought this was a Chad Briscoe thread. Then, I realized that wasn’t the case because rabies was spelled correctly.

[Kennythetiger 9479]

Chad would have bitten the dog.

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

My neighbor across the street in Dallas had to get rabies shots last year.  Actually it's apparently one shot now unlike when I was a kid.  He bitched and whined about it like he was having to undergo radiation therapy.  But he didn't mention cost in his litany of woe. I feel sure he would have fired that bullet had he had it.

When I was a kid the family across the street had to get rabies shots for their son.  No way it was 10K or even close to the 1981 equivalent of that amount or they'd have just let him die.  That's how they were.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21943]

Part of the reason for the cost of rabies treatment is because it uses immunoglobulin obtained from the blood of donors who have been vaccinated against rabies. So why don’t we just vaccinate humans against rabies like we do dogs? Except for the anti vaxers of course, they can just get rabies and die.

[Hate 20146]

Chad would have fucked the dog.

Fixed.

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

Surlyhorns' Helobious Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure

Edited January 25, 2019 by Seasick Sailor

[El Diablo 4232]

So which was worse, the bark or the bite?

[Helobious 9467]

1 hour ago, SDG said:

When you filed the case with animal control did they tell you if there has been any recent cases of rabies locally?  That seems like something they would know and probably be a huge factor in determining your odds.  

I filled out the report at the doctors office and they sent it to animal control. I’m gonna talk to animal control & the cdc today. 

[Sbbruin 21898]

We can do something about it people!

 

 

 

[Sbbruin 21898]

Know the facts

 

[torre 1286]

1 hour ago, Helobious said:

I filled out the report at the doctors office and they sent it to animal control. I’m gonna talk to animal control & the cdc today. 

nvm,   previously answered.

Edited January 25, 2019 by torre

[DallasHorn26 586]

When I was in jr. high, someone brought a dead bat to school.  The teacher let everyone touch it.  Turns out the bat had rabies, the entire class had to get the shots.

[happyfunball 481]

Bite someone and tell them to get tested.

[Tyler Durden 132]

You will be missed on the baseball board.

[crash_davis 23115]

not something that you fuck with.  get checked.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-woman-dies-from-rabies-after-dog-bite-in-india/

Quote

A Virginia woman died of rabies after being bitten by a dog infected with the virus in India, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed. It happened last spring, after the 65-year-old returned home from an extended stay in India for a yoga retreat. 

She's the ninth U.S. resident to die of rabies after being exposed to the disease while traveling abroad since 2008, according to the CDC.

In a case study published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), doctors said the woman first began experiencing symptoms on May 3, 2017. She reported pain and a tingling sensation in her right arm while gardening. Three days later she went to an urgent care facility where she was misdiagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.

The next day, her symptoms worsened and she was hospitalized with shortness of breath, anxiety, insomnia, and difficulty swallowing water. Her test results appeared normal and doctors treated her for a presumed panic attack. She was hospitalized twice more.

That's when "the patient became progressively agitated and combative and was noted to be gasping for air when attempting to drink water," according to the report.

Doctors questioned her family about animal exposures and her husband told them that she had been bitten on the right hand by a puppy outside her hotel in Rishikesh, India, about 6 weeks before her symptoms began. He said his wife cleaned the wound with the help of the tour operator but did not seek further medical treatment. She did not receive a rabies pre-exposure vaccination before the trip, and had never been vaccinated against rabies.

The woman's condition continued to worsen, requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. On May 11, eight days after the woman's first symptoms appeared, rabies was confirmed. Experimental treatments failed to work, and the woman died 10 days later.

 

[shakahorn 1645]

2 hours ago, DallasHorn26 said:

When I was in jr. high, someone brought a dead bat to school.  The teacher let everyone touch it.  Turns out the bat had rabies, the entire class had to get the shots.

You went to jr high with Ozzy?

[That Guy 960]

You get your ass out there and you find that fucking dog. 

[Johnny Chimpo 479]

I got the rabies vaccine before I mobilized overseas. I don’t know about the cost because it was one of a litany of shots I got and the company paid for it all, but it wasn’t anything special in terms of pain or aftereffects. 

[texasjacket 289]

What kind of trashy apartments do you live in where such animals freely roam?

[Surly Bevo 25178]

Yankees fan right?  i say you can ride this out.

[Bevo 13601]

I knew someone who had rabies, horrible, horrible disease. For god sakes, get the fucking cone and a towel to wipe off the foam.

[Helobious 9467]

4 hours ago, texasjacket said:

What kind of trashy apartments do you live in where such animals freely roam?

Some girl had it on a leash and it still bit me. They then ran off. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

3 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Some girl had it on a leash and it still bit me. They then ran off. 

Which tells me she's had other incidents with that animal.

[TwiceHorn 31554]

20 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Which tells me she's had other incidents with that animal.

Good point.  She probably also knows that in Texas, city ordinances can and do call for a biting dog to be put down.

Probably indicates the dog is an asshole, but not a rabid one.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Just now, TwiceHorn said:

Good point.  She probably also knows that in Texas, city ordinances can and do call for a biting dog to be put down.

Probably indicates the dog is an asshole, but not a rabid one.

Around here a reported dog bite gets a 30 day quarantine, a second incident I believe gets the big sleep. We have a dog in our neighborhood that's had this protocol.

[Helobious 9467]

Update: Decided to go to ER today to try and get the shots. Doctor told me my bite was recovering great and that there wasn't any infection. He also said that there hasn't been a confirmed case of canine rabies in Bexar County in over 20 years, and that the odds that the next dog to get it would be someone's pet were just astronomically low. He said that a rabies shot is pretty painful and has to be administered at the site of the bite and would cost thousands of dollars when included with the 3 follow up shots. Basically said I could get the shots if I wanted to but that he wouldn't recommend it. So 2 different doctors recommending that I not get the shots was enough for me, I've decided against it. 

 

[justhookit 4191]

It was nice knowing you

[Clintonaldo 2576]

Go rest high on that mountain sweet prince Helobious