Here’s a turn from our usual rabies news: there is a rabid skunk increase in Central Texas, with one man bitten last month.
- Austin American Statesman: Rabid skunk reports rising in Central Texas
- KENS 5 News: Animal Control warns of rabies outbreak in Guadalupe County
While we don’t advocate the over-vaccination of pets, we do understand and support initial rabies inoculations pets need to keep them (and us!) safe. Safe not only from getting the rabies virus, but in the unlikely case of your pet biting someone, the need for an official record your pet is vaccinated. Why? Because the only fast and efficient way to tell if an animal actually has rabies is to inspect brain tissue under a microscope, and we aren’t talking an MRI here…
This is where positive identification of your pet with a microchip or tattoo is useful. If shot records are definitively linked to them, and they bite someone or are bitten by a suspected rabid animal, at least your pet should be give the chance of quarantine first and reduce chances of their head being FedExed to the state lab in a box.
Many Texans don’t realize the state protects its populace with a yearly rabies bait drop program along the Mexican border and in rural West Texas. (The official name is Oral Rabies Vaccination Program.) Immunizing coyotes and gray foxes creates a vaccinated border of wildlife less likely to become infected and pass infection along to domesticated animals and humans. To learn more about this program, visit ORVP Updates. For information specific to skunks, visit Rabies in Skunks.
If a drooling, stumbling skunk is headed your way, don’t mistake the skunk as being friendly. Get yourself and your pets away from it pronto! Call animal control or the police so they can capture and remove the skunk.
