ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: rabies

Re: rabies

Susan Evans Garlinghouse (suendavid@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 15 Oct 1997 20:26:34 -0700

Teresa Van Hove wrote:
>
> Susan,
>
> I really enjoy sharing all your expertise via this list. I believe that a
> teaching college vaccinating cows for rabies is like someone with a lesson
> horse vaccinating their horse to avoid liability.

Almost certainly. Never asked why specifically they did it, just
remember getting shanghaied into helping.

I don't think
> horse owners have a responsibility to vaccinate for rabies to protect
> their vets (or ride vets - although I think a horse with rabies would be
> too sick to take to a ride.)

Probably. I just vaccinate my critters because I can prevent a
potential fatal disease with immunization. I never spent alot of time
prioriting who I was doing it for, because the bottom line was I was
doing it for ME, selfish creature that I am.

BTW, I wasn't making any sort of a judgement of who else should or must
vaccinate their animals. Just passing on my .02 of what goes on at Cal
Poly and my place. Your mileage may vary. :-)

BTW since rabies vac. is
> not legislated for horses is this something you give only every 2 or 3
> years?

The university DVM at Cal Poly, a rather clever fellow, thought every
two years or so was sufficient unless there was some major outbreak in
the area. However (and I honestly have NO idea of the real facts, this
is digging into ancient memory---read senility), I seem to vaguely
remember that horse rabies vaccinations don't invoke the same
long-lasting response in horses that they do in dogs. Maybe one of the
DVMs on the list can delurk for a moment and give an opinion.

BTW, the symptoms for horses are different from cows. Without getting
into gorey details, cows sort of get wobbley and collapse, horses do the
same but also get excited and manic, as dogs do. At least that's what
it says in my Animal Disease notes and in the handy-dandy Merck Manual,
but this is a veterinary area and out of my bailiwick.

I do know that the virus travels to the brain via the central nervous
system before the animal gets clinically symptomatic, so he can
technically be infected for weeks or months before dying. Whether the
infected animal can infect other animals during that incubation period,
I don't know. I think the virus has to reach the brain before it can
travel to salivary glands, but it's not something I would want to stake
my life on, either.

Thanks for the post, Teresa.

Happy trails,

Susan

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