The first case of rabies detected in a cat in Alberta since 2010 has a Longview farmer and his son undergoing medical treatment.
The Office of the Chief Provincial Veterinarian (OCPV) received notification on Nov. 13 of a domestic cat testing positive for the rabies virus that’s most consistent with the bat variant.
According to a message the OCPV posted to various veterinary clinics’ social media pages, the nine-year-old indoor-outdoor cat displayed extreme aggression and bit the property owner and his son, prompting them to undergo post-exposure treatment.
The cat was born and lived on the farm near Longview.
Four other cats and two dogs on the property are under a three-month quarantine after being given post-exposure rabies vaccinations, the report stated.
Foothills Animal Hospital veterinarian Dr. Hilary Rondot, who didn’t treat the animals, said rabies is a serious disease.
“This is a life or death situation,” she said. “There is nothing we can do about it, which can be very scary. It’s something any mammal can get, which is also very scary.”
The last two locally-acquired rabies cases occurred in cats in 2010 and 2006. In 2013, a puppy in Calgary originating from Nunavut tested positive with the arctic fox variant.
So far in 2018, nine bats in Alberta that interacted with pets or humans tested positive for rabies.
Rabies occurs at a low rate in Alberta, but Rondot said pets and their owners can only be protected through vaccinations.
“Vaccinating is a really easy way to make sure our cats and dogs that are most likely to be exposed to rabid animals won’t bring it home, that way it can keep us and them safe,” she said. “Any animal that comes in we always recommend the rabies vaccine as part of the core vaccines for both cats and dogs.”
Rondot said the vaccine costs $13.
Even indoor cats can be exposed to rabies, she said, particularly from infected bats that could fly into homes.
Carnivores infected with rabies often display signs of aggression and frothing at the mouth while herbivores tend to experience excessive drooling and passive behavior where they appear “out of it,” said Rondot.
“The virus affects the brain and there is no treatment for rabies,” she said. “The only test is by euthanizing them and sending in their brain matter for testing. We don’t have any way to test for it pre-emptively.”
The result is the same for humans, said Rondot, who said there’s one reported case of a person in the United Kingdom who survived the virus without receiving a preventative vaccine, but the woman suffered permanent brain damage.
