Puppy found a rabid bat at Cambria home. Now the dog is under quarantine for 6 months
Imagine letting your 8-week-pup out on the deck — a tiny canine you’d adopted just a week before — and discovering it was barking at a bat that later proved to be rabid.
That’s what happened to Beverly Whitaker of Cambria and her sociable little dachshund-mix companion, Moosh, on June 27.
Now the pup is enduring a six-month quarantine.
Moosh was still too young to start his puppy vaccination series.
An unvaccinated domestic pet that may have come in contact with a wild animal that proves to have rabies must stay away from other people and pets for half a year, according to Eric Anderson, manager of the San Luis Obispo County Animal Services division.
Whitaker said she is wondering how she’s going to train her new dog to play nicely with others and obey commands when Moosh “cannot leave my house or yard” in the Lodge Hill area east of Highway 1. Not until the end of the year.
How puppy encountered rabid bat
The encounter happened “the first time he’d left my ankle,” Whitaker recalled July 8, of the young dog’s first foray on his own. The pup went happily out on the deck, she said, and “he was yapping.”
That’s not unusual, Whitaker said, “he yaps at dust bunnies and his own reflection. I didn’t know him well enough yet to know that this bark needed to be investigated.”
When she went out on the deck, she said, she saw a “little black lump.” Thinking that Moosh had done his duty out there, she went over to the lump and it moved.
The startled Whitaker “swooped up my dog and rushed inside, as pictures of Count Dracula went through my mind,” she recalled.
After consulting with family members and friends about what to do, Whitaker put a container over the now dead bat, slid cardboard underneath it so she wouldn’t touch the animal and took it down to the county Animal Services compound on Kansas Avenue in San Luis Obispo.
When they asked if she wanted her container back, Whitaker almost lost it. “Sure, next time I serve my friends some dip, I’ll put in that Tupperware,” she joked with a hearty laugh.
Whitaker took Moosh to Cambria Veterinary Clinic, where veterinarian and clinic co-owner Casey Erickson determined that the pup hadn’t been injured or made direct contact with the bat.
Whitaker “did everything right,” Erickson said, but the dog still had to be quarantined, according to regulations.
Erickson later posted information about the incident on social media, alerting the community to be wary.
“This is a preventable disease that zoonotic (transmittable to people) and 100% fatal! Bats and skunks are the top carriers of rabies in California, and we have plenty of these in Cambria,” she wrote.
The length of time a dog must be quarantined after encountering a rabid animal is determined by the status of the dog’s vaccinations, Anderson said. Since Moosh wasn’t old enough to have begun those shots, he got the maximum sentence.
Anderson said that rabies is “endemic throughout the county and state.”
But despite having several reports of pet interactions with wildlife each year, he added, “We’ve not had a domestic-animal case of rabies for well over 25 years.” “It’s pretty much just in wild animals” such as bats, skunks and raccoons, he said.
Bats are the most common rabies carriers, Anderson said, but people shouldn’t freak out if they see a bat exhibiting normal behavior.
“If you see an animal that’s not acting normally … say a bat or skunk that’s out in bright sunlight, trying to interact with people or pets, doing something outside the normal … then don’t try to interact with the animal,” Anderson explained.
Then notify Animal Services, “so we can assess if any potential rabies issue is at play,” he said.
After that, he added, experts can determine what measures might be necessary to address the situation.
Rabies symptoms
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, rabies is a viral disease that infects the central nervous system, ultimately causing brain disease and death.
Early symptoms include fever headache and general weakness or discomfort. More advanced symptoms can include slight or partial paralysis, anxiety, hallucinations and an increase in saliva.
Anyone who finds or is bitten by a bat that appears to be sick or injured should contact Animal Services at 805-781-4400.
The only way to determine for sure if a wild or domestic animal — or a human, for that matter — is to run laboratory tests tissues from the dead mammal’s brain.
Anyone bitten by a bat or other animal should wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water and seek immediate medical attention.
According to public health officials, bats don’t typically bite people, and most local bite reports were received from people who have tried to help a bat they thought was sick, or if a bat has become trapped in a building or is disturbed by people.
In other words, the problem is usually people initiating contact with the bats, not the other way around, county Health Officer Penny Borenstein told The Tribune in 2017. “If you find a bat that appears lethargic or sick, don’t touch it or attempt to rescue it. That puts you at risk for rabies … and it doesn’t help the bat.”
What to do when your pet encounters wildlife
If your pet encounters wildlife, call the veterinarian and Animal Services.
If the wild animal suspected of having rabies is available to collect — preferably dead, and even then, only with careful safety precautions, such as not touching it — then take it to Animal Servives for testing. Confirmed results can be available within 24 to 48 hours, Anderson said.
Be sure to keep a pet’s vaccinations up to date, he advised, even if the pet stays indoors 100% of the time.
“Bats can get indoors, too,” Anderson said.
