08/29/2026
I’ve been thinking long and hard about how to say everything I want to say and get it across in a meaningful way.
We are in a region of the US that consistently is one of the highest areas in the US for rabies cases. Here being on the line and working both in Virginia and North Carolina makes seeing the difference reporting of reportable diseases of public health concern to the general public and veterinary professionals along with any other sources that can help spread the word to the public and people that need to know very obvious. Virginia is way more proactive in making sure the people that need to know about diseases of public health concerns are aware. North Carolina does not do this even a little bit. It’s not uncommon for me to find out about rabies cases from my clients or locals. It’s appalling. It’s also one of the reasons this case is as big of a deal as it is. Local usually more urban entities might report a case or cases but the state does nothing. This needs to change!!! Please tell your local/regional representatives even the state vet this needs to change.
ANY MAMMAL can become infected and spread rabies! Sadly even highly educated individuals (human physicians and midlevels and even veterinarians) do not seem to understand it’s EVERY MAMMAL or even what is a mammal. In the region recently we’ve had confirmed ground hogs and beavers (we know this thanks to Virginia public health reporting!!!) these are species that would be seriously dismissed by under educated individuals. I’ve personally seen rabies in squirrels, white tailed deer fawns and some other species considered “uncommon” sources of rabies.
The worst rabies case I’ve ever had the displeasure of working on was a goat/horse farm where the farmer made multiple horrible deceitful decisions leading to more individuals getting exposed than was necessary. Their farm was a large school bus stop which because it was common for the children to pet and feed the animals through the fence (even encouraged by the owner) so lost of children were exposed as well.
Because of all of this I have become someone who does a lot of work trying to get animals vaccinated and teaching fellow doctors (human and vets alike) for and about rabies.
I recommend all mammals that can be vaccinated for rabies to be vaccinated no matter their use/purpose in life but ESPECIALLY animals that will be exposed to humans on any kind of regular basis. Because some animals like goats are not labeled for the rabies vaccine (there are several reasons for this I won’t get into but none of it is because they don’t work in those animals) I always go over what this means with owners but it’s still safe and effective protection. At 12 weeks most critters can and should get their first vaccine. Rabies is 100% fatal, there have been multiple human deaths in the US from rabies in the past few years. In the past month we’ve had at least 8 wild and domestic rabies cases most of that information is from VA since NC we have to rely on word of mouth unless something like this happens.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get your animals vaccinated.
From first hand experience it’s not fun euthanizing animals due to exposure when a vaccine could have saved their lives. This was a mess just waiting to happen. The ONLY reason it’s getting the reporting it has is because they took these animals to many places exposing potentially many people to where NC did not have an option but thinking about the cases we don’t get told about.
If you were exposed to these animals dO NOT risk it, rabies is a horrible, torturous way to die and you will die. There have been a very few survivors but those protocols have been shown to not been effective for other cases and it’s possible luck was involved more in those that survived.
Please if your animals need vaccination text us 336-816-9208 to get on our schedule.
Link provided in comments if you are think you may have be exposed to the recent case.
