Vet urges public to protect pets after rabid bat discovery

On Tuesday a bat was found in the Brevoort Park neighbourhood, on Wednesday it was confirmed it carrying rabies.

Dr. Cemaine Tsang, a veterinarian at 8th Street Pets and Vets, said your pet’s rabies vaccine is intended for public health.

“Rabies as a virus is potentially fatal and the best way to prevent it is with vaccinations,” said Tsang. “To vaccinate everybody against rabies for people is a lot more difficult than to vaccinate our pet population.”

In Saskatchewan, the key rabies carriers are bats and foxes according to Tsang.

Tsang said there is one major sign people should look for in wild animals with rabies.

“These are wild animals and they tend to not want to be caught, so if your dog happens to catch a bat or the bat is in your house just sitting there looking at you there’s probably something wrong with it,” said Tsang.

“That would be one sign right away, is that they don’t act like a wild animal.”

If your pet doesn’t have any protection against rabies and contracts the disease there is nothing that you can do.

“In the human world there is post-contact prophylaxis and that’s where somebody who’s come into contact with (the) rabies virus receives a series of vaccines,” said Tsang. “We don’t do that in our animals, we don’t have that availability and so all we can do is to protect them before.”

So far this year according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency there have been nine rabies cases in Saskatchewan, all from bats.

Tsang said the majority of human rabies cases in North America are due to contact with household animals.

Tsang outlined the importance of making sure your pet is up to date with its rabies vaccines.

“They get their first rabies vaccine (then) they need another one a year later,” said Tsang. “After that depending on the product that each veterinarian chooses to use, it’s every one to three years.”

Tsang said these are numbers approved by Health Canada.

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In Saskatchewan, the key rabies carriers are bats and foxes according to Tsang.

Tsang said there is one major sign people should look for in wild animals with rabies.

“These are wild animals and they tend to not want to be caught, so if your dog happens to catch a bat or the bat is in your house just sitting there looking at you there’s probably something wrong with it,” said Tsang.

“That would be one sign right away, is that they don’t act like a wild animal.”

If your pet doesn’t have any protection against rabies and contracts the disease there is nothing that you can do.

“In the human world there is post-contact prophylaxis and that’s where somebody who’s come into contact with (the) rabies virus receives a series of vaccines,” said Tsang. “We don’t do that in our animals, we don’t have that availability and so all we can do is to protect them before.”

So far this year according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency there have been nine rabies cases in Saskatchewan, all from bats.