Hesitancy around vaccines has spilled over to pet owners, sparking concern about the resurgence of rabies, a virus that's nearly always fatal.
  • GrymEdm@lemmy.world
    31·
    3 months ago

    First measles, now rabies…these folks keep trying to resurrect diseases but I’m holding out for smallpox. Nothing less is going to satisfy my science denial hard-on.

  • Gamma@beehaw.orgEnglish
    16·
    3 months ago

    Some pet owners would be okay with their pet dying a slow and agonizing death

  • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
    811·
    3 months ago

    The rabies vaccine seems to have an actually higher negative reaction rate in some pets.

    We have had 2 of 4 of our ferrets react severely to it on the second shot, of the “emergency midnight trip to the vet” variety.

    Here’s key reasons why you can’t compare this to human vaccines:

    1. It’s not covered by health insurance. You too would balk at a covid vaccine if it ran you a $600 or so.

    2. Pets are way more likely to get injured. Even a small child knows not to flip out and bite a doctor, or jump off the table when getting a needle. Your little dumb fuzzbutt on the other hand very well may attempt this…

    3. From what I’ve been told by my vet and some others in the community, the rabies vaccine has an actually higher than usual allergic reaction rate compared to what you are used to seeing. I’ve heard numbers along the lines of 5% to 10%, compared to something like less than 1% of humans reacting to most vaccines.

    4. Emergency midnight hospital trips also aren’t covered, and will run you easily another $1000+, whereas if your kid has an emergency at night you still are covered

    5. Dosing benadryl for a tiny pet is way harder, it’s way riskier and easier to fuck it up and potentially cause harm. As opposed to how a small child can be given a tsp of children’s benadryl, your looking at like 1/10th of a pill for your pet. Better not have shaky hands or your pet is dead… (or be like me and happen to own a jewelery scale so I can precisely get the dose right)

    6. Have you ever even tried to administer benadryl to a pet before? If you haven’t, you have no idea how hard it is. Normally my ferrets are good with meds but benadryl tastes vile to them and they make it very known.

    7. Finally, it’s pretty normal for exotic pets to just… never go outside anyways, my ferrets have the run of the house but they’ve only been outside (not in a kennel) a couple times, and they didn’t really like it much. Spent pretty much the entire time climbing up me to get away from scary noises and hiding in my jacket to get away from the wind. When I opened the door to the house they bolted back inside. We don’t do outside time with em anymore, they just don’t super like it as indoor pets. Too loud, too scary, too cold.

    So yeah, all the above combined perhaps makes it a bit more understandable why people are leaning away from these shots.

    Larger pets like dogs and cats though are much lower risk. They can handle larger doses, aren’t exotic so can be covered by insurance, normally spend lots of time outside, etc etc.

    But rabbits? Ferret? Hedgehogs? Etc etc… naaah not honestly terribly worth it. Huge risk for basically zero reward.

    Your ferret/rabbit that never steps outside isn’t gonna get rabies.