Hoo boy. Okay. We are having quite an afternoon here, Internet! I am at the hospital with Kevin. We’re fine! Don’t panic! But this is...wow, quite a thing. (Fair warning, at least one sad bit in thread.)
So this morning, as I mentioned, while trying to transfer the feral cat to a carrier, it bit the everloving shit out of him. Deep punctures through leather gloves. Way worse than a rescue cat has ever damaged him before.
Kevin gets a telemedicine appointment with his doctor and shows off his injuries to the camera, because this is how we live now. And the doctor is like “oh boy, you get the good antibiotics for this” and then the word is uttered...what about rabies?
Well, what about rabies? It seems unlikely, but that’s not a disease to screw around with, but Kevin has a rabies vaccine 15 months ago but does he need a booster?

Cue twenty minutes of Kevin and his doctor trying to find info until finally the doc gives up and calls the CDC.
The guy at the CDC is so happy to get a question that wasn’t COVID that he immediately pulls out all the books on it, and apparently this one guy just...decides these things. For everybody. Based on the book of procedures. So he looks through his book and it doesn’t cover this.
Apparently it is the county’s problem. The county is called. It is now a four way con call between Kevin, his doctor, the CDC, and the county.
“Thank you for staying on the line,” the doc says to the CDC.
“Oh, now I’m invested in seeing how it comes out.”
And now is the time I must inform you that Chatham County has a rabies problem, which is why we call. The county is like “Um. You go get that booster now. Also, we would like to test.”
I am sad to say that all our choices pretty much came down to euthanizing the adult feral cat. Cats can hide symptoms for a very long time, and while if she was the only one, it’d be worth waiting, there’s a pile of kittens involved. And also the county.
It sucks, but there you are. This is why outdoor cats NEED to get vaccinated. In an area that wasn’t a rabies hotspot, we’d have had other options, but it came down to “this way we know all the kittens and their owners are 100% safe.”
Well, that’s the sad bit there. For people ever finding themselves in this situation, the county is pretty well the law on this one. Animals with existing rabies vaccines can get a ten day quarantine and are good to go, but ferals...spay and neuter your pets, people!
Also, for what consolation it is, I’d have been super-dicey about rehoming that bitey a cat. That was quite a lot.

Now, of course, everything goes to...endless paperwork.
The doctor calls the hospital. I call the vet. The vet gives me the county number to arrange testing. Kevin calls the county, leaves a message. I call the vet and leave a message. He has to call the county for pickup because the vet can’t because Rules. I drive Kevin to the ER.
Does insurance cover a rabies booster? Does the county? Is this a deductible? (It’s a thousand dollar shot in the US, because our health care system is dog shit in a funnel.)

At least Chatham Hospital HAD rabies booster available! So that’s good!
There are stories of people who have pried a foaming raccoon from their leg and had to drive between three or four hospitals before someone would give them the shot!
Anyhow, Kevin is currently in the waiting room, I’m not allowed in because of COVID and he’s texting me occasionally about the wait. Fortunately, it’s a very slow day here at Chatham hospital.
Anyway, there is almost certainly no chance that anyone has rabies, all cat behavior is dead normal, and Kevin at least will likely suffer no more than the indignity of a booster shot and a bill. But these things still gotta be done because even on that infinitesimal chance...
Rabies tests fortunately have a very swift turnaround and we’ll have confirmation to appease the county on Saturday. The kittens remain healthy and rambunctious.
UPDATE: Kevin just texted to say that the doctor who talked to the county showed up. (Does that mean he got his shot? Ha ha, no, just that they have confirmed that yes, everybody agrees on him getting the shot. He was sitting in triage until then.)
It has now been an hour and a half, in a nearly empty waiting room. This might have gone faster if he’d had a foaming raccoon dangling off him or something.
HE’S BACK! Off to find him antibiotics!
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