I can not find the person who posted in the past two days about a
breastfeeding mother being scratched by a cat and being told to wearn her
baby due to risk of rabies transmission.

I called a friend who is married to a vet. He said the following:

a) key is was cat feral or home-raised?  If feral and captured, take cat to
vet, euthanize and send brain to lab to test for rabies (the brain must be
examined).j

b) If home-raised, was the cat vaccinated--even if long ago or nearly to
the end of the vaccination period (I think that is 3 years in cats), the
risk would be VERY LOW of rabies transmission.

c) In any case, cat should be observed for 14-21 days to see if he/she/it
shows any signs of rabies--even if considered low risk.

d) If motehr was to be innoculated with immunoglobulin, this would be NO
reason to wean at all!  If something else was to be used, the question
remains unanswered.

I hope the person who posted originally gets this.




Def. of LC service: "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities
brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Homewood, IL)- [log in to unmask]