I'm writing this in behalf of my beloved dog Flash.
This September, there was a rabid raccoon in my fenced in yard.
My human mom was told by animal control to have me re-vaccinated for rabies even though I was given a 3 year rabies vaccine in March.
After, I received the vaccine I became very sleepy. I wasn't my normal active self. My mom thought I was just getting older. I slept alot and on my walks I kept up with her even though I seemed stiff.
52 days after the vaccine I started getting tremors and I slept alot. Later that night I was staggering. My mom couldn't believe what was happening to me. She had information from animal control that showed the symptoms I was having as rabies symptoms, so she was worried.
The following morning I couldn't move my lower body at all. I had become paralyzed. My mom took me to the vet first thing in the morning. The vet did some things to me and told mom that I was paralyzed. But, they had no idea why it happened to me. The vet gave my mom some choices first would be to have surgery on my back, but there was no guarantee that I would be able to walk again. Second, would be to make me a wheel chair dog and mom would have to manipulate my bladder and bowels. Third, would of been to give me steroids that the vet believed wouldn't have done anything. The fouth, was to put me sleep.
My mom made the hard decision to put me to sleep since my quality of life wouldn't be acceptable for the kind of dog I was. I was always very active and I loved to run and play.
The vet did rabies testing on me and it came back negative. My mom wanted answers to what happened to me and she kept looking and making phone calls to find out.
My mom did google alerts on rabies and found a post http://www.mainetoday.com/pets/dogslife/2006_11.html it got my mom thinking.
She emailed the vet on the site and told her my story. She believed what happened to me was because I was over vaccinated. If mom knew what she knows now she wouldn't have re- vaccinated me she would of had a rabies titer done. If she knew I was sick earlier she could of tried detoxing me, but in my case it was too late.
Now, mom is trying to notify others and see if she can do something so this doesn't happen to other pets and humans as well.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Flash
