AVMA Announces Guidelines for Dogs and Cats Exposed to Rabies

The 2016 edition of the Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control advises that dogs and cats exposed to rabies that are overdue for their vaccine can have a booster shot followed by an observation period, rather than be subject to quarantine or euthanasia.  

The compendium is a series of best practices that jurisdictions can choose to follow and in this issue also advises reducing the quarantine period from six months to four for unvaccinated cats and dogs exposed to rabies. Euthanasia has been the primary recommendation in the past for these animals because of the high risk of developing the disease. The other option being vaccination and quarantine.

While these updates will have an impact on the care and treatment of animals with lapsed or no vaccine history, the best protection against rabies is still regular vaccinations.

Read the entire release and vaccination study here.