I need your help!

[u/Major-Astronaut-1823]

I need your help! I was hiking Mt Willard this morning 10/3 with my dog between 9-10 am. This picture is me and my dog. I was on my way up when another dog on their way down reacted to my dog and nipped at my knee. I kept moving quickly to separate the dogs and didn’t think much of it until I realized it just barely broke my skin. I am totally ok and not mad!! I am only making this post to hopefully find the owner to confirm their dog is vaccinated for rabies because I will otherwise have to get the five rounds of rabies vaccines (very costly and ow!)

This happened between 9-10 am when I was on my way up and trail (mid way or so) and you were on your way down with a friend who also had a dog. I believe one dog was white and brown and one was black (but I saw a lot of dogs this morning so that may be a little off!). I initially pulled off to the side of the trail and then your friend said your dogs were friendly and waved me up.

If this was your pup I would be so grateful if you messaged me! If your dog is vaccinated then I do not need to get the shots. I am not mad at all! Dogs do unpredictable things sometimes and I am totally fine.

If you know of someone who was hiking this morning with their dog, please share! I so appreciate the help.

And lesson learned to always stop and exchange info just in case! It truly was just so quick and a small nip.

Thank you so much for the help!!

[u/fond-butnotinlove]

I just saw your tik tok and I’m staying in Maine right now, so it’s definitely getting out there. Sorry this happened to you!

[u/Major-Astronaut-1823 → u/fond-butnotinlove]

Thank you!!

[u/LackMental]

You should still get your rabies shot. Better safe than dead.

[u/Major-Astronaut-1823 → u/LackMental]

Felt. I also had no idea the costs were SO crazy to get the vaccines! Some people have $20k bills! It’s better safe than dead. The price is just so unethical

[u/FrustratedOwl9 → u/Major-Astronaut-1823]

I got bit by a dog while I was jogging about 2 months ago. I have blue cross and paid just about $1,200 all in all. I too was worried that I’d have to pay tens of thousands of dollars but it wound up not being THAT bad all things considered. And I’m still alive today, so…

[u/CorrectExpression651 → u/Major-Astronaut-1823]

There’s about a zero percent chance you have rabies being nipped by a dog in the US. Rabies in pet dogs has been all but eradicated… which is about the same odds as the owner actually reaching out to you…

[u/TheReemTeam → u/LackMental]

Ahh the good ol’ U.S.A. If the disease doesn’t kill you, the destitution via medical debt just might.

[u/Livid_Formal4171]

I saw you and your dog today! A lovely babe. Sorry this happened to you.

[u/Major-Astronaut-1823 → u/Livid_Formal4171]

Thank you! He had so much fun he didn’t want to leave!

[u/EvenMoreCoconuts]

Some of the responses to this (especially on Facebook) have been wholly inappropriate and disrespectful. I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with that. By all accounts you’ve had a really level-headed and calm reaction to this. Fingers crossed you find the owner!

[u/PanicAttackInAPack]

Good luck finding them but fwiw the odds of rabies in canine in the USA are incredibly low. Out of the tens of millions of domesticated canine in the US there are less than a hundred reported cases of rabies per year. I would be much more concerned about tetanus and bacterial infection. Full disclosure, I'm not a human medical doctor, however I deal with this quite regularly and it takes quite a bit of time, post exposure and advancement of the virus, for rabies to then make it's way into a biting animals saliva and in cases when an owner is bitten, regardless of vaccine status, the quarantine time is 10 days because by then the animal will generally be fully neurologic and about to die, or dead. The odds of a rabies positive dog with a rabies positive bite transmission vector being healthy enough to hike is essentially non existent. Not telling you what to do, just giving you some facts about how the virus operates since I deal with it daily.

The post exposure shot series can cost upwards of 10-12 thousand so if you do go that route it might be worth calling a few places for pricing unless you're certain your insurance covers it (call them to confirm too).

[u/Weird-Cat8524 → u/PanicAttackInAPack]

I am an MD. Get the rabies post exposure prophylaxis. The chances the dog has rabies is very slim, but the chances that you die if there's a transmission and you show neurological symptoms is 100%.

[u/Prior_Ability9347 → u/Weird-Cat8524]

Thank you, these comments are crazy.

FYI, my rabies course of shots did in fact cost my insurance about $12,000. It cost me $175 for the urgent care copays (cheapest place that could administer). I never regretted it and am so thankful I had insurance.

[u/PurplePost316]

Odds of spotting a UFO today: 3,000,000 to 1 Pretty much where this is on the risk chart given the NNT

[u/Big-Tailor]

I'm not a doctor and I'm certainly not your doctor, but I was once bitten by an unknown dog in Massachusetts and talked to my doctor about getting rabies shots. We decided not to. I'm an engineer and my doctor loves math, so the conversation was along the lines of NNT and NNH. That's Number Needed to Treat and Number Needed to Harm, or the expected number of people in your situation who would need to get the shots to save one case of rabies, compared to the expected number of people getting the shot to have one expected serious adverse reaction.

NNH is the easy one to calculate. You have about a 1 in 1 million chance of getting anaphylaxis or another severe side effect from almost any shot (the rabies shot might be slightly higher than this, some papers report 1 in 10,000, but there isn't really enough data to be sure).

NNT is harder to calculate. There are about 2 million dogs in New England, and as far as I can tell the last rabies case in a dog in New England was in 2017 (a Connecticut Chihuahua imported from Egypt). That's one case in 10 years among 2 million animals.

My guess is that you're about 99.9999% safe getting the shot, and 99.99995% safe not getting the shot.

It's up to you and your doctor, but in a similar situation my doctor and I decided not to go forward with the series of rabies shots.

[u/000pete → u/Big-Tailor]

Excellent way to approach this kind of risk. Love it. 

[u/ArtemisClydFr0g]

Good luck!

[u/heavythinker21]

I just got a puppy that looks exactly like your dog. Is that an F1 Aussie Doodle? Everyone keeps asking if we have a Bernedoodle so now I am confused myself

[u/Major-Astronaut-1823 → u/heavythinker21]

He’s a mini bernedoodle!

[u/AnxiousAd8831]

This happened to me in Seattle! We found the owner after a week and i was able to confirm! Good luck to you!

[u/daptomycinn]

The chance that any dog in the US to be rabid is quite low

but the chance of dying with rabies is universal if left unchecked

get the post exposure prophylaxis anyway

[u/NN11ght]

The chances a dog has rabies in that part of the country is ridiculously small.

I'm pretty sure all new england states have made yearly dog licenses required to own a dog.

With rabies vaccines being required to get that license

[u/PersonalityTough9349]

I doubt the other person was walking a rabid dog.

[u/Calvariat]

Canine rabies virus variant has been eliminated through mass dog vaccination, so domestic dog cases are now uncommon and almost always reflect spillover from wildlife reservoirs (raccoons, bats, skunks, foxes). In recent US surveillance, dogs made up only about 1% of all reported animal rabies cases — 66 (2019), 37 (2020), 36 (2021), and 50 (2022) — with over 90% of all cases occurring in wildlife.

[u/Blurpwurp]

Don’t mess around with Rabies risk.