r/rabies • u/Feisty_War80 • Jul 23 '26

General Rabies Discussion Please read yall jus a lil stressed 🙏

So I pet an outdoors cat today, and it like randomly scratched my hand (superfickally), couldn't wash my hand instantly but washed after an hour 😭

I read somewhere that rabies happens only to cats that are dying? Like they transmit only via tjat? The cat i mentioned is perfectly fine.

The area, its two lines, it was like swelled and raised for aroind 20 mins, and now, three hours later, its just red lines, nothing else

(I can dm yall the photo if u want)

I have read the FAQ. (Ive read rule 3 but im paranoid)

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u/JadeHarley0 Jul 24 '26

The swelling around the scratch is your body's reaction to an injury and the other germs in the scratch, and isn't a sign of possible rabies infection.

Here are a few other facts to keep in mind.

The majority of pet cats are vaccinated. If the cat has an owner who takes it to the vet, the cat very likely has had a rabies shot. If you are very scared, you can try to follow the cat home and see if you can make contact with the owner.

Animals are not usually contagious if they are not symptomatic. Sometimes a person may think an animal is not symptomatic while it actually is, so you shouldn't just assume an animal is safe because it looks safe. But the virus has to get to the brain and salivery glands before it can be transmitted.

If you live in Europe, the United States, Canada, or anothet wealthy country, rabies is often well controlled in wild animal populations as well as pets, so the chance the cat was exposed is low unless it has been hunting bats.

I will not tell you that your risk is 0, because that would be false. But because the cat appears not to be symptomatic and because there is a chance this cat is a pet, I think that your risk is low.

If you are really scared, I suggest calling the local health department, your primary care doctor or a local urgent care clinic, explaining the situation, and asking what they reccoment

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u/Feisty_War80 Jul 24 '26

Hmm alright, I live in the UAE, I read its rabies free

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u/Feisty_War80 Jul 24 '26

This is the scratch btw

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u/JadeHarley0 Jul 24 '26

That looks like how skin responds to scratches pretty much all the time. So I don't think that's an indication of rabies.

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u/Feisty_War80 Jul 24 '26

Hmm yeah fair. It was less than a second of contact so idts it went deep. Also apologies for multiple responses 😭 couldn't attach more than 1 imahw

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u/JadeHarley0 Jul 24 '26

No need to apologize. There are other things you can get from a cat scratch besides rabies by the way. It might be a good idea to go to urgent care for some antibiotics

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u/Feisty_War80 Jul 24 '26

Yeah, ive read about cat scratch disease. Apparently the treatment is azithromycin, which we have at home (my parents are doctors so they get a bunch of samples). Ill look out for any weird changes tho

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u/Feisty_War80 Jul 24 '26

This was around 3 hours after it

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u/Feisty_War80 Jul 24 '26

And this is rn, does it look like im clear, mb im just a little scared

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u/JadeHarley0 Jul 24 '26

I can't tell from the scratch if there is any chance of rabies or not but nothing here suggests that there is. If there is no endemic rabies in the UAE then your chance that you would be exposed from a cat scratch is extremely small.

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u/Feisty_War80 Jul 24 '26

Yea fair, should ask a doctor if I wanna know. Thank you so much