The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-02-18
RABIES AND DOGS.

taken from bulletin sent out by the
state board of health:
Rabies has again made its appear
ance in Oregon after a period of com
parative inactivity of several months.
Six people have undergone treat
ment with anti-rahic virus in the Of
fee of the State Board of Health.
Rabies is a specific infectious dis
case common to all mammals, but,
contrary to popular belief, is not en-
tirely disease of warm weather.
Ninety-flve per cent of all cases are
the result of the bite of a dog. The
cat comes next with three per cent,
and the remaining two per cent are
the result of accidental innoculations
in scratches and saliva. 1t is fact,
however that owing to the migra-
tory instincts of the dog, and from
the further fact that in warm
weather the period of incubation is
probably shorter, the disease is fire.
quently more prevalent in the sum-
mer season.
The disease is prevalent in all
parts of the United States, but Ore
gon, Washington and the northwest
territory were exempt until two years
ago, when cases occurred in the dis
trict east of the Cascade Mountains,
and at that time the carriers were
the coyotes.
Theoretically rabies ought to be
the most easily controlled of all epi-
demic or contagious diseases, but
practically it is the most difficult, as
was instanced in the City of Port
land last fall in the half-hearted at
tempt to enforce the muzzling law
The difficulty lies in the lack Of uni
formity of rules and regulations, the
fear of political influences, and the
idiotic sentimentality of the socalled
animal lovers" the ridicule in the
public press, and, far too frequently,
the idiotic and ignorant antagonism
of the physician who has never seen
a case Of the disease and therefore
denies its existence.
In the country all the untagged,
unmuzzled dogs should be destroyed.
The reason for extending the quar-
antine into the country is from the
fact that one of the first symptoms of
rabies in a dog is his tendency to
wander away from home. Dogs
have been known to travel distance
of fifty miles, swapping at every liv-
ing object. The dog inficting the
damage in Clackamas County was
one that had never been seen in that
community before biting little girl
on the forearm as she entered the
gate at her own home, afterward bit
ing two calves and pig in the yard.
All of these animals have died of the
disease.
Symptoms of Rabies in Dog.
!. The first symptom is a change
in the dogs disposition; usually it
becomes more sullen.
2. Restlessness, growing into
tendency to wander away. Two of
the people who were bitten in Port
land were from their own dogs
household pets--that had returned
home bedraggled and covered with
mud and mire, evidence of having
been on long run, and when their
mistress attempted to give them a
bath they were promptly bitten.
8. A tendency to snap or bite
that moves, often develop
ing into perfect fury.
4. Refusing food and usually
drink, but may attempt to eat in
objects like stones, leather
dirt, etc. A rabid dog, during the
early stages of the disease, can drink
water, and the word hydrophobia is
really misnomer.
5. A change of voice. The voice
becomes a hoarse, high-pitched sort
of half bark and half howl.
6. A tendency to tremor, with
possible blindness of the right eye,
exceeding irritability, with grad
ually increasing paralysis, usually be-
ginning in the left hind leg, and be-
coming total and ending in dyspnoea
or death.
7. A rabid dog does not froth at
the mouth and does not always have
fits. Setting a pan of water in front
of him, and expecting, as is the pop
uar belief, that he will throw a fit"
for diagnostic purposes, is an error.
These are the symptoms of furious
rabies. In dumb rabies the lower
jaw is paralyzed early and drops
lown. The animal acts as though it
lad foreign body in its throat, and
persons are frequently innoculated in
attempting to remove an imaginary |
bone.
The symptoms in all other animals |
ire somewhat similar. Some animals |
strike, others butt. Rabid horses |
strike with their front feet, while |
,thers bite. Rabid cows usually butt |
md a cat with rabies is more vicious
han any other animal. When par
Ilyzed it will crawl along and vicious
y bite at anything that moves. One
hat was recently killed by police
,fficer in the City of Portland had at
ON nted To hitn all the memherS of |