Frequently Asked Questions

Generally held the last Saturday in October.  For 2021, with the assistance of Dr. Skinner from Hartfield Animal Hospital, Tri-Rivers Health District, and the Middlesex County Treasurers Office, the County will be hosting a drive-through Rabies Vaccination Clinic on October 30th from 8am-10am at the Middlesex County Courthouse.   

This will allow you to have your animal vaccinated and to obtain your county dog/kennel license.   Email Cpl. R.T. Hirtz at r.hirtz@co.middlesex.va.us with the number of dogs you intend to bring, or call the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office and leave message for Cpl. Hirtz at 804-758-2779 with the same information.  This is to ensure that we have enough vaccinations available.  Cost is $10.00 for dogs and $17.00 for cats. 

There are several things you can do to protect your pet from rabies. First, visit your veterinarian with your pet on a regular basis and keep rabies vaccinations up-to-date for all cats, ferrets, and dogs. Second, maintain control of your pets by keeping cats and ferrets indoors and keeping dogs under direct supervision. Third, spay or neuter your pets to help reduce the number of unwanted pets that may not be properly cared for or vaccinated regularly.

Lastly, call animal control at 804-758-2779 to remove all stray animals from your neighborhood since these animals may be unvaccinated or ill.

Although the majority of rabies cases occur in wildlife, most humans are given rabies vaccine as a result of exposure to domestic animals. This explains the tremendous cost of rabies prevention in domestic animals in the United States. While wildlife are more likely to be rabid than are domestic animals in the United States, the amount of human contact with domestic animals greatly exceeds the amount of contact with wildlife. Your pets and other domestic animals can be infected when they are bitten by rabid wild animals.

When "spillover" rabies occurs in domestic animals, the risk to humans is increased. Pets are therefore vaccinated by your veterinarian to prevent them from acquiring the disease from wildlife, and thereby transmitting it to humans.

You should seek medical evaluation for any animal bite and call animal control. However, rabies is uncommon in dogs, cats, and ferrets in the United States. Very few bites by these animals carry a risk of rabies. If the cat (or dog or ferret) appeared healthy at the time you were bitten, it can be confined by its owner for 10 days and observed. No anti-rabies prophylaxis is needed. No person in the United States has ever contracted rabies from a dog, cat or ferret held in quarantine for 10 days. If a dog, cat, or ferret appeared ill at the time it bit you or becomes ill during the 10 day quarantine, it should be evaluated by a veterinarian for signs of rabies and you should seek medical advice about the need for anti-rabies prophylaxis.

Reason for the Quarantine

The quarantine period is a precaution against the remote possibility that an animal may appear healthy, but actually be sick with rabies. To understand this statement, you have to understand a few things about the pathogenesis of rabies (the way the rabies virus affects the animal it infects). From numerous studies conducted on rabid dogs, cats, and ferrets, we know that rabies virus inoculated into a muscle travels from the site of the inoculation to the brain by moving within nerves.

The animal does not appear ill during this time, which is called the incubation period and which may last for weeks to months. A bite by the animal during the incubation period does not carry a risk of rabies because the virus is not in saliva. Only late in the disease, after the virus has reached the brain and multiplied there to cause an encephalitis (or inflammation of the brain), does the virus move from the brain to the salivary glands and saliva.

Also at this time, after the virus has multiplied in the brain, almost all animals begin to show the first signs of rabies. Most of these signs are obvious to even an untrained observer, but within a short period of time, usually within 3 to 5 days, the virus has caused enough damage to the brain that the animal begins to show unmistakable signs of rabies. As an added precaution, the quarantine period is lengthened to 10 days.

For More Information

For more information on recommendations about biting incidences, quarantine, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), see: Compendium of Animal Rabies Control, 2000 and Rabies Prevention - United States, 1999 Recommendations of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP).

For more information on dog bites, please see the bibliography maintained by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

Any animal bitten or scratched by either a wild, carnivorous mammal or a bat that is not available for testing should be regarded as having been exposed to rabies. Unvaccinated dogs, cats, and ferrets exposed to a rabid animal should be euthanized immediately. If the owner is unwilling to have this done, the animal should be placed in strict isolation for 6 months and vaccinated 1 month before being released. Animals with expired vaccinations need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Dogs and cats that are currently vaccinated are kept under observation for 45 days.

For information on rabies in domestic ferrets, see: Niezgoda, M., Briggs, D. J., Shaddock, J., Dreesen, D. W, and Rupprecht, C. E (1997). Pathogenesis of experimentally induced rabies in domestic ferrets. American Journal of Veterinary Research, 58(11), 1327-1331.

The details of regulation about importing pets into rabies-free countries vary by country. Check with the embassy of your destination country.