Inside Scoop - the Clinton County Health Department’s Rabies program

First a little background, why do we even care about rabies?

Rabies is a deadly, but preventable disease.  Once symptoms appear, the disease is nearly always fatal.

OK, you’ve got my attention now...

Let’s throw out a few scenarios to give you an idea of what we do in the rabies program.

Scenario 1- You lose your frisbee in your neighbor’s yard so you jump the fence to get it and their dog gets startled and bites you. You go to an urgent care to get the wound looked at and they ask you about the dog and the dog owners so they can fill out a bite report to submit to us.

Now you may be saying to yourself “No, I don’t want to get my neighbor’s dog taken away from them, I’m not going to report it.”

We do not harm or take animals away from people.

Here is what we do when we receive a bite report:

·        Use the information you give us to contact the animal owner and make sure the animal is alive and able to be monitored for 10 days.

·        Verify the rabies vaccination status of the animal.

·        Track the animal’s health.  If it is alive and well 10 days after the day it bit you, it did not have rabies at the time of the bite and there is no risk of rabies to you.

Scenario 2- You wake up to a bat flying around your bedroom. Bats have very tiny mouths and you were sleeping so you are not completely sure you didn’t get bit. You caught the bat and have it in a container. You call us to report it and see what you should do next.

Here is what we do when we receive your call:

•   Fill out a bite report.
• Retrieve the bat from you and send it away to be tested to see if it had rabies.

The results come in and the bat does not have rabies. This is good news, even if you got bit and didn’t realize it there is no risk of rabies to you.

Wait, but what if I couldn’t catch the bat and it got away?

In this case, if you truly don’t know if you were bitten we are going to recommend you receive postexposure prophylaxis (PEP).

There is a risk for rabies to you and we don’t want to take any chances. Did you know rabies symptoms can show up in people in a few days or not for months?

Postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) - that sounds scary.

It’s not as bad as it sounds!

PEP is a series of shots spread out in 4 visits over 2 weeks. I had to get these shots and I assure you they are no different than your typical flu shot.

Please note these are just some examples, the possible scenarios are endless.  

Ok this is a lot of information at once, let’s wrap it up!

What should you do if you are bitten by a pet or wildlife?

1.     Get the animal owner’s (if there is one) name, address and phone number – this is important!

2.     Note where and when the bite happened and the animal’s color, condition, size and temperament.

3.     Thoroughly wash the wound with soap and water and seek medical attention immediately – animal bites can be infected with many diseases besides rabies.

4.     Report the incident to the Clinton County Health Department (CCHD) by calling 518-565-4870. (Keep in mind we do not take peoples animals from them!)

How can you prevent rabies?

·        Do not attempt to catch or pet strays or wildlife, call animal control if you find a stray animal.

·        Keep rabies vaccinations up-to-date for all cats, ferrets, and dogs.

·        Always ask before approaching someone else’s animal and teach your kids when it is and is not okay to pet an animal.

All animal bites, no matter how minor must be reported to CCHD.

One last thing to mention before you go, another part of the rabies program is that CCHD offers FREE rabies clinics to Clinton County residents. Due to the restrictions in place for COVID-19 we don’t have the date of our first 2020 clinic yet but keep an eye on our Facebook page for an update.

For more information about rabies in Clinton County click here.

Karissa LaBonte

Public Health Sanitarian

Division of Environmental Health and Safety

Food Waste Reduction, Who Has Time for That?

There are so many expectations in 2020 to be a functioning member of society. Eat local organic foods, use natural products, save the turtles, homeschool your kids, don’t get COVID-19, oh and raise kind humans who are also functioning members of society. I’m already exhausted and now I need to lower my carbon footprint by reducing our household food waste too? What does that even mean? I’m here to tell you, if I (wife, mom of 3, college student with a full-time job and homeschooling my children) can do it, so can you. Little things like changing shopping habits, reducing wasted food, and recycling food scraps don’t take that much extra time or effort but they can make a big impact at home, on the environment and your wallets.

Food waste doesn’t just happen at home, it happens all along the food chain, from the farm, to the store, to us, the consumer. By changing habits as a consumer, over time, we can make a much bigger impact on how our food system works. Keeping food scraps out of the landfill also helps reduce the impacts of climate change on another struggling mother, Earth.  

At my house we started simple by grocery shopping smarter. Making sure the refrigerator stays organized and having a good idea of what is on hand before a trip to the store is really helpful in not overbuying. Planning meals for the week is also beneficial to us and sticking to a list makes a huge difference in lowering our grocery bills each month. Getting creative with leftovers has always been a challenge for me, so to avoid throwing the leftovers in the trash, we stick to our planned meals, which are perfectly portioned for my family. We also created an “Eat Me First” section of the refrigerator so things don’t get pushed to the back and forgotten about (moldy).

Once we tackled shopping smarter, we could get to work staying organized. As soon as we get the groceries home any produce is immediately washed, cut and put away in clear storage containers so it is easily accessible and ready for meals or if the kids want a snack (seriously, when do they not want a snack?). We’re all more apt to grab something healthy like cut carrots or washed grapes if they are ready to eat. Preparing vegetables and fruits before they go into the fridge makes them last longer as well.  

Now for the fun part, composting! We took a few basic steps to eliminate wasted food, but let's be real, there is bound to be something that still goes uneaten. In researching what would work best for our family we decided we could benefit from turning the food scraps into compost and using it in our garden. You don’t always have to use the compost from your food scraps; solar digesters that break down the waste and allow it to seep into the soil are a good option or a neighbor with animals looking for food scraps could work too. We wanted this project to be as cost effective as possible so we opted for a homemade tumbler. Vegetable scraps, fruit peels, egg shells, coffee grounds and tea bags go right into our recycled canister on our kitchen counter. A lucky kid at my house wins the coveted award of taking it out to the tumbler when it’s full so not only are we helping the environment we are teaching responsibility too. Everyone wins.

If you’re still reading, I may have convinced you your family can do this too. Wanting to reduce food waste doesn’t have to be difficult and it definitely doesn’t have to cost anything. Whatever you’re doing at home now, keep up the good work, but know that we could all be doing a little more to reduce our food waste. Make small changes in your lifestyle over time. You will see a difference in the amount of trash you produce, and the amount of money you save. To answer the question, who has time for that?

The answer is, we all do!  

Thank you very “mulch”.

Carrie Healy

Program Assistant

Health Planning and Promotion Division