Franklin Co. Woman Attacked By Rabid Cat

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

A Franklin County woman is undergoing treatment after being attacked recently by a rabid cat.

According to Franklin County Environmental Health Director Louis Korff, it happened last month at a farm in the Carnesville area.

According to Korff the cat had been a family pet and a resident barn cat.

“This is a case where this was a long-term, family pet,” he said. “It was also a barn cat, but was never vaccinated. The owner was just taking some chickens up to the pit and the cat just sprang out of nowhere and attacked her. The cat scratched her and tore her leg up pretty good. She had everything she could do to get that cat off of her.”

Korff said here in Franklin County, the most common sources of rabies are raccoons, fox, and cats, but he said people are more likely to be attacked by a rabid cat than a wild animal.

“This is the fourth such occurrence in Franklin County in my 11 years here,” Korff said. “Cats and foxes are the two leading animals for rabies exposure. People really need to understand that if you have an outdoor cat, you have to get it vaccinated for rabies because there are wild carnivores out there that carry rabies, we know that.”

Last year, another Franklin County woman was attacked in her yard by a rabid stray cat that she thought was just sick. She also had to undergo a series of post-exposure vaccinations and has since recovered.

Korff said so far, there have not been a lot of confirmed rabies cases in Franklin County, either in wild animals or pets.

“For the calendar year 2014, I tested 27 samples and of that only four came up positive,” he said. “From January until now, I’ve tested five and two have been positive. During the year I had three unvaccinated dogs that were exposed to positive testing animals and they were euthanized.”

Korff said 13 dogs who had been vaccinated for rabies were put on 45-day watch and given booster shots after tangling with wild animals.

The Franklin County Health Department will be holding their low-cost rabies clinic countywide in May.