WEBVTT - How Rabies Works 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.239 This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Start building 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:06.000 your website today at squares space dot com and her 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.760 offer code stuff at check out and get ten percent 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:14.120 off squares space. Build it beautiful. Welcome to you Stuff 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:22.800 you should know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.720 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:31.920 Chuck Bryant, Jerry and stuff you should know. You're bombing 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:36.839 at the mouth, Jerry, don't let him bite you, all right, 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:38.879 you bet, Jerry. I'm gonna have to put both of 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.400 you down like Old Yellow. Let's do it about time. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.760 I knew from day one when we started working together 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.199 that this is how it would conclude, me shooting both 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:52.280 of you because of brabies. Switten us down Old Yellow. 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.360 Wait wait, speaking of Old Yeller, I'm sorry. Have you 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.000 seen the kids in the hall take on Old Yeller? 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.720 I don't think so. Yeah. Paul makes the kid shoot 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.480 the dog and he's his face is sprayed with blood 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:14.760 from the gunshot wound. So wonderful. Yeah. Worst children's book ever. Oh, 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.479 I guess we just spoiled it. Huh. Everyone knows Old 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.280 Yeller gets rabies and is shot. Yes, they don't even 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.360 bother emailing him. But there is a happy ending. Uh. 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:25.880 You know, Old Yeller has pups and they get a pup, 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.399 so instead of like coming back as a ghost dog, 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:33.000 that like helps things turn out well for the family. 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:40.240 It left a legacy in the Dawkinsian view right, still 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.160 the worst children's book ever, although it teaches valuable life 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.559 lessons about death. Why you gotta do that by killing 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.840 Old Yeller? I don't know, but I mean it works 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.880 all right. Rabies, I don't know. I thought we'd done 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.400 this one. It seems like an obvious one for us. Yeah, 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.720 stuff in our wheelhouse for sure. Um. I did not 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.080 know this either. It is uh a virus on every 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.440 continent in the world except Antarctica. I think there's a 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.760 lot of viruses that hold that that title that aren't 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:18.320 on Antarctica in hospitable place. And if a virus is 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.200 on every continent, chances are it's a very old one too. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.160 And rabies definitely is extremely old. Um. People have been 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.680 writing about rabies for a very long time. The Mesopotamians 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.200 who know it's old if you say that word, sure. Um. 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.760 They used to have a law where if your dog 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.000 was rabid, you faced the stiff penalty, a fine of sorts. 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.799 We have those laws today in the United States, I 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.400 mean a lot of our laws them from Mesopotamian, the 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:47.480 Code of Hammurabi. You know, like if you watch somebody's 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.200 house burned down and don't do anything, that person can 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.519 kill you. Still today, just like from the Code of Hammurabi. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.000 So if your neighbor's house is on fire, you have 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:57.560 to put it out. You have to help put it out. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:03.720 With Mesopotamia. Uh So, the word rabies um in many 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:09.120 languages means um a rage or go crazy. Um. In 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.960 Latin it is from a Sanskrit term rob haas to 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:20.720 do violence, and then French uh laarage it's the sexiest 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.520 form of rabies h comes from the French now and robert, 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.040 meaning to go mad. So if you're not picking up 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:32.720 on it. Um. It's not a friendly virus. No, it's 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.560 not the one that you get a dog. Well, actually 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.400 we'll talk about that. I'm gonna save it. And for 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:39.560 a long time, I mean, there was nothing we could 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:45.640 do about rabies um. People went to Liege, Belgium to 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:50.560 pray to um st Hubert. Yeah, it's a round name, 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.760 isn't it not. Yeah, St. Hubert was the patron saint 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:58.200 of Huntsman. Okay, and not quality footwear. No, and apparently 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.920 apparently No, that St. Clark Apparently um St. Hubbins. Actually, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.560 I've not heard of that. It's a spinal tap joke. 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.640 You never get my spinal tap joke. No, I need 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:10.920 to see it more than once. Apparently there for the 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.080 people out there, that's fine. There's like a hundred dudes. Well, 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.159 just I'll sit here and be the straight man. I 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.159 don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah, Derek St. Hubbands 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.160 was the patron state of his ancestors, patron state of quality. 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:25.760 Great joke. That is a good joke, man, I'm sorry 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.800 stepped all over it. Um so in leaves you would 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.880 go and pray to St. Hubert for protection. Probably not 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.159 the most effective way to treat rabies. No, I don't 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.200 blame people for making a pilgrimage to leash. From what 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.680 I understand about rabies based on researching this, it's terrible. Yeah, 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:48.280 it's horrific and fatal. And it wasn't until the late 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.920 nineteenth century eighty five when the late Great Louis pasteur Man. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.000 This dude, he what didn't that guy do? To save 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.640 the world. Yeah, we should. He's up in our line 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:00.719 and now we have a kind of ongoing line of 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.840 like great scientists. Uh, so we will include him on 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.400 the list, and we need to start acknowledging the ladies too, 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.360 So Madam Curie, we've got our eye on you. That's right, 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.720 that's right. Uh and um. Anyway, so Louis past Here 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.760 came up with a vaccine for rabies, and he was 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.400 he was one of the early germ theory guys. He 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:29.240 was very president person. His his inoculation trials were based 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.480 on the idea that if you introduced some like a 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:38.119 low level of rabies to a living being, that living 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:43.320 being would produce anybody's and you could introduce increasingly larger 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:47.880 amounts over time, and eventually the person's antibodies would be 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.800 robust enough so that if they ever faced rabies in 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.560 the wild, they would be able to fight it off. 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.040 And he was absolutely right. And what a crazy thing 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.440 to think, though, you know, it is when no one 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.080 knows anything about germ theory, to like, like, why don't 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.599 we put the disease in the person, Maybe that'll help 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.800 cure it. And I think I think that was around 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:09.600 for a while, But I think it was like some 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.800 arcane knowledge that not everyone knew about, and past year 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.719 really capitalized amazing. Um. But he actually had been working 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:21.360 on something using rabbits as test cases and was basically 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.479 he proved it could work in humans by by a 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.159 boy who had been attacked by a dog, I think, 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.240 and contracted rabies. Um and uh, Louis past your said, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.080 here goes nothing, and it's stuck in with the shot. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.680 And the parents went and here goes nothing. Right, he 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.240 goes no nothing, And they said, well, you said this 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:45.520 is gonna work. I said, not a thing. It's good, Louis, 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:51.839 It's technically that. Um. The text you know them Chuck 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.080 Jones version of Napoleon when Bug's money st hang out 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.560 with him. That's how I learned to do a French accent. Chuck, 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:02.960 the Great Chuck Jones. Uh So, rabies. Let's talk a 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.880 little bit about what what it does in your body. Um, 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.920 it's really pretty vicious. It It is a viral disease, 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.400 like we said at the top, and it attacks the 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.559 central nervous system, the brain and the central nervous system. Um. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:20.840 It is part of the rab dough vera day. Yeah, 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:25.080 family under the genus. You take the genus the Lisa virus. 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:27.760 That was too easy. It was easy, um. And it 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:29.800 has shaped like a bullet and when it comes in 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.880 the body, it basically goes as fast as it can 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:38.520 to the spinal cord. Yeah, um, through something called afferent nerves. 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.080 With an A they carry impulses towards the central nervous system, 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.600 as opposed to efferent with an E they carry impulses away. 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.720 But it uses both. So this virus travels along um 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.360 the neural pathways through the central nervous system, and it 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.520 goes immediately to the central nervous or the spinal cord, 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.160 and then up to the brain. Yeah. And then the 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.920 brain that's where it replicates vicious. You remember like HIV 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:07.360 replicates inside t helper cells. Well, rabies is a virus 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.800 that replicates inside your neurons, your brain cells, which is 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.520 not a good place for a virus to start doing. 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:18.240 It's replicating right right, and right after it starts replicating 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.920 in the brain, it makes a second stop, a very 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.560 important stop, to your salivary glands. And the reason it 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.440 does that is because that is the number one mechanism 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.160 of transmission for rabies. Yeah, that's when you see the 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:33.280 foaming at the mouth. It's not just a uh symptom 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.680 of rabies. But that's the main way that you're going 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.120 to get it, is by being bitten by something with 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:44.480 all kinds of nasty rabid saliva and apparently because the 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:49.400 stuff is um wrecking your brain by hijacking your brain 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:53.760 cells and destroying them. There's two different versions of rabies, right, 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.640 and cephalatic, which is also known as the furious form 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:59.800 of rabies. That's the one you think of when you 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.600 think of a crazy rabid dog that's hallucinating and running 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.800 around in circles and chasing its tail and biting at 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:11.079 the air. UM old Yeller basically, although they toned it 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.720 down a bit. They did because they didn't want to 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:19.439 scare the kids before they And then there's a paralytic 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:23.280 or dumb form, and that one is um more like 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.520 lapsing into a coma basically UM. And I don't know. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.720 Surely there's no way to predict which way that the 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.240 things the virus is going to go in a human right, 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.520 because it's destroying brain cells. I would think it would 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.319 just be totally accidental whether it went towards the encyphialtic 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.800 or the um paralytic form. That's a good question, you know, 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.240 it would just depend on where it lodges first, right, Yeah, 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.760 but both of the forms are in the acute stage. UM. 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.560 And here's what's so scary. Once it's in the acute stage, 0:09:54.559 --> 0:10:01.160 once it's hit your central nervous system, you're done, exclusively done, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.800 and we'll talk about that. That's that is the for 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:10.160 a very for millennia. The UM this the idea behind rabies. 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:14.079 It's like it was, it's a fatal disease, fatal, except 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.600 now they've started to find a few cases here there 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.800 that's not in the case, and it's they're starting to wonder, Okay, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.920 is this something we could treat after people are traditionally goners. 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:27.920 Well that's a great tease. So let's uh take a 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:52.120 break and we'll come back right after this with moron rabies. Okay, 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:53.920 So we mentioned the two forms. They're both in the 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:59.800 acute stage, and apparently both stages can happen, uh in 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:02.280 a single case. It's not necessarily one of the other. Right, 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.880 it makes sense like if this region of your brain 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.320 is wrecked and you're furious and raging, well, eventually it's 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:09.800 going to get to the part of your brain where 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:11.720 you're like you can't move or breathe and you slip 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.640 in new coma and die of respiratory distress, you know. 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.320 But also got the impression that wasn't necessarily like that's 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.400 the path, Like it could start in the dumb stage 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.280 as well. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like, it would 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.400 just depend on where the virus, what part of your 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.360 brain the virus goes to. It's got to you know. Um. 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.200 Something I didn't realize about Raby's chuck was that it's 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:34.040 exclusive to mammals. I knew that it didn't, um, But 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.520 I also have wondered over the years, like why isn't 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.360 like a rabid squirrel would be your worst nightmare I imagine, 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.200 you know, because they'll already come at you. Yeah, you know, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:46.440 a rabid one would definitely come out you're one of 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:51.120 the One of the traits of or symptoms of rabid 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.280 mammal is that a wild one has no fear of humans. Yeah, 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.920 they're aggressive. Um. In fact, there's a case I looked up, 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.480 as I often do, just in the news, and a 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.120 little boy in New Jersey just this week was attacked 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:09.480 by raccoon. This raccoon leapt onto his back while he 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.600 was walking down the street during the day. And we 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:14.560 will get to the hallmarks. But that's very important. If 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.280 you see a nocturnal animal cruising around during the day 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.960 at great speeds, stay away. You're not supposed see racoons 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:23.959 in the neighborhood during the day. Yeah, just go get 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.520 your pause bb gun. Well, I don't know about that, 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.320 but call animal control and they'll get there. Be begun. Um. 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.400 But yeah, this little boy was was this raccoon jumped 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:35.960 on his back and started biting his face and neck. 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.880 Where did you learn to pronounce rac raccoon? Now I 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.040 say raccoon. That's just one of my jokes. People don't 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.760 know though. When I said Alex Baldwin, people literally wrote 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:53.240 in were like, it's Alec, how did you miss thirty Rock? 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.240 And Alec Baldwin said, I don't care. Yeah, I don't 0:12:56.240 --> 0:13:01.400 know who this chuck is. So anyway, um, you're right. Um, 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.480 the little boy I think is gonna be okay, which 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.640 is a good news, but it's uh, well, we'll get 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.160 to the rarity of it. Plus he was attacked in 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.040 New Jersey, which is in the US which means he's 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.840 gonna be just fine. Right, But a long way of 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:20.040 saying that um, squirrels and mice and and other smaller 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.160 animals typically don't get it, and it makes good sense. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.000 It's because if they are attacked by a rabid animal, 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:28.800 they're they're small and probably won't survive. Like if they 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.360 could very well get rabies. Every sign says they can, 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.760 but they'll probably pour A little mouse will probably just die, right, 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.079 because if a raccoon gets its hands on a mouse 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.960 and it bites it, that saliva is gonna be transmitted 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.559 to the wound. But you also need the host to 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.400 be alive for the virus to replicate in that host 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.160 exactly if their neck is broken and they're dead, then 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.800 that it's not gonna work. But yeah, absolutely, but you said, yes, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.840 you can get a woodchuck with rabies. Woodchuck's raccoons Apparently 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.720 in the United States, reck wounds are the most common 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:07.679 vector for the disease um. Now, yes, uh, but for 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.880 the most part, it's larger, slight, slightly larger small mammals. 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.520 Does that make sense? Wood chucks, raccoons, medium sized mammals, 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.760 medium size On the smallest side, a small to medium 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.320 a medium sized mammal. The means like um, I guess 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.080 kay uh. And it takes a few months for the 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.560 diseased or on its course, an animal. But the scary 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.880 thing is it can lie dormant in humans for years, 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.040 months or years. That's very scary, super scary. Yeah, because 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.000 you guys don't realize this, Like you think it's like 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.600 frossing at the mouth or something. No, the rabies virus 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.320 is one of the scariest viruses on the planet. It 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.760 is um so like I said, saliva is the mode 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:54.960 of transmission for most rabies cases, and you can catch 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.560 it very easily. Technically, if you had like an open 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.360 wound and you like rubbed your finger where the open 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.800 moond was. I guess I should have specified that earlier. 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.200 On the saliva of a rabid raccoon, you could easily 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.320 catch rabies, right, But that's an uncommon thing to do. 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.680 You could also if you um took the brain of 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.000 that raccoon and rubbed it on your open wound to 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.160 your finger, you could also catch it. Even more uncommon. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:26.480 But if you came across a raccoon's poop that was 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.360 rabid and he took it and just rubbed it all 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.760 over your hands. The camouflage, the scent of your hand 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.840 probably the most uncommon. You would not catch rabies. That's 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.200 what the good news. Yeah, it doesn't transfer in the 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:43.640 feces or the blood or the p Yeah, the urine. 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.840 P uh oh man, it's been p fest at my house. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.640 You want a little quick side story. I changed the 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.400 litter box before I went to Birmingham, and four days 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.440 later we realized that I didn't put litter in the 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:02.480 litter box, eat it, put the lid back on, put 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:04.720 it back in, rushed out of the door to drive 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.720 to Birmingham, and four days later we're like, our cats 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.800 are sick because they're peeing on everything in the house. 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.440 Emily went over and she went, hey, well, I won't 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:18.760 say what she said. It wasn't hey honey, Uh, guess what. 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.680 There's a lake of urine in the litter box and 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.880 it's all your fault. So we had to throw a 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.800 lot of things away in our home that previously we're 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.560 working just fine. Man, And uh, I got the Dummy 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.240 of the Year award in our house. That's cool. You 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.880 should instagram that trophy. Tell me of the year. Yeah, 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.040 that's just it's a tattoo now on my on my 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.800 lower back of Alfreddy Newman. So anyway, we we've been 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.720 in urine lands. It is so gross and cat pea 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.040 is not you know, it's it's tough to mask. So 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:58.880 we're really of man, what a dummy. So anyway, just 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.000 the moral of the story is litter is a very 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:05.760 important part of the letter box. So and luckily if 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.720 your cats are rabid, you wouldn't have caught anything from that. No, 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.159 but I'm sure i have what's it called, what's the 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.960 cat disease from changing letter? Oh, toxic plasmos has gone. 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.200 I'm sure I've had that for years. Um, that's why 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:21.280 you do most of the things you do, that's right. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.440 So uh, it is a very adaptive disease. Um. And 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.920 here's another scary thing, although it's it's not that scary 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:33.080 because it's super super rare, but in laboratories it has 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.679 been transmitted through the air aerosol transmission, and they have 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.000 found one case where it actually happened in the wild. 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.879 But it was a cave that had like tens of 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:50.320 millions of infected bats like sneezing and coughing up their junk. Everywhere. 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.000 And in that case, uh, someone got raby supposedly thick 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.560 the air three into the cave in Texas. But that 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.080 that's uh again not something you need worry about. Yeah, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.320 but humans can spread it to and remember you can 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.560 spread it through saliva, which means that if you are kissing, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:14.400 especially kissing with tongue style a rapid person. And remember 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.400 it can take months, if not years, for the symptoms 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.199 to set on. UM, you could conceivably catch rabies from that. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.360 You can also catch it as an STD to sexual contact. 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.040 They believe this is the CDC theorizing. At this point 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:34.080 there's no documented cases um. And then you could also 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.800 conceivably catch it from like sharing a cigarette with somebody 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.879 or drinking after somebody using the same glass. Again in theory, 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.600 any transmission of shared saliva. But here's the scariest one 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.880 to me, Um, it has happened before where you get 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:54.679 a transplant of an organ, typically a corneal transplant, and 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.560 get rabies that way. Yeah, it's like we accidentally gave 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:03.600 you a corn it with rabies. Yeah. Sorry, And one 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:05.720 of the problems do you think, well, how could that 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:10.280 possibly happen? Apparently rabies is very hard to detect and 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.400 the main place is to detect it. Remember, it doesn't 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.239 show up in your blood or anything like that. I 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.120 know you're in feces is um, in the saliva and 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:23.680 in the uh um brain. Well yeah, and the saliva. 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:27.160 It's not even super accurate and it takes longer. So 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.720 for the past forty years in the United States, the 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:32.840 way they test for rabies if an animal has bit 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.200 your child as they capture it and they cut its 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:40.719 head off and inspect the brain. Right, that's horrifying, it is. 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.440 But unfortunately, like necessary, I guess of a raccoon bite 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.840 your kid off with the head. Maybe an animal lover 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.920 out there who's developing scientists will come up with a better, 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.920 more accurate rabies test that will save the lives of 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.639 thou Since millions of wood chucks around the world. But 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:06.120 I wonder how many times they've been like, oh, thankfully, 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.880 no rabies. Yeah no, I'm sure, but sorry, your head 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.960 has cut off. Yeah, Like imagine being the clinician who 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.719 did that. It's kind of bumm you out. Yeah, absolutely, 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:17.919 because it's like this thing's head was cut off because 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:22.200 somebody thought it had rabies. Terrible all right, So, um, 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:27.560 everybody UM knows through popular culture and things like Old 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.200 Yellow that the foaming of the mouth of a crazy 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:33.359 looking dog is a pretty good sign to stay clear. 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.440 But there are many other ways, especially if they have 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.159 the dumb form that you might not know. Uh. And 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.800 here are some of the symptoms. Partially we're fully paralyzed 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.320 animal loss of appetite, and a lot of these can 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.640 be confused for other things. Because my dearly deceased dog 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:56.159 Lucy probably ticked off about nine. She really like strange 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.720 behaviors like snapping at the air or turning in circles. 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:03.560 Lucy did that. Uh. Nocturnal animals who wander during the day. Um, 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.160 Like I said, if you see a raccoon walking around 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.960 during the day, it's not a good sign. Drool excessively. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:15.760 Lucy drooled. Wild animals who show no fear of humans. Uh. 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.720 Signs of pikea like eating things that aren't food. Lucy 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.760 did that all the time, UM. Sporadic changes in mood 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:29.800 or behavior Lucy restless or aggressive, no, obviously disoriented Lucy. 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.439 And then a change in voice which I thought was strange. 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:40.560 She was like uh. And generally it varies by regions, 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:44.720 so like maybe here in the South, raccoons or maybe 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.639 in another place that might be skunks largely, right with 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:51.679 the animals that have it the most. Um. Yeah, but 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.880 apparently in the United States it's raccoons for sure, they 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:58.199 have the most. But the mode of transmission in the 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:03.920 United States UM comes through bats more frequently. Yeah, that's 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.879 the big days. So if you get like a hundred 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:09.200 bats and a hundred raccoons, more raccoons are going to 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.600 have rabies. But you're more likely to catch rabies from 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.720 a bat than a raccoon. Yeah. And why is that. Well, 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.080 there's a few reasons bats can get into places that 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:25.320 raccoons can't. Um and Uh. Bats also have very tiny teeth. Uh. 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.600 And if you're sleeping in a room and you wake 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:30.399 up and there's a bat in it, it's recommended that 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.879 you kill that bat and take it in for rabies testing. Um. 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:38.480 So then they can kill it for you. They can 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:41.760 do your dirty work for you. Um. But the reason 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.679 why is because a bat's teeth are so fine that 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.520 you can have been bitten in the night and it 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:50.560 wouldn't have woken you up. You won't you won't know 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.480 that you were bitten, but you may have contracted rabies 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:58.120 in that case. C R excellent episode on bats, yeah, 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:02.359 which which is excita because they bats are wonderful. Remember 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:06.240 Louis came like bat crazy over that one. Yeah, very 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:09.480 bat friendly podcast. Yeah, so don't don't kill it bets. 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:10.840 As a matter of fact, just look the other way 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.080 if you see a bat in your room, because something 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:15.600 bad is gonna happen to that bad. If your dog, 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.320 we'll take a break after this. But if your dog 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:21.200 is potentially bitten by an animal you think it might 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:25.480 be rabid, they will be isolated for ten days, um, 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:28.000 and if they make it through that ten days, then 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.440 you're home free. If they don't. Sadly, that means you 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:35.000 have to go the old yellow route, except these days 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:37.399 it's much more humane. Well I don't know about more humane, 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:39.119 but they don't take it behind the bart and shoot it. 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:42.760 Yeah yeah, I mean I would call that more humane. 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:46.399 But in you know, rural Texas, they might be like, no, 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:50.240 that's quick and easy and painless, just like the shot 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:56.080 with the lethal injection. Yeah, I'm sure that's what they 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:58.720 call in Texas. Okay, all right, let's take a break. 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:02.440 Then I'm gonna get your stuff together, get my stuff 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:24.919 together and we'll come back with more rabies. Chuck. You 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:30.680 ever been to Bali? Nope? Do you haven't neither by Bali, um, 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:32.920 like Hawaii and some other places around the world, is 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:37.480 actually a UM it was a rabies free zone, a 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:41.480 place where like no cases of rabies have been reported. Uh. 0:24:41.560 --> 0:24:45.600 They're usually isolated, which makes it hard to get rabies 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:49.400