WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Rabies Works 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.640 Hey, everybody, Chuck here for your Saturday select. If you 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:06.880 ever wanted to know how Rabies works, we talked about 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.119 it in great detail from February nine, two thousand sixteen. 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:12.800 Give it a tryway, don't you not Rabies? That is? 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:18.960 But this podcast episode How Rabies Works. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.520 You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radios How 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:30.120 Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.479 There's Charles w Chuck, Bryant, Jerry and stuff you should know. 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.920 You're bombing at the mouth, Jerry, don't let him bite you, 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:43.840 all right, you bet, Jerry. I'm gonna have to put 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.040 both of you down like Old Yeller. Let's do. It's 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:49.360 about time. I knew from day one when we started 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.160 working together that this is how it would conclude. Yeah, 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.640 me shooting both of you because of brabies wittness down 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.640 old Yellow Wait wait, speaking of Old Yeller, I'm sorry. 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.520 Have you seen the kids in the hall take on 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:09.120 Old Yeller? I don't think so. Yeah, Paul makes the 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.120 kid shoot the dog and he's his face is sprayed 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:17.759 with blood from the gunshot wound. So wonderful. Yeah, worst 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.720 children's book ever. Oh, I guess we just spoiled it. Huh. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.960 Everyone knows Old Yeller gets rabies and is shot. Yeah, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.319 I don't even bother emailing him. But there is a 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.440 happy ending. Uh. You know, Old Yeller has pups and 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.600 they get a pup, so instead of like coming back 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.240 as a ghost dog, that like helps things turn out 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.280 well for the family. It left a legacy in the 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:47.400 Dawkinsian view right, still the worst children's book ever, although 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.960 it teaches valuable life lessons about death. Why you gotta 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.240 do that by killing Old Yeller? I don't know, but 0:01:54.320 --> 0:02:00.440 I mean it works all right. Rabies, I don't know. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:02.000 I thought we'd done this one. It seems like an 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.480 obvious one for us. Uh. Yeah, it's definitely in our 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.760 wheelhouse for sure. Um. I did not know this either. 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.320 It is a virus on every continent in the world 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.640 except Antarctica, which a lot of viruses that hold that 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:22.919 that title that aren't on Antarctica inhospitable place. And if 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.480 a virus is on every continent, chances are it's a 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.680 very old one too, and rabies definitely is extremely old. Um. 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.640 People have been writing about rabies for a very long time. 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:37.440 The Mesopotamians who know it's old if you say that word. Sure. Um. 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.000 They used to have a law where if your dog 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.240 was rabid, you faced the stiff penalty, a fine of sorts. 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.040 We have those laws today in the United States. I 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.640 mean a lot of our laws stem from Mesopotamian, the 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.720 code of Hammurabi. You know, like if you watch somebody's 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.440 house burned down and don't do anything, that person can 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.760 kill you. Still today, just like from the Code of Hammurabi. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.320 So if you're neighbor's house on fire, you have to 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:02.760 put it out. You have to help put it out. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:08.960 In Mesopotamia. Uh So, the word rabies um in many 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:14.320 languages means um a rage or go crazy. Um. In 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.959 Latin it is from a Sanskrit term robajas to do violence. 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:26.440 And then French uh laaragee it's the sexiest form of 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:30.360 rabies comes from the French now and robert, meaning to 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.800 go mad. So if you're not picking up on it. Um, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.360 it's not a friendly virus. No, it's not the one 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.560 that you get a dog. Well, actually we'll talk about that. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.440 I'm gonna save it. And for a long time, I mean, 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:48.040 there was nothing we could do about rabies. Yeah, Um, 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:54.360 people went to Liege Belgium to pray to um sat Hubert. Yeah, 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.240 it's a round name, isn't it not. Yeah. St. Hubert 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.440 was the patron saint of Huntsman. Okay, and uh not 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:05.600 quality footwear. No, and apparently apparently no, that was St. 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:10.680 Clark apparently um St Hubbands. Actually I've not heard of that. 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.720 It's a spinal tap joke. You never get my spinal 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.000 tap jokes. No, I need to see it more than once. 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.080 Apparently there for the people out there, that's fine. There's 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.240 like a hundred dudes. We'll just I'll sit here and 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.560 be the straight man. I don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah, 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.680 Derek St. Hubbands was the patron state of his ancestors. 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.880 Patron stated of quality footwear. Great joke. That is a 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:34.600 good joke, man, I'm sorry stepped all over it. Um 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:36.880 so in leaves you would go and pray to St. 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.279 Hubert for protection. Probably not the most effective way to 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.479 treat rabies. No, I don't blame people for making a 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.040 pilgrimage to lead. From what I understand about rabies based 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:51.760 on researching this, it's terrible. Yeah, it's horrific and fatal. 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.760 And it wasn't until the late nineteenth century eighteen eighty 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.799 five when the late great Louis Pasteur man, this dude, 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.920 he would, didn't that guy do to save the world? Yeah, 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.479 we should. He's up in our line. And now we 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.560 have a kind of ongoing line of like great scientists. Uh, 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:10.800 so we will include him on the list. And we 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.919 need to start acknowledging the ladies too, So Madam Curie, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.080 sure we've got our eye on you. That's right, that's right. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.520 Uh and um. Anyway, so Louis Pasture came up with 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.400 a vaccine for rabies, and he was he was one 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:29.280 of the early germ theory guys. He was very president person. 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:35.280 His his inoculation trials were based on the idea that 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:40.359 if you introduced some like a low level of rabies 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.920 to a living being, that living being would produce anybody's 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:50.560 and you could introduce increasingly larger amounts over time, and 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.440 eventually the person's antibodies would be robust enough so that 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.679 if they ever faced rabies in the wild, they would 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.880 be able to fight it off. And he was absolutely 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.320 and what a crazy thing to think, though, you know, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:05.159 it is when no one knows anything about germ theory 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.320 to think like, why don't we put the disease in 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.480 the person, Maybe that'll help cure it. And I think 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.039 I think that was around for a while, but I 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.840 think it was like some arcane knowledge that not everyone 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.240 knew about, and past Year really capitalized that amazing. Um. 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.320 But he actually had been working on something using rabbits 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.640 as test cases and was basically he proved it can 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:31.080 work in humans by by a boy who had been 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.440 attacked by a dog, I think, and contracted rabies. Um, 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:38.720 and uh, Louis past your said, here goes nothing, and 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.160 he's stuck in with the shot. And the parents went 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.479 and here goes nothing. Right, he goes no nothing, And 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.360 they said, well, you said this was gonna work. I said, 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:52.480 no such thing. It's good, Louis, thank you. It's technically 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:57.480 that Um the text, you know, the U Chuck Jones 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.560 version of Napoleon when bugs bunnies hang out with him. 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.240 Oh yeah, that's how I learned to do a French 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:08.000 accent Chuck, the Great Chuck Jones. Uh so, rabies. Let's 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.119 talk a little bit about what it does in your body. Um, 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.120 it's really pretty vicious. It It is a viral disease. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.640 Like we said, at the top and it attacks the 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.800 central nervous system, the brain and the central nervous system. Um. 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:26.640 It is part of the rab dough vera day yeah family. 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.800 Under the genus you take the genus the lie of 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.960 virus that was too easy. It was easy, um and 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.000 its shaped like a bullet and when it comes in 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.120 the body, it basically goes as fast as it can 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.760 to the spinal cord yeah um through something called afferent nerves. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.320 With an A they carry impulses towards the central nervous system, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.800 as opposed to efferent with an E they carry impulses away, 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.960 but it uses both. So this virus travels along um 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.600 the neural pathways through the central nervous system, and it 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.760 goes immediately to the central nervous to the spinal cord 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.360 and then up to the brain yea. And in the 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:08.160 brain that's where it replicates. You remember, like HIV replicates 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:12.720 inside t helper cells. Well, rabies is a virus that 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:17.200 replicates inside your neurons, your brain cells, which is not 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.960 a good place for a virus to start doing. It's 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:24.000 replicating right and right after it starts replicating in the brain, 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.000 it makes a second stop a very important stop to 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.680 your salivary glands. And the reason it does that is 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.600 because that is the number one mechanism of transmission for rabies. Yeah, 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:35.680 that's when you see the foaming at the mouth. It's 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.920 not just a uh symptom of rabies. But that's the 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.080 main way that you're going to get it is by 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:47.480 being bitten by something with all kinds of nasty rabid saliva. 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.920 And apparently because this stuff is um wrecking your brain 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.880 by hijacking your brain cells and destroying them. There's two 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:01.160 different versions of rabies, right and step latic, which is 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.880 also known as the furious form of rabies. That's the 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.560 one you think of when you think of a crazy 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.839 rabid dog that's hallucinating and running around in circles and 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.960 chasing its tail and biting at the air. UM old 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.760 yeller basically, although they toned it down a bit, they 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.640 did because they didn't want to scare the kids before 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:26.160 they shot. And then there's a paralytic or dumb form, 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:31.280 and that one is more like lapsing into coma basically, UM, 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.960 and I don't know. Surely there's no way to predict 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.439 which way that the things the virus is going to 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.720 go in a human right, because it's destroying brain cells. 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.839 I would think it would just be totally accidental whether 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.960 it went towards the enciphalatic or the the um paralytic form. 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:50.880 That's a good question, you know, it would just depend 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.080 on where it lodges first. Right, Yeah, but both of 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.679 the forms are in the acute stage. UM. And here's 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.959 what's so scary. Once it's in the acute stage, once 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:05.360 let's hit your central nervous system, you're done. It's almost 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.360 exclusively done. And we'll talk about that. That's that is 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:13.800 the for a very for millennia. The UM this the 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:18.199 idea behind rabies is like it was, it's a fatal disease, fatal, 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.560 except now they've started to find a few cases here 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.040 there that's not the case. And that's they're starting to wonder, Okay, 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:30.160 is this something we could treat after people are traditionally goners. 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.160 Well that's a great tease. So let's uh take a 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:57.559 break and we'll come back right after this with moron rabies. Okay, 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.360 So we mentioned the two forms. They're both in the 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:05.199 acute state age and apparently both stages can happen uh 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.760 in a single case. It's not necessarily one of the other. Right, 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.360 it makes sense, like if this region of your brain 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.839 is wrecked and you're furious and raging, well eventually it's 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:15.280 going to get to the part of your brain where 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.200 you're like you can't move or breathe and you slip 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.120 into a coma and die of respiratory distress, you know. 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.800 But also got the impression that wasn't necessarily like that's 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:25.880 the path, Like it can start in the dumb stage 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:27.760 as well. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like it would 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:29.880 just depend on where the virus, what part of your 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.240 brain the virus coast to it's got to you know. Yeah. 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.280 Um was something I didn't realize about Raby's chuck was 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.400 that it's exclusive to mammals. I knew that I didn't um, 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.000 but I also have wondered over the years, LIKEWI, isn't 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.840 like a rabid squirrel would be your worst nightmare, I imagine, 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.679 you know, because they'll already come at you. Yeah, you know, 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:51.840 and a rabid one would definitely come out You're one 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.520 of the One of the um traits of or symptoms 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.480 of rabid mammal is that a wild one has no 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.280 fear of humans. Yeah, they're aggressive. Um. In fact, there's 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:05.320 a case I looked up, as I often do, just 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.080 in the news, and little boy in New Jersey just 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:13.559 this week was attacked by raccoon. This raccoon leapt onto 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.120 his back while he was walking down the street during 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.200 the day. And we will get to the hallmarks. But 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.920 that's very important. If you see a nocturnal animal cruising 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.880 around during the day at great speeds, stay away. Oh 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.880 you're not supposed see raccoons in the neighborhood during the day. Yeah, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.560 just go get your pause. Bb gun. Well I don't 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.280 know about that, but call animal control and they'll get there. 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.320 Be begun. Um. But yeah, this little boy was was 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.720 this raccoon jumped on his back and started biting his 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:45.280 face and neck. Where did you learn to pronounced raccoon? Raccoon? 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.800 Now I say raccoon. That's just one of my jokes. 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.240 People don't know though. When I said Alex Baldwin, I know, 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.720 people literally wrote in like like it's Alec, how did 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.360 you miss thirty Rock? And Alec Baldwin said, I don't care. Yeah, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.520 I don't know who this chuck is. So anyway, um, yeah, 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.240 you're right. Um, the little boy I think is gonna 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:12.760 be okay, which is a good news, but it's uh, well, 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.880 we'll get to the rarity of it. Plus he was 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.679 attacked in New Jersey, which is in the U s. 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.120 Which means he's going to be just fine. Right, But 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.280 a long way of saying that UM, squirrels and mice 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.760 and and other smaller animals typically don't get it, and 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.080 it makes good sense. It's because if they are attacked 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.840 by a rabid animal, they're they're small and probably won't survive. 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.440 Like they could very well get rabies. Every sign says 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.240 they can, but they'll probably pour A little mouse will 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.720 probably just die, right, because if a raccoon gets its 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.240 hands on a mouse, it's all over and it bites it. 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.719 That saliva is gonna be transmitted to the wound. But 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:50.920 you also need the host to be alive for the 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.240 virus to replicate in that host. Exactly if their neck 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.080 is broken and they're dead, then that it's not gonna work. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.640 But yeah, absolutely, but what you said, yes, you can 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.520 get a woodchuck with rabies. Woodchuck's raccoons. Apparently, in the 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.040 United States, raccoons are the most common vector for the 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:13.679 disease UM now yes, uh. But for the most part, 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:19.840 it's larger, slight slightly larger small mammals. Does that make sense, woodchucks, raccoons, 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.720 medium sized mammals, medium size on the smallest side, small 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:29.440 to medium, a medium sized mammal. The means like, um, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.120 I guess the raccoon, okay uh. And it takes a 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.720 few months for the disease or when its course in 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.320 an animal. But the scary thing is it can lie 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:42.160 dormant in humans for years, months or years. That's very scary, 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:44.840 super scary. Yeah, because you guys don't realize. It's like 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:46.840 you think it's like frothing at the mouth or something. No, 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.160 the rabies virus is one of the scariest viruses on 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:54.440 the planet. It is um so, like I said, saliva 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:59.040 is the mode of transmission for most rabies cases, and 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.520 you can catch it very easily. Technically, if you had 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.040 like an open wound and you like rubbed your finger 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.920 where the open wound was. I guess I should have 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:13.200 specified that earlier. On the saliva of a rabid raccoon 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.520 you could easily catch right, But that's an uncommon thing 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.600 to do. You could also if you um took the 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.120 brain of that raccoon and rubbed it on your open 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.920 wound to your finger. You could also catch it. Even 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.520 more uncommon. But if you came across a raccoon's poop 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.560 that was rabid and you took it and just rubbed 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:36.880 it all over your hands, the camouflage, the scent of 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.840 your hand probably the most uncommon, you would not catch rabies. 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.520 That's what the good news. Yeah, it doesn't transfer in 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:49.280 the feces or the blood or the p Yeah, the urine, 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.040 the pp uh. Oh man, it's been p fest at 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.480 my house. You want a little quick side story. I 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.400 changed the litter box before I went to Birmingham, and 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.400 four days later we realized that I didn't put litter 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.160 in the litter box. I emptied it, put the lid 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.560 back on, put it back in, rushed out of the 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.600 door to drive to Birmingham, and four days later we're like, 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:14.880 our cats are sick because they're peeing on everything in 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.560 the house. Emily went over and she went, hey, well, 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:23.440 I won't say what she said. It wasn't hey, honey, Uh, 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:25.960 guess what, there's a lake of urine in the litter 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:30.040 box and it's all your fault. So we had to 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.360 throw a lot of things away in our home that 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:36.600 previously we're working just fine. Man. And uh, I got 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:38.960 the Dummy of the Year award in our house. That's cool. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.360 You should instagram that trophy Dummy of the year. Yeah, 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:45.520 I just it's a tattoo now on my on my 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.360 lower back of Alfreddy Newman. So anyway, we've been in 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.960 urine land. So gross. It is so gross, and cat 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.760 pea is not you know, it's it's tough to mask. 0:16:56.400 --> 0:17:01.600 So we're really work lakes of it. Man, what a dummy. 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.080 So anyway, just the moral of the story is litter 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.280 is a very important part of the letter box. So 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.760 and luckily if your cats are rabid, you wouldn't have 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.520 caught anything from that. No, but I'm sure I have 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.560 what's it called, what's the cat disease from changing letter? Oh, 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:24.240 toxic plasmosis. Gone, I'm sure I've had that for years. Um, 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:25.960 that's why you do most of the things you do, 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.560 that's right. So uh, it is a very adaptive disease. Um. 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.080 And here's another scary thing, although it's it's not that 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.320 scary because it's super super rare, but in laboratories it 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:42.080 has been transmitted through the air aerosol transmission, and they 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.480 have found one case where it actually happened in the wild, 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:50.359 but it was a cave that had like tens of 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.840 millions of infected bats like sneezing and coughing up their 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.680 junk everywhere. And in that case, uh, someone got raby 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.360 supposedly through through the air. Three people three bucked into 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.840 the cave in Texas. But that that's uh again, not 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.560 something you need to worry about. Yeah, but humans can 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:11.200 spread it to and remember you can spread it through saliva, 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:15.800 which means that if you are kissing, especially kissing with 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:20.200 tongue French style, a rabid person, and remember it can 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.480 take months, if not years for the symptoms to set 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:28.280 on UM, you could conceivably catch rabies from that. You 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.840 can also catch it as an STD through sexual contact. 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.520 They believe this is the CDC theorizing at this point 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.560 there's no documented cases UM. And then you could also 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.280 conceivably catch it from like sharing a cigarette with somebody 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.359 or drinking after somebody using the same glass. Again in theory, 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.080 any transmission of shared saliva. But here's the scariest one 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.360 to me. UM, it has happened before where you get 0:18:54.920 --> 0:19:00.159 a transplant of an organ, typically a corneal transplant, and 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:04.040 get rabies that way. Yeah, it's like we accidentally gave 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:09.159 you a cornea with rabies. Yeah. Sorry. And one of 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.840 the problems do you think, well, how could that possibly happen? Apparently, 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.639 rabies is very hard to detect, and the main place 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.280 is to detect it. Remember, it doesn't show up in 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.080 your blood or anything like that. I know, you're in 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.119 your feces, is um, in the saliva and in the 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:30.000 uh um. Well yeah, and the saliva. It's not even 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.479 super accurate, and it takes longer. So for the past 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.840 forty years in the United States, the way they test 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.320 for rabies if an animal has bit your child as 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.679 they capture it and they cut its head off and 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:47.879 inspect the brain. Right, that's horrifying, it is. But unfortunately, 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.359 like necessary, I guess of a raccoon bite your kid 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.960 off with the head. Maybe an animal lover out there 0:19:56.160 --> 0:20:01.120 who's developing scientists will come up with a better test, 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.440 more accurate rabies tests that will save the lives of 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.240 thousands and millions of woodchucks around the world. But I 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.840 wonder how many times they've been like, oh, thankfully no rabies. Yeah, no, 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.080 I'm sure, but sorry, your head has cut off. Yeah, 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.200 Like imagine being the clinician who did that. It's kind 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.840 of bumm you out. Yeah, absolutely, because it's like this 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.920 thing's head was cut off because somebody thought it had rabies. 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:31.520 Terrible all right, So, um, everybody um knows through popular 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.480 culture and things like Old Yellow that the foaming of 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.280 the mouth of a crazy looking dog is a pretty 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:41.000 good sign to stay clear. But there are many other ways, 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.120 especially if they have the dumb form that you might 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.920 not know. Uh. And here are some of those symptoms 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:51.240 partially or fully paralyzed animal loss of appetite, and a 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:53.160 lot of these can be confused for other things. Because 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:58.200 my dearly deceased dog Lucy probably ticked off about these. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.919 She really like pc strange behaviors like snapping at the 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:07.120 air or turning in circles. Lucy did that. Nocturnal animals 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.240 who wander during the day. Um, Like I said, if 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:12.320 you see a raccoon walking around during the day, it's 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:18.800 not a good sign. Drool excessively. Lucy drooled. Wild animals 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.080 who showed no fear of humans. Uh. Signs of pikea 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:24.760 like eating things that aren't food. Lucy did that all 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:30.000 the time. UM, sporadic changes in mood or behavior Lucy 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:36.040 restless or aggressive, No, obviously disoriented Lucy. And then a 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:43.720 change in voice, which I thought was strange. She was like, uh. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:48.000 And generally it varies by regions, so like maybe here 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:50.879 in the South, raccoons or maybe in another place that 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.560 might be skunks largely right with the animals that have 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.360 it the most, um. Yeah, but apparently in the United 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.240 States it's raccoons, for sure, they have the most. But 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:06.359 the mode of transmission in the United States UM comes 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:11.320 through bats more frequently. Yeah, that's the big these days. 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:12.800 So if you get like a hundred bats and a 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.080 hundred raccoons, more raccoons are going to have rabies. But 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:18.639 you're more likely to catch rabies from a bat than 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.480 a raccoon. Yeah. And why is that. Well, there's a 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:24.560 few reasons bats can get into places that raccoons can't. 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:30.800 UM and Uh. Bats also have very tiny teeth. Uh. 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.080 And if you're sleeping in a room and you wake 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.879 up and there's a bat in it, it's recommended that 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:39.359 you kill that bat and take it in for rabies testing. UM. 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:43.960 So then they can kill it for you. They can 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.240 do your dirty work for you. Um. But the reason 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:51.159 why is because a bat's teeth are so fine that 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:54.000 you can have been bitten in the night and it 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.040 wouldn't have woken you up. You won't you won't know 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:58.960 that you were bitten, but you may have contracted rabies 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:03.520 in that case. See are excellent episode on bats, yeah, 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:07.560 which which is good because they bats are wonderful. You 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:11.360 remember Louisa's came like bat crazy over that one. Yeah, 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.960 very bat friendly podcast. Yeah, so don't kill it beats. 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:16.320 As a matter of fact, just look the other way 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:18.560 if you see a bat in your room, because something 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.080 bad is going to happen to that bat. If your dog, 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:23.800 we'll take a break after this. But if your dog 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:26.680 is potentially bitten by an animal you think it might 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:30.960 be rabid, they will be isolated for ten days. Um. 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:33.480 And if they make it through that ten days, then 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:36.800 you're home free. If they don't, sadly, that means you 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:40.480 have to go the old yellow route, except these days 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:42.879 it's much more humane. Well I don't know about more humane, 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:46.760 but they don't take it behind the bart and shoot it. Yeah, yeah, 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:49.359 I mean I would call that more humane. But in 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.200 you know, rural Texas, they might be like, no, that's 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:58.280 quick and easy and painless, just like the shot. What 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:01.679 the lethal injection? Yeah, I'm sure that's what they call 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:04.359 it in Texas. All right, let's take a break. Then, 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:08.160 I'm gonna get your stuff together, get my stuff together, 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:30.560 and we'll come back with more rabies. Chuck. You ever 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:36.160 been to Bali? Nope, you haven't neither. By well, Bali, um, 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:38.440 like Hawaii and some other places around the world, is 0:24:38.440 --> 0:24:43.000 actually a um. It was a rabies free zone, a 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:46.320