Local Vet Offering Low-Cost Rabies Vaccines This Week for World Rabies Day

World Rabies Day is coming up on Sunday and at least one animal hospital in Franklin County will be offering low-cost rabies vaccines for pets.

This week, Tugaloo Animal Hospital will be offering $5 rabies vaccines at their clinic at the corner of SR59 and Vickery St. in Lavonia.

Dr. April Steele has been offering the $5 rabies shots for the past seven years on World Rabies Day.

Steele said the reason is simple: rabies is a dangerous disease to pets and humans.

“World Rabies is an effort to make people worldwide aware of the dangers of rabies,” Steele said. “It is an international problem. There is no cure for rabies and there is  no test for the disease other than to test the brain tissue post mortem. So it is important that people have their pets vaccinated against the disease.”

In the tri-county area, Franklin, Hart, and Stephens counties, Steele said there were 49 suspected cases of rabies since January and seven turned out to be positive.

“That’s a pretty high incident rate,” she said. “And they’re not from the animals we think. They’re not from bats as most people think. In Franklin County, out of the 20 specimens tested, five were bats and none were positive for rabies. So bats are not as big a culprit as we think they are.”

The common rabies carriers in our area are raccoons, skunk, and fox.  If you see any of these normally nocturnal animals out in the day time and if they are displaying any sort of aggressive behavior or look sick, do not go near them, Steele said, but call 911.  

If you do decide to shoot the animal yourself, Steele said make sure you do not shoot it in the head because that is the part that is sent to the health department for testing to see if the animal was rabid.

So, it is important to make sure your pets and livestock are vaccinated.  Steele said her clinic will be giving rabies shots to pets for three days this week.

“We will be offering rabies vaccines for $5 this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during regular business hours,” she said.

Anyone needing further information, may contact Tugaloo Animal Hospital at 706-356-1467.