I have a this irrational fear of rabies for a simple petting of a stray cat. Very long story, work was stressful and long. I work at a warehouse and pretty much had to stay for overtime. After work I went to get a snack at a convenient store and after I got the snack I immediately saw a stray cat by the entrance. Since I was pretty much stressed, I wanted to pet the cat for fun and the cat was more nervous of me than anything else. It jerked a bit when I approached it and sniffed my hand, but I I started to pet it. It jerked again but stood still, and I I pet the cat with the back side of my right hand, using the index, middle, and ring finger to pet the top of it's head. I stroked it for like 5-7 times and then went to my car. I have a scab on my right pinky but didn't used it for petting. As I was going for my car I grabbed a bite of my snack, a taquito with my right hand. I realized it immediately and thought of the word rabies. My anxiety came in full force and I started to panic, I made the small error of reading anything off the internet and came across nonbite transmission with including the mouth so I got worse. I studied a bit more and learned a few more things, that rabies are extremely rare in the US and that cats actually have almost zero threat of being rabid. I asked for opinions and I got a lot of similar results, my interaction had an extremely low risk. Reasons because IF the cat was rabid even in its pre symptoms days, I can ONLY contract it through its saliva. When I pet the cat, I the hair was rough and dry meaning, it had no saliva so I'm perfectly ok. But my anxiety made it worse thinking of the impossible happening and it's scaring me. Honestly need comfort, I have all then data and proof that says I'm fine but my fear is making me believe that the extremely low case is the most probable case. It's straight up mind breaking.

Anonymous

Date posted: 4y

Well I’m just a fellow OCD sufferer, so I don’t know the best way of engaging with your fears or if it’s a good idea to walk through them (or if that will just contribute to your obessing?). So my apologies if this breakdown isn’t helpful. But anyway, if it’s any comfort, you do *not* have rabies. As you have already read about, rabies is actually extremely uncommon, to the point of being nonexistent in some parts of the country. And that’s among animals with a real risk of rabies transmission (like raccoons), of which cats are not! If a slightly silly thought might help, it reminds me of a joke by a comedian about how watching cartoons growing up, we were made to think everybody was going to encounter quicksand all the time (which almost no one ever will). I remember the first time I googled rabies statistics and was blown away by how truly little rabies there is in the US. We’re always being told “watch out, that animal might be rabid!” as kids. So it’s not like you’re being super irrational for being concerned, we are all just misinformed. Further, as you pointed out, the way you interacted with the cat means you couldn’t have gotten rabies from it, even if it *was* somehow the one rabid cat in America (and keep in mind most feral cats don’t like being interacted with, so this was probably a chill neighborhood kitty who just wanted some of your Taquitos, haha). I hope that’s helpful!

Anonymous

Date posted: 4y

Oof, sorry for the typos. I’m bad at typing on my phone.

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