Hi,
today I pet a cat which lives in the neighborhood. She seems to be a domestic cat but I cannot tell where exactly she lives and she also
seems to be outside most of the time. I pet her head and then also grabbed her by the tail. But later I became concerned and thought what is
she has diseases like rabies?
I know this is not very likely but what if she does? Cats lick themselves everywhere which means that if they had it then the virus would be on their fur
everywhere they lick themselves and this means when you pet them you get the virus on your skin and rabies survives months from what I read.
I discovered that on one of my finger I had a little red spot where I had torn in a finger nail. It wasn't like an open wound but it was still not like normal
skin. Also the skin on the palm of my hand was a bit eroded because I wash my hands very often and then the skin becomes very dry.
I directly applied medical desinfectant spray which kills viruses and bacteria and rubbed it on my hands but I don't know if it kills all viruses.
Since this happened I cannot really get over it. What do I do now?
In the past I'd never even have worried about this but since I heard about rabies I'm worried about petting cats.
I should not have touched her this was stupid.
Edited by tfor, 08 September 2014 - 08:21 PM.