HOBOKEN — A Brantley County man was attacked by a bobcat last week, prompting an alert from the Georgia Southeast Health District after the cat tested positive for rabies.
Jody Dreggors recounted the Saturday, January 24, incident in an interview with Jacksonville TV outlet, Action News Jax, saying he’d been grilling at a family cookout that evening, while constantly hearing growling and a “terrible noise.”
The source of that noise was a bobcat, which emerged from beneath the porch to bite his leg.
Dreggors recognized the animal’s aggression and lack of fear as not normal.
“Wild animals ain’t supposed to come to you like that,” he told the Journal-Herald.
The bobcat was subsequently killed by Dreggors’ cousin, with its body testing positive for rabies. Dreggors received medical treatment, which will continue for several more weeks with additional vaccinations.
In the official statement from the Southeast Health District, residents were encouraged to keep their pets up to date on rabies vaccinations, while also avoiding feeding or unneccessary contact with wild animals.
Rabies is an incredibly deadly virus. Once clinical symptoms emerge, it’s almost always fatal.
Early symptoms include weakness, fever, and itching or discomfort at the bite wound. Severe disease symptoms usually appear within two weeks of the first symptoms, and include confusion, aggressive behavior, a lack of fear of humans in animals, as well as excessive drooling (or “foaming at the mouth.”) According to Chandler McGee, Public Information Officer for the Southeast Health District, these symptoms of rabies can be generalized as either furious/aggressive rabies, or paralytic/lethargic rabies. Other symptoms include a fear of water (hydrophobia) in aggressive rabies cases, or a hypersensitivity to light and seizures in cases of paralytic rabies.
“Although one form may be seen in a particular species,” McGee said, “it’s important to remember that any animal infected with rabies may present with either form.”
