[yorkietalkjilly]

I'd be sure that when she has to have another in six months or whatever the puppy protocol is, that your vet gives the steroid(I think it's a steroid or corticosteroid or something like that) and the Benadryl first, waits a while and then administers the vax. Be sure you don't give any other vaccinations with it or any other meds to your little one on that day either unless it's something she has to have like heart medicine or insulin or something. Also, I would let them keep her and watch her for the rest of the day where she can get immediate intervention if she has a reaction and this time quits breathing or something. That rabies vax always made Jilly lethargic and she usually slept the rest of the day she got it. I think back then, they got the thing every year and she always had a lump at the injection site literally for weeks. Tibbe had his last one in Jan., 2011 and isn't due another until January of 2014 but as I recall, he wasn't exceptionally lethargic after it and he never has a lump after shots.

With all of the woodland and wild critters that seem to be moving into the suburbs for food as their own habitats are invaded for human use, it is a worry that they will carry more rabies into the pet population as they inevitably have run-ins and bite. Sadly, if they are infected with the virus, the unprotected pet is in for a terrible, likely fatal brain/CNS infection. The incubation period for this disease can be up to a year and some say way longer than that, but I don't know if that is in humans only or humans and larger pets. If the bitten pets don't die, and most do, the pain and other symptoms are truly terrible.

I hope your baby is feeling better soon.