What happened after a dog ate rabies vaccine packets scattered in Houlton

HOULTON, Maine — Claude-E, a four-month old border collie, couldn’t resist the fishmeal coating pressed onto plastic packets he found scattered along a walkway in a downtown Houlton park on Aug. 21.

“I was walking him up Derby Hill and along the path by the trees. I saw a white thing in his mouth,” said Kathryn Gable, the puppy’s owner. “When I tried to get it, he swallowed it.”

At first Gable didn’t think much of it and they continued on their daily walk. But when Claude-E scarfed up another and then another, she said she was concerned.

Unlike the first packet, Gable was able to retrieve the other two partially eaten objects from her pet’s mouth who was walking next to her but unleashed. On inspection, she learned the rectangular piece of plastic contained a rabies vaccine, she said, adding that he was leashed when she found additional packets.

“I’m thinking, ‘what the heck,’ my dog just ingested three of these,” she said.

The savory vaccine treats that Claude-E loved were actually meant for raccoons as part of a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Wildlife Services National Rabies Management Program aimed at preventing the spread of the viral disease.

Maine is one of 13 states in the eastern U.S. where landscape-scale oral rabies vaccination programs are conducted, according to national program rabies field coordinator Jordana Kirby. In Maine and several other northeastern states the program is in collaboration with colleagues in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and other state and local entities helped USDA Wildlife Services with this month’s distribution, said Kirby, a certified wildlife biologist.

The objective of the program is to create rabies immunity in raccoon populations in the northeastern part of Maine and help prevent the disease from spreading into uninfected areas elsewhere in the state and Canada, Kirby said.

Rabies is a virus that infects the nervous system of humans and other mammals. It spreads mainly through a bite from an infected animal, according to the CDC.

The oral rabies vaccine baits distributed in Maine cannot cause rabies and are safe if eaten by domestic dogs and cats, Kirby said, adding that eating a large number of baits, like Claude-E did, may cause pets — particularly dogs — to have an upset stomach temporarily, but there are no long-term health risks.

Kirby said that a small number of dogs that have gotten sick from eating the oral vaccine baits are reported annually, with an average of 11 such reports each year out of eight million annual baits distributed.

Starting in mid-August, USDA Wildlife Services crews dropped 384,000 rabies vaccines by ground and air across Aroostook and Penobscot Counties as part of the annual program.

When Gable got home with Claude-E, she immediately called poison control and veterinarians in Houlton and Veazie to see what she should do, she said, adding that they were not aware of the vaccine drop. A Presque Isle vet told her to give him hydrogen peroxide to make him vomit the packet, she said.

Nonetheless, Gable was still concerned and called the phone number listed on the packet that actually went to the Erie County Pennsylvania Department of Health.

“They asked, ‘did you pick it up’ and I said, ‘yes,’” Gable said.

On Wednesday, Breanna Adams, Director of the Erie County Department of Health Environmental Health Services, said they are not tied into the Maine program, although they do field calls from people with concerns like Gabel’s.

A dog might have some gastrointestinal issues, she said, adding if they eat a packet do not let the dog lick your face for 24 hours.

“If you touch a packet, be sure to wash your hands and do not touch your face or mouth,” she said.

In an informational flier regarding bait drops in West Virginia, infectious disease experts said people with immunodeficiency problems might be prone to local infections if the vaccine gets into an open wound.

Washing the wound or exposed skin will prevent this, officials said.

Despite ingesting a dose of vaccine, Claude-E won’t get out of his next shot at the vet.

“You would still need to get one for your dog because these are crafted for raccoons,” Adams said.

On a popular Facebook group, Houlton Talks, others posted that they also found packets scattered in bushes and yards.

In all, Gable and her husband found nine in the downtown area, including one on Main Street near the Elks Club and three near the recreation center across from her home.

“I was astonished and scared,” she said. “I understand the theory behind the vaccine drop but not in a populated area and not behind the school or the rec center.”

Wildlife Services strives to distribute the baits in such a way that people and pets are less likely to find them before wildlife have the opportunity to consume them, Kirby said, adding that it is extremely rare for a child to find a bait and put them in their mouth.

“We turn our baiting equipment off when flying over communities, schools, major interstates, water bodies” she said. “Baits that are distributed in more populated areas are placed in available habitat by personnel driving slowly in vehicles in towns such as Houlton, Presque Isle and Caribou.”

Some Facebook posters wondered if the town was involved in the drop.

But Houlton code enforcement officer Ben Torres said he was not aware of a town connection, although he did have the USDA press release about the August drop posted on the town website.

Gable said the town posting was after Claude-E ingested the rabies packets.

The northeastern distribution area includes places such as Easton, Houlton, Mars Hill, and Patten. The vaccine bait was dropped by airplanes in rural, wooded areas and in the more populated areas such as Houlton, Eustis, and Stratton, crews spread them from vehicles, according to Wildlife Services.

The bait type used in the northeastern area is a fishmeal-coated cube or sachet about one to two inches in size.

This year, the USDA expanded northern Maine distribution zones in response to two rabid raccoons detected near the New Brunswick border.  Earlier this summer, three rabid raccoons were discovered in Bath. And wildlife specimens tested positive for rabies in Caribou and Wade, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control.

In 2023, there were 66 Maine wildlife specimens that tested positive for rabies, with 19 reported in Cumberland County and zero in Aroostook.

The national oral rabies vaccine baiting program targeting wildlife began in the mid-1990’s when the incidence of wildlife rabies cases increased in the U.S.

Maine’s program began in 2003 and it is considered one of the smaller-to-medium-sized programs, representing approximately 5 percent of all baits distributed in the U.S., Kirby said.

The annual operating costs of the national program are $21 million, with more than 60 percent of expenses tied to the oral rabies vaccine baits and the distribution aircraft.

Without wildlife rabies management, raccoons would spread the disease into new areas at a rate of approximately 25 miles per year, resulting in estimated costs for prevention and control exceeding $58 million annually, according to Kirby.

Following distribution of oral rabies vaccine baits, USDA Wildlife Services will be monitoring raccoons and skunks within the baited zone, Kirby said.

“These species will be live-captured and immobilized to collect biological samples, after which they will be released at the site of capture,” she said.

Post oral rabies vaccine monitoring determines the percentage of the sampled population that are vaccinated against rabies by measuring antibody levels following the baiting effort, according to Kirby.

Reduction of rabies cases is another indicator that the program is working, she said.