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Rabies risk: My son touched a dog muzzle at the vet then his eye?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Chihuahua | Male | neutered | 5 years and 5 months old | 4 lbs

As you said rabies cant be pass from a muzzle to a person, and the vet told me they clean every muzzle everytime they used in a dog, then after my son touch the muzzle I clean his hands with sanitaizer and saw he has no bounds on his hands, then he used his Tshirt to scrath an eye ( no direct contact with his hand,only Tshirt), then he is NOT at risk to get rabies from touching the muzzle, clean his hands and use his tshirt to scrath his eye? Iplease let me know, thanks

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Susan England-Foster

Veterinarian

Published on September 1st, 2017

Rabies is very common in the united states. Any patient that has Rabies will pass away with in 10 days. The likeliness that a dog in the vet clinic had Rabies is very very rare. However you son will not get Rabies or should be concerned about getting Rabies with this type of exposure. Hope that helps- thanks for using pet coach

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    Answered By Lauren Kennedy, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on September 1st, 2017

    I would agree with the previous assessment that your son is not at risk for developing rabies. To contract rabies a large amount of saliva needs to enter the body. Even if the dog was confirmed as having rabies (which is uncommon) a small amount of saliva entering the eye would not be sufficient to transmit disease. If you are still concerned you may want to speak with your physician but I am sure he will also confirm that your son should be safe. I do not have access to see your previously posted question so forgive me if this is repetitive. If you are truly concerned the dog in question has rabies and he was not up to date on his rabies vaccine you may want to consider submitting him to be tested for rabies (which unfortunately the dog has to be euthanized for). I can understand your anxiety about the situation. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any more questions! You may want to check out this article from the Center for Disease Control for additional information about the disease. https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/ Best of luck!

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