President Jim Ruble called the meeting to order promptly at 12:28, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.

 

 

Brian Deurloo and Jim Anderson were the greeters today, and Brian introduced the members who brought guests:

 

Dennis Lower cracked us up with a couple of good jokes, and then Gary Pehrson had us all stand and lead us in singing “Cowboy Joe”

 

Tim Anderson sponsored by Dennis Jack was inducted into our Rotary Club today, welcome aboard!

Fred Feth traded in his red badge for a blue one today, Congratulations Fred!

 

Bill Schilling announced that his brother has a terminal illness so he will be gone next week; our thoughts and prayers are with Bill and his family at this time.

Denise Prugh told us that they were able to go to Switzerland and they visited with our past exchange student Max and he is doing well. He will be driving a truck in the military for about a year and then going on to college. Denise said that if you are thinking about hosting an exchange student to go for it because it is an awesome experience.

Deb Theriault said that they were able to visit with a past exchange student Julia, from 1996-1997 while they were at her daughter’s wedding. She echoed Denise’s sentiments about the value of hosting an exchange student.

 

Dave McNulty nominated Sandy Widmer as she was in the newspaper for winning the Farmer’s Insurance Agent of the year award.

Bert Toews nominated Joe MacGuire for being the chief pilot at the Young Eagles event giving young kids their first aviation experience.

 

 

PE Richard Schwahn introduced our speaker today, Dr. Karl Musgrave from the State of Wyoming. Dr. Musgrave was here to speak to us about rabies.  Dr. Musgrave said that there was recently a woman in Fremont County who died from Rabies so he wants us to spread the word about Bats and rabies. He said that you can be bitten by a bat in your sleep and not realize that you have been bitten. This woman had a bat flying around her room while she was sleeping and apparently it bit her without her knowing it which led to rabies which was not diagnosed in time to save her. In Wyoming we have the bat strain of rabies and the skunk strain of rabies which are the only strains currently in Wyoming so when another animal gets rabies it is one of these two strains. In Natrona County we had a case of a cat with rabies so he advised that we make sure and vaccinate our pets against rabies. There was a squirrel in Cheyenne that had rabies and bit a young girl which is very rare for a squirrel to get rabies, thankfully they caught the squirrel and were able to save the little girl. He showed us a chart with all of the different animals throughout the state who have had rabies. He said that in the state are two strains of the skunk rabies, the Northwestern strain and the south central strain. Rabies manifests with different signs and symptoms so it is very hard to diagnose in people as well as in animals. Hydrophobia is one of the symptoms, it is the fear of drinking water because the throat is affected and they know that if they drink water it can go down the trachea into the lungs rather than into the stomach. Over the years of the 50 or so Rabies cases in humans they were from bat bites. There was a case back east of a donated kidney being infected with rabies which then manifested in the recipient and caused his death. He showed us several different cases of rabies around the country and the causes. Most of them were from people not knowing the risks so they were unable to properly diagnose them. They treated one young lady by inducing a coma and they have used that treatment to try to help people survive when they are diagnosed too late for treatment. If they are treated before developing symptoms and they are treated properly the survival rate is good but if not diagnosed and treated before developing symptoms very few survive. Rabies in bats is very rare but we do have cases in Wyoming. He asked us to help educate people about rabies so that more people know and are ready if they encounter a bat that may be rabid. A big part of his job is to educate clinicians to the different types of diseases that animals carry so that they remember to ask people about their animal exposure and know what to check for to properly diagnose any disease someone may get from an animal. Anytime a wild animal bites a person that animal needs to be tested if possible to see if they are rabid and they need to be quarantined for 10 days. When exposed to rabies there are a series of four shots they need to get in the arm within 10 days of being bitten. It used to be shots in the stomach but they have developed this new series of shots which are much better. There is also a pre=exposure vaccination that people who handle animals can get to prevent them getting rabies if they happen to be exposed. He opened the floor for questions and one of the questions was about post exposure vaccines for pets. He stated that research just has not been done to develop a vaccine for pets that have been exposed but there are a couple of places that are starting to do research to try and develop a vaccine. He stated that any of the bats can carry rabies so be aware of any bats. Great information on Rabies, please pass it along to others so that we can increase awareness of the risks.

 

 

President Jim Ruble concluded the meeting at 1:25 with the ring of the bell and reminded us that next week we will be back at the Parkway Plaza and our meeting will be Dr. McGinley with his surgical equipment venture.