Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 12/8/2010

Question
We live in China, and so have very few English speaking vets
from which to choose.  Therefor I am having to wait until
Sunday to take my cat in, because that is when the vet is
available.  So before going in, I am wondering what type of
test a vet my run to find out if my cat has rabies.  He has
been throwing up on and off again for about a month, then he
got some sort of ear thing, it looked like a bite to the
front of his inner ear, so I cleaned it up and treated with
neosporin, at which point he seemed to be getting better,
then suddenly we found him foaming at the mouth.  He is
still very active, yet, his mouth seems to be wet all the
time.  He has thrown up only once since this has set in.  He
also appears to be very bloated.  

Answer
There really is no easy test for rabies in a cat.  YOu can have a serum rabies titre run and in some places, a skin biopsy around the thick whisker hairs on the face may reveal rabies virus.

From the symptoms, it does not sound like rabies.  Cats with rabies will hide and not eat anything. (They get the "dumb" form of rabies.) Rarely do they vomit from rabies.