FARMINGTON – Melissa Yeaton was walking in her Whittier Road yard Saturday when she was attacked by a rabid woodchuck – the first confirmed case in Franklin County this year.

Her doctor and the state epidemiologist recommended she undergo a series of rabies injections.

She had four post-exposure treatment vaccines Tuesday, her husband, Nate Yeaton, said, and has to go back four more times for shots. The injections are estimated to cost $3,000.

Yeaton said his wife had been walking in the grass and walked by the car and the animal came out from underneath it and started chasing her and trying to bite her high heels. Yeaton said he was in his truck and jumped out and started chasing it.

That was the last he saw of it until his neighbor Sandy Richard called Sunday morning and asked him to bring a gun to kill the animal that was bothering her chickens. Richard said she called Yeaton after trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the animal.

Richard said she went out a couple times and the woodchuck kept coming back. That’s when she called Nate. He brought a handgun, she said, and the woodchuck started to go after him and he shot it. Richard contacted the Warden Service and was advised what to do.

Yeaton and Richard used gloves and a shovel to put the dead animal in double garbage bags. On Monday, the dead woodchuck was taken to the state Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory in Augusta and it tested positive for rabies.

“Rabies has been a problem in Maine as far as wildlife rabies is concerned since early 1990s,” said Dr. Kathleen Gensheimer, state epidemiologist. “We see literally dozens of cases a year.”

When a person is exposed to a rabid animal, she said, the state recommends a series of post exposure treatment vaccines, which is what was indicated in this instance, Gensheimer said. If there was no bite or no exposure to infectious saliva, post exposure treatment is not necessary, she said.

Yeaton’s husband said the skin wasn’t broken but his wife’s doctor recommended she have the treatment to be on the safe side.

Richard said she didn’t realize that the saliva was infectious.

“It was a warning to me to talk to my kids and tell them to stay away from wildlife,” Richard said.

Gensheimer said this instance was unusual and that in most cases, people get bitten trying to help a sick raccoon or bat. It’s even dangerous to feed a stray cat or dog, she said, because they could be infected with the virus.

It is the 38th incident of rabies in Maine this year and the second case of a rabid woodchuck. The first case was confirmed June 6 in Greene.

Of the rabid animal cases, eight have been confirmed in Androscoggin County – six raccoons in Auburn, a raccoon and woodchuck in Greene. In Oxford County, two cases were confirmed: a raccoon in Hiram in April and a skunk in Rumford last month. Cumberland County has the most confirmed cases this year with 12, the majority of them rabid raccoons.

Game Warden Gary Allen said the Warden Service’s stand is if a wild animal shows up in your yard, don’t touch it. If a wild animal is acting aggressive, he said, use a long handled sturdy shovel or rake to keep it away.

“Do not handle wildlife,” he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com