{"id":64370,"date":"2026-04-01T03:19:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T07:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64370"},"modified":"2026-04-01T03:19:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T07:19:06","slug":"second-rabies-case-confirmed-in-polk-county-in-less-than-2-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/01\/second-rabies-case-confirmed-in-polk-county-in-less-than-2-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"Second rabies case confirmed in Polk County in less than 2 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_c063fac0089d0796-41\">Health officials have indeed confirmed a second case of rabies in Polk County within a span of just two weeks. This latest instance was reported yesterday, March 31, 2026. Recent Rabies Timeline<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"7c6c55\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/download-3.webp?resize=300%2C168&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64371 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7c6c55; aspect-ratio:1.7858803832201655;width:468px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Case #1 (March 26):<\/strong> Confirmed in a bat found in <strong>Lake Wales<\/strong> (1700 block of Masterpiece Road) after a dog was discovered standing over it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Case #2 (March 31):<\/strong> Confirmed in a <strong>Brazilian free-tailed bat<\/strong> found inside a home southwest of <strong>Lakeland<\/strong>. A resident reported seeing one of his dogs pawing at the bat on March 25.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Takeaways<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Pet Status:<\/strong> In both cases, the dogs involved were reportedly vaccinated and have been placed under home quarantine as a precaution.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Wildlife Warning:<\/strong> Sheriff Grady Judd and health officials are emphasizing the importance of keeping a distance from wild animals, particularly those acting &#8220;in distress, angry, or aggressive.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Immediate Action:<\/strong> If you suspect a pet has been exposed, or if you encounter an animal acting strangely, you should contact <strong>Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office Animal Control<\/strong> at <strong>863-577-1762<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_c063fac0089d0796-47\">It&#8217;s a good time to double-check that all your pets&#8217; vaccinations are up to date, as that remains the most effective defense against the virus.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health officials have indeed confirmed a second case of rabies in Polk County within a span of just two weeks. This latest instance was reported yesterday, March 31, 2026. Recent&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14269],"class_list":["post-64370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-second-rabies-case-confirmed-in-polk-county-in-less-than-2-weeks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64372,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64370\/revisions\/64372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}