Rabies risk

I took a dog home from a foster family yesterday. The puppy was found on the side of the road chewing on a carcass and was covered in ticks “a few weeks ago” according to the family. She has not yet been to the vet so she doesn’t have her shots (she’s being taken to the vet tomorrow).   Posting here because I have two cats in my home who are not UTD on rabies vaccine (have an appointment scheduled for this week) and worried about any risk of being around the dog. Dog is well-behaved and very sweet, does not appear to have any symptoms of anything. She’s been kept in a separate room from the cats for the most part. They’ve been in the same room for a few minutes a couple times, but trying to keep them separated until all the medical stuff is dealt with. Only “contact” between them was the dog chewed on a cat toy and one of the cats sniffed it and smacked it around for a minute and the dog sniffed one of the cat’s rears.   What other precautionary steps should I be taking and is there any risk I should be concerned about?

I wonder what diseases you are worried about transferring?  A lot of the dog diseases I'd worry about here, including Rabies, do not spread to cats.  Fleas and worms may be of concern; most fleas in Britain are now cat fleas.  They are also capable of jumping ship from one animal to the other, so it makes sense to worm and flea all of them. You will have made it to your vets now, so they will have helped you to think through the possibilities and come to a decision.   However, keeping animals biologically separate within the same household is incredibly difficult as you are already finding out and we don't usually recommend it. Best of luck and please do let us know how you are getting on.

I wonder what diseases you are worried about transferring?  A lot of the dog diseases I'd worry about here, including Rabies, do not spread to cats.  Fleas and worms may be of concern; most fleas in Britain are now cat fleas.  They are also capable of jumping ship from one animal to the other, so it makes sense to worm and flea all of them. You will have made it to your vets now, so they will have helped you to think through the possibilities and come to a decision.   However, keeping animals biologically separate within the same household is incredibly difficult as you are already finding out and we don't usually recommend it. Best of luck and please do let us know how you are getting on.