All About Rabies: Symptoms & Treatments

Anyone familiar with Stephen King’s canine-centric horror Cujo likely has nightmares about rabies. The classic, heartfelt tale of Old Yeller gives us another look at the tragic side of this serious disease. However, the good news is that rabies is preventable, so knowing how to protect your pet and yourself is essential.

What Is Rabies?

Rabies is a fatal viral disease that affects the central nervous system. If left untreated, rabies leads to severe brain inflammation, resulting in significant behavioral changes, convulsions, and death.

Rabies Symptoms

It’s always wise to avoid wild animals or unfamiliar domestic dogs, cats, and other pets since they could potentially have rabies. If an animal is newly infected, they may carry the disease but not yet show symptoms.

However, if you notice an animal exhibiting any of the following signs of rabies, stay away. Call your local animal control, health department, or wildlife trapper to report the situation. If it is an animal you know, alert the owner and your vet.

• Restlessness
• Heavy fatigue
• Behavioral changes
• Nausea
• Fever
• Self-inflicted scratching and biting
• Increased aggression
• Biting, snapping, clawing
• Fear of water
• Incoordination
• Excessive drooling
• Difficulty swallowing
• Rear limb paralysis
• Respiratory arrest

Symptom Stages

Rabies tends to go through three stages, and the symptoms listed above reflect the order in which you most likely notice them. The initial symptoms may appear to be a cold or flu-like illness. These symptoms occur roughly two to three days after exposure during the Prodromal Stage and can last two to ten days. 

The middle stage is the acute-neurologic stage or Furious Stage, and it lasts between one and seven days. This stage starts to show the signs that are more typical of the rabies you see in movies with the aggression, biting, growling, etc.

During the last few days of infection, the infected animal or person enters the Paralytic Stage. During this period, animals lose control and are unable to eat, walk, think clearly, or breathe properly.

Do All Animals Get Rabies?

Rabies primarily affects mammals, including humans. Most animals with rabies in the United States are wild animals, primarily bats, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, and skunks. 

Despite what Hollywood films would lead you to believe, coming in contact with a rabid dog is uncommon in the US. However, it is much more common to encounter a domestic dog with rabies in other countries, particularly in Asian and African nations. 

How Does Rabies Spread?

Infected animals spread rabies through their saliva with the disease usually entering the bloodstream through a scratch or bite. Bats are the leading cause of rabies-related human deaths in the United States.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rabies is currently found on every continent except for Antarctica. To limit rabies exposure, there are strict rules regarding traveling abroad with pets.

Diagnosing and Treating Rabies

One of the biggest challenges with diagnosing rabies is that by the time an animal shows signs of the disease, it’s too late. Rabies has a broad incubation period (on average 21 to 80 days in dogs and sometimes years in humans). Doctors definitively diagnose most rabies cases post-mortem by testing the affected brain tissue of the animal.

To hopefully recover from rabies, an infected animal or individual must act immediately. It’s essential to undergo treatment as soon as possible after exposure.

If your pet encounters a rabid animal, you must take them to a vet at once. Your vet will quarantine your pet and give them post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). This treatment can vary by state, and it only has a chance of working before showing any symptoms.

In some cases, your pet receives an immediate rabies vaccination and goes into a 90-day quarantine. During the third and eighth week of quarantine, they’ll get rabies boosters. However, in other areas, the quarantine could be three to six months following an immediate single-dose vaccine.

What Should You Do if You’re Exposed to Rabies?

The most important thing to do if you suspect rabies exposure is to wash the wound with soap and water for 15 minutes. Then, contact your doctor immediately.

Public health officials and your doctor will discuss various things with you to determine your risk of infection. Be prepared to answer what the animal was, do you know the animal, and if the animal was acting strangely. Also, take note of where you were when you were bitten or scratched.

If you have access to the animal, health workers can run tests to see if rabies is present. Or, for example, if your neighbor’s dog bites you, you can get verification of the animal’s rabies vaccination.

In cases of healthy unvaccinated pets, it’s possible to delay treatment for two to three days and monitor the pet. However, if it’s an unknown animal, wildlife, or an animal acting strangely, you will most likely need to begin treatment immediately.

Rabies treatments can cost over $6,000, so officials carefully assess the whole picture to determine if infection is likely. If it’s necessary to proceed with treatment, the procedure is much more standard for humans than it is for pets. The PEP procedure for people is usually a single dose of anti-rabies antibodies and four vaccines over two weeks.

Tips for Preventing Rabies

To prevent your pet from getting rabies, practice the following habits.

• Make sure your pet is up-to-date on all their vaccinations. In the US, rabies vaccines are mandatory in many states.
• Keep your dog on a leash when exploring outdoors.
• Avoid contact with wild or unfamiliar animals, both dead and alive.
• Feed your pet indoors and keep their food dishes inside.
• Keep your outdoor trash cans tightly closed or locked to prevent wildlife from coming near your home.
• Call animal control to report stray animals in your neighborhood.

To protect yourself from rabies exposure, it’s also critical to be aware of your surroundings and stay away from unknown animals. If you see an animal in distress, call the appropriate local officials, and stay cautious around wildlife.

Consider your lifestyle to determine if you would benefit from a rabies vaccine. Certain individuals are at higher risk of contracting rabies.

People at Increased Risk of Rabies Exposure

If you travel internationally and spend considerable time in rabies-prevalent areas, you may need certain vaccines. Consult with your doctor if you think rabies could be a potential problem.

You should also ask your doctor about getting the rabies vaccine if you spend a lot of time outdoors in areas where wildlife encounters are likely. For example, if you often engage in wilderness camping, hunting, or cave-exploring, vaccination might make sense for you.

Professions that require contact with animals, such as animal control officers, wildlife experts, or veterinarians have an increased risk of rabies exposure. If you work in one of these fields, you should consider getting vaccinated to protect yourself.

Stay Informed About Rabies and Keep Your Pet Safe

Staying informed about rabies is your first step in keeping you and your pet safe. Prevention is very possible, so take advantage of vaccinations and know the risks of rabies exposure. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of public health officials, veterinary medicine, and proper wildlife management, it’s rare for humans to contract rabies.

Furthermore, the rabies vaccine keeps millions of dogs and cats safe each year. For more information about how to keep your pet safe, check out the rest of the Neater Pets blog.