How To Tell If A Dog Has Rabies

For this reason treatment to prevent the rabies virus from infecting your body is recommended if the doctor thinks there s a chance you have been exposed to the virus.

How to tell if a dog has rabies. Continued can you tell if an animal has rabies. Rabies aggression will show up in the initial stage or it can come after the virus has reached a dog s nervous system. The first symptoms of rabies are. Rabies is a dangerous viral disease that all mammals can suffer from so if your pet catches it besides being life threatening for your pet it is also risky for you and other people around the dog.

The rabies virus can live on the dog s skin or hair for up to 2 hours so wear gloves a long sleeved shirt and pants before handling the dog. The dog will bark at people and other animals or even at inanimate things. Rabies is contagious to humans and can be life threatening. Still a worldwide threat rabies today kills approximately 59 000 people a year mostly in africa and asia.

You might have an image in your head of a dog or raccoon acting aggressively and foaming at the mouth but it s not so easy to tell if you re. The vet will ask you about possible rabies exposure like if you ve smelled skunks in your yard or your dog has been exposed to any raccoons or bats in the area. The best thing to do is to never feed or approach a wild animal. And if any animal is acting strangely call your local animal control officer for help.

A headache fever and other flu like symptoms. And many many. Be careful of pets that you do not know. If you see a stray dog or cat don t pet it.

People can get rabies if a dog that has rabies bites them. The only way doctors can know for sure if an animal or a person has rabies is to do a laboratory tests. Rabies is not a pleasant topic but you need to take it seriously if you have a pet. At the time a rabid animal bites you there s no way to know whether the animal has transmitted the rabies virus to you.

But those are only two of the symptoms of rabies and they typically occur only after the dog displays subtler symptoms says susan nelson dvm associate clinical professor at the veterinary health center at kansas state university. When you picture a rabid dog you may imagine a canine foaming at the mouth and becoming aggressive. Most worldwide cases of rabies in dogs and cats happen when unvaccinated pets become infected from rabid wildlife.