While symptoms such as fever, headache and feeling a bit under the weather may seem benign, to someone who has suffered an animal bite they may reflect the onset of a serious viral infection: rabies.

And, the illness almost always proves fatal within days, according to information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The infection attacks the central nervous system and causes encephalopathy – disease of the brain – and therefore also causes neurological symptoms. As the illness progresses, symptoms include agitation and anxiety, confusion, difficulty swallowing and excessive salivation, fear of water, hallucinations, insomnia and partial paralysis.

Because the illness does not cause symptoms until late in the infection, experts advise seeking immediate medical treatment to anyone who has suffered an animal bite, according to information from the Mayo Clinic. A doctor can make the determination, based on the injury and its circumstances, whether to proceed with rabies treatment.

The CDC recommends a three-step post-exposure treatment protocol. The treatment includes thorough cleansing of all wounds, the administering of Rabies Immune Globulin both at the wound site and another location on the body, and a vaccine.

In the United States, bats, coyotes, raccoons, foxes and skunks are the most likely animals to transmit the rabies virus. Sometimes domestic animals, such as dogs and cats, come into contact with those wild animals.

A pet that has not received the proper rabies vaccinations also is at risk of contracting the illness following a bite from an infected animal. Cats, in recent years, have become the most common domesticated animal to contract rabies, according to information from the American Veterinary Medical Association. The disease also occurs in dogs and cattle in significant numbers, and, to a lesser extent, in other domesticated animals.

Dogs, cats and ferrets may exhibit a variety of symptoms. Common symptoms include fearfulness, aggression, excessive drooling, difficulty swallowing, seizures and staggering, according to the AVMA. Other domesticated animals, such as horses and goats, may also show signs of depression, self mutilation and increased sensitivity to light.

Infected wild animals may simply exhibit unusual behavior, such as a typically nocturnal animal wandering during the daytime.

The AMVA recommends that people stay away from wild animals and stray domestic animals, and to vaccinate their pets. Such prevention practices, animal control efforts and improved treatment for people who have suffered animal bites, have greatly decreased the number of human rabies cases in the United States. In recent years, the relatively few human cases reported in the U.S. have been caused by exposure to bats.

Once a mammal, whether human or animal, begins to exhibit symptoms of rabies the disease is nearly always fatal. Therefore, people who are at risk of being infected should be vaccinated, and pets should be vaccinated according to a veterinarian’s recommendations. Further, anyone who has had a physical encounter with a wild animal should seek immediate medical attention, even if a bite is not obvious.

Prior to 1885, there was no way to contain the rabies virus until Louis Pasteur
found a vaccine by using the nerve tissue from infected rabbits. However, even
though the vaccine offers hope, once symptoms appear for a diagnosis of rabies,
it is too late to save the infected victim, whether animal or human, since the
virus is usually fatal at that point. Even though presently there is no way to
eradicate this virus, it can be lessened if owners have their pets inoculated
every other year in the event they come in contact with a rabid wild animal.

Rabies symptoms to watch out for in animals possibly carrying this virus are tell-tale.
A wild animal that displays little fear of humans may be rabid and should never
be approached. In addition, if the animal is nocturnal but seen being active in
daylight, it is important to report it to your local animal control
organization. However, if the animal is your pet, one that hasn’t been updated
with the rabies shot, signs could be anything from sudden mood changes,
drooling and/or going into hiding.

Humans can also be infected with the rabies virus and must get treatment prior
to any rabies symptoms appearing. If the human was bitten by an animal, it is
important to determine if that animal was infected with the virus. If the bite
was from an undomesticated animal, such as a bat or raccoon, this will be most
difficult to do since the animal needs to be captured and examined. However, if
the bite was from someone?s pet, the animal must be watched for at least ten
days to determine if there are signs of the virus. There used to be a time when
the animal had to be killed so that its brain tissue could be examined for the
virus; however, today a blood test can determine if the animal has been
infected.  The incubation period is approximately three to seven weeks before
there are any rabies symptoms, but since time is of essence, a blood test can
eliminate the waiting game.

Unlike rabies symptoms found in animals, humans infected with rabies show different
reactions to the disease.  Early rabies symptoms include a fever, stomach pain, sore
throat, itchiness or pain where the bite occurred, and restlessness or anxiety;
of course, thinking one may be possibly infected with rabies would be enough
reason for anxiety. Rabies symptoms that appear later on include all of the above, as
well as, hallucinations and delirium, muscle spasms, seizures, paralysis and
finally coma and respiratory failure. It was Louis Pasteur who first used the
vaccine on a nine year old boy infected with the virus. His life was saved. The
treatment, though, was extremely painful, requiring twenty-three injections
daily.  Fortunately, treatment today requires that the patient receive four
injections during a scheduled period.

Most importantly, in order to avoid coming in contact with this virus, pet
owners must be responsible and make sure their animals are updated on their
vaccinations. Also, children must be taught early on not to ever approach any
wild animal and always ask an adult if they can approach someone?s pet, since
prevention is the key to staying healthy.

Rabies is a disease that humans and animals may contract from being bitten by an animal infected with the rabies virus. Many creatures are susceptible to the rabies virus, including dogs, cats and human beings, but the disease is most commonly transferred by saliva from wild animals to family pets through a bite. The disease then settles in the muscle tissue where the virus grows undetected until it begins to migrate to the nervous system, and it is at this time that the first outward rabies symptoms begin to show.

The rabies virus, present in the saliva of an infected animal, is usually spread by a bite or scratch that punctures the victim’s skin. Human rabies is relatively rare in the United States (only 27 cases have been reported since 1990); domestic animals are more likely to contract the disease.

In either case, it helps to know the symptoms of rabies in case you or your pet is bitten. When a person or animal is infected with the rabies virus, the virus multiplies within the body until rabies symptoms develop. This time period between infection and the onset of rabies symptoms is called the incubation period. The rabies incubation period may vary from a few days to several years, but is typically one to three months. The rabies virus has a strong affinity for cells of the nervous system. It enters nerve cells at the site of the wound, travels to the brain, and then follows other nerve pathways to muscles and organs that are especially affected by rabies.

Early symptoms of rabies in humans are similar to flu symptoms and include fever, chills, headaches and fatigue, accompanied by pain, tingling and itching around the bite area. As the disease progresses, neurological symptoms appear, including insomnia, anxiety, confusion, paralysis, hallucinations, agitation and tremendous thirst. Most human and animal victims suffer excruciating pain on swallowing liquids. In addition, both animal and human victims can be terrified by the sight of water, a condition called hydrophobia. In the final stage of the disease, affected humans display foaming at the mouth, slack-jawed appearance and full body paralysis, which results in death.

Animals infected with rabies may initially only exhibit mild symptoms, such as behavior changes, loss of appetite and fever. As the disease progresses, they may appear aggressive, crazed, or vicious, the “mad dog” phase of rabies. However, animals infected with rabies may also appear overly friendly, docile, or confused. Seeing a normally nocturnal wild animal during the day or a normally shy wild animal that appears strange or even friendly should raise suspicion that the animal may have rabies.

In the third stage of the disease, animal rabies symptoms are similar to humans, with a slack-jawed appearance and paralysis. In animal rabies cases, death occurs a few days after symptoms appear, usually from respiratory failure. If you suspect your pet or someone you know may have been exposed to a possible rabies infection, contact your veterinarian or physician at the earliest opportunity.

Signs and Symptoms of Rabies

One of the most frightening diseases that can be caught by warm-blooded animals is rabies.  Rabies causes acute encephalitis and is transmitted by animals by various forms of contact (most commonly by a bite).  Rabies can be transmitted from animal to animal as well as from animal to human.  In humans, if the disease is not diagnosed and treated directly after exposure, it can be fatal.  It is imperative to know rabies symptoms to prevent the spread of this disease.

There are three basic phases to rabies – prodromal, furious, and paralytic.  Each phase lasts from about 2 to 4 days.  Keep in mind that rabies can be contracted and be latent for many days, even months.  Knowing the normal behavior patterns of one’s pet can help one detect rabies early on and prevent the spread of rabies to other animals and humans.  Unfortunately, once the rabies symptoms begin to appear, there is no treatment for the animal in question.

Prodromal phase

The earliest signs of rabies in an animal are rather subtle.  Some of the dog and cat rabies symptoms noted can be results of other non-related conditions such as digestive issues or general health problems.  In the prodromal phase, pet owners should be on the look-out for the following indicators:

• In dogs, a change in bark tone
• Loss of appetite
• Fever
• Behavior changes – normally excitable animal is calm or very calm animal is overly excited
• Obsessive chewing at the bite site

Furious phase

The furious phase of rabies may not always be experienced by all infected animals.  Some animals will go directly from the prodromal phase to the paralytic phase.  The furious phase is so named due to an animal’s erratic and severely aggressive posture.  Some of the signs of the furious phase include:

• Dilated pupils
• Erratic and aggressive behavior
• Urges to eat everything (inedible objects included)
• Disoriented behavior
• Restlessness and roaming
• Muscle coordination issues
• Seizures

Paralytic phase

The final phase of rabies symptoms, paralytic, is an indicator that the disease will progress rapidly at this point and the animal is close to death.  It is at this phase that the animal will become totally paralyzed, enter a coma, and die.  If an animal has progressed this far, there are a few initial indicators:

• Paralysis of the throat, jaw, and surrounding muscles
• Choking
• In dogs, the lower jaw will drop
• Inability to swallow – resulting “foaming” of the saliva

Prevention

Once you see these rabies symptoms, the best prevention of the spread of rabies is ensuring one’s pets are properly vaccinated against the disease.  However, this is not the only preventative measure that can be taken.  Ensuring unwanted animals are either found a new home or turned over to a local animal shelter and rabies education are two additional tactics that go a long way to preventing the spread of rabies. Asking a local veterinarian for the numbers one should call should a suspicious animal be spotted is also extremely helpful.  Being knowledgeable of human, dog, and cat rabies symptoms as well as preventative measures can go a long way in keeping the spread of rabies under control.

Feeling irritable? Have a headache? Fever?

You might have rabies.

These common rabies symptoms, most often associated with a run-of-the-mill cold or even influenza, rarely bring to mind the word “rabies” in developed nations. These days, the worst-case scenario among Americans who have a headache or feel feverish is usually swine flu. But doctors in developing nations know that rabies is still a possible diagnosis for patients who report what seem to be harmless human rabies symptoms. “Human rabies is rare in the United States, but still frequently occurs in many developing nations,” reports the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, citing the state’s most recent case of human rabies in 2004.

Unlike the warning signs for H1N1 or a cold, rabies symptoms in humans are not a call to administer medicine. By the time rabies symptoms appear, it is too late for treatment. Most often the result of a bite from a rabid animal, rabies can also be transmitted to humans via a rabid-animal scratch or from its saliva coming into contact with broken skin.

While most people are aware of contact with a rabid animal, even those in developed nations can be exposed to rabies and remain unaware. Cases of young children being bitten or scratched by a bat have been reported. Also at risk are mentally incapacitated adults and sleeping adults who may be in the same room as a bat and have no idea they’ve been bitten or scratched. Rabies symptoms – the irritability, headaches, fever, itching at the wound site – are initially innocuous. But they progress to throat spasms. The central nervous system eventually shuts down; convulsions are followed by paralysis and death.

Adding to the difficulty of diagnosing rabies is the fact that after the initial exposure, there can be an incubation period of more than one year. That child or mentally incapacitated adult, or even the sleeping adult, who seeks medical treatment once the rabies symptoms appear will likely not lead medical professionals to immediately think “rabies.” Rare in the United States, it does occur.

Little discussed in America, rabies is still enough of a concern it merits its own “Kid’s Page” on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. (http://www.cdc.gov/rabiesandkids/warning.html) Accompanied by cartoons of dogs and bats, the child-oriented text is straightforward: “If someone is bitten, it can take many months to show signs of rabies, but by then it’s almost always fatal.” The site focuses primarily on rabies symptoms in animals so that children can recognize the warning signs. Special emphasis is placed on alerting young readers to the danger of bats: “In the United States…it is bites from bats that cause the most rabies in people.” The CDC goes on to alert children, “If you discover a bat in your house, especially in the room where you’re sleeping, you should act as if you were bitten and tell an adult as soon as you can.”

So, feeling irritable? Have a headache? A fever? It’s not so far-fetched, even today and even in America, that these could be rabies symptoms.

The image of a rabid animal foaming at the mouth and raging about madly is only partly accurate.   Animals infected with the virus may not exhibit any rabies symptoms for several days or even months, and rabies indicators, the classic “mad dog” rabies symptoms, may not appear until the later stages of the disease.

What is Rabies?

Rabies is a virus that infects mammals, attacking the central nervous system, and is almost always fatal, even to humans.  There are several variants of the rabies virus in the United States, each infecting a particular mammal, including bats, skunks, coyotes, raccoons and foxes.

The rabies virus is carried in an infected animal’s saliva and is most commonly transmitted through biting.  It has also been known to spread from an infected animal’s saliva when it comes into contact with broken skin and mucus membranes (nose, mouth, eyes.)

Rabies Symptoms

Until the rabies virus attacks the infected animal’s brain, it will not have any obvious signs of infection.  Once the virus has attacked the brain, the animal may exhibit odd behaviors.  These can include:

• Losing their fear of humans and/or seeming unnaturally friendly
• Depression
• Seeking isolation

They may also exhibit physical rabies symptoms such as:

• Abnormal facial expressions, including a sagging jaw
• Paralyzed hind limbs
• Drooping head

As the infection continues, more erratic, aggressive behavior can result, including:

• Attacking other animals or humans
• Attacking inanimate objects
• Biting their own limbs

Rabies Symptoms in Humans

Human Rabies symptoms are related to the virus attacking the brain as well.  Symptoms in humans include:

• General flu-like symptoms, such as lethargy, fever, and headache, that may last several days
• Pain at the wound site
• Anxiety and agitation
• Insomnia
• Confusion, progressing to delirium
• Hallucinations

Unfortunately, once these rabies symptoms appear, the disease is almost always fatal.

How to Avoid Contracting Rabies

There are two ways to avoid contracting rabies.  The first is to avoid contact with potentially infected animals, and the second is vaccination.

To avoid contact with wild animals and stray pets:

• Do not feed stray pets.
• Do not pet or approach stray pets.
• Avoid and wild animal, livestock, or stray pet that you do not know well.
• Teach children to void and wild animal, livestock, or stray pet that you do not know well.
• Do not handle dead, sick or injured animals.
• Feed pets indoors and keep them indoors at night.
• Do not let pets wander – keep them fenced or leashed.
• Do not keep wild animals as pets.
• Report animals that exhibit odd behaviors to your local animal control officer.
• Securely store trash cans and compost bins – easy access to garbage and compost provides an irresistible meal for wild animals.

Vaccinating is also critical to avoiding contact with rabies.

• Make sure your pets are vaccinated against rabies.  Most states require dogs to be vaccinated; many require cats and ferrets to be vaccinated as well.
• People who come into frequent contact with stray pets and wildlife, such as veterinarians, veterinary assistants, and animal control officers, should keep up to date on rabies vaccinations to protect themselves should they become exposed to the virus.

As with many diseases, prevention is the best medicine.  If you see an animal you suspect of having rabies symptoms, be sure to report it to your local animal control officer.  If you think you may have been exposed to rabies, contact a medical professional immediately.