Rabies Symptoms

While our common conception of a rabid animal often produces an image of a ravaging "Old Yeller" or vampire-like bats, infected animals are often not as easy to detect. 

An animal exposed to the rabies virus may not experience the onset of symptoms for two weeks, up to many months. The rabies virus can be found in an animal’s saliva days before any obvious signs make their appearance. But ultimately, any animal that has the virus will develop rabies and eventually die of the disease. With this in mind, it is extremely important to take precautions when dealing with any wild or unfamiliar domestic animal.

Foaming at the mouth and erratic behavior are two of the most widely known rabies symptoms. However, there are actually two categories of behavior that rabies produces: "dumb" and "furious" rabies.

Dumb Rabies 

• Animals may become depressed and retreat to isolated places
• Wild animals may lose their fear of humans
• Signs of paralysis such as a drooping head, paralyzed hind limbs, abnormal facial expressions, and a sagging jaw may be exhibited by animals

Furious Rabies

Animals may show extreme excitement and aggression such as:

• attacking stationary objects or other animals
• gnawing and biting their own limbs

Also, bouts of furious rabies often alternate with periods of depression.