What Does Rabies Look Like?

'What does rabies look like' is one of those questions that has either no answer at all or a million answers. To put it in other words, it depends on how it effects the particular animal or human that is infected by it. With animals, it is usually a general look of being unwell, as well as a combination of behavioral changes.

• What Does Rabies Look Like on a Dog

There are a couple of pictures of dogs infected with rabies on this website. It should, however, be noted that this is not necessarily a typical look. In any case, there are two main forms of rabies which may manifest themselves in quite different ways. These forms are known as the furious and the dumb form.

• Furious Rabies

Animals infected with this type are likely to exhibit intense agitation and increase in aggressiveness in the early stages of the disease, usually followed by depression, paralysis and ultimately death.

• Dumb Rabies

This form causes animals to be extremely lethargic, again accompanied by depression and ultimately followed by death. In either case, it is not always possible to be sure if an animal has rabies or not.

• Some Signs of Rabies

If a pet suddenly starts acting like a dangerous wild animal, or if a wild animal is excessively tame, however, there is a chance that rabies may be involved and precautions should be taken.

Other signs may include viciousness; snapping wildly at anything and anyone; excessive flow of saliva or frothing at the mouth, sometimes tinged with blood; biting itself to the point of breaking teeth and others.

• Rabies in Humans

First symptoms may appear like flu, with weakness, fever and headaches. These are usually followed by cerebral dysfunction, confusion, anxiety and agitation, then insomnia, delirium, hallucinations, abnormal behavior and eventually death.

Your dog may have foam around its mouth, but that does not mean it has rabies. If it looks generally happy then your dog does not have rabies!
It will usually look aggressive if it has rabies.
Tail wagging is a sure sign that your dog is O.K.

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