Rabies is one of the best known canine diseases, but do you really know how to detect if your dog has been infected? Knowing the symptoms is vital to saving our furry's life, since if you don't treat yourself in time, it's deadly. Furthermore it's contagious even to the human being, so by treating it correctly we are protecting ourselves.
Dogs can get sick and have a weird attitude sometimes, but how do I know if my dog has rabies? This disease shows very concrete signs that we must know to save our dog's life if it has been infected through a bite from another dog. The rabies virus incubates for the first three to eight weeks after being infected, although this period can sometimes last a little longer. This disease has three phases, although not all of them are always manifested.
If you have had a fight, behave strangely or have a fever and if you want know if your dog has rabies Continue reading this PeritoAnimal article to find out information about this disease and detect it in time.
Steps to follow: 1Look for wounds or bite marks: this disease is often transmitted through saliva, so how do you know if your dog has rabies? If you fought another dog, look for it immediately the wounds that may have caused you. This way you will know if your puppy is exposed to rabies. If you believe you may be infected, you should quickly take it to the vet for a review.
2 The first symptoms you may notice during the first stage of the disease are very strange attitudes and that, although they are not symptoms that confirm the disease, they can serve to set off the alarm.
Dogs may have muscle pain, fever, weakness, nervousness, fear, anxiety, photophobia or loss of appetite, among other symptoms. These signs could be due to other problems, but if your puppy has been bitten by another dog, it should take him to the vet to know what problem you have.
3 At a later stage, the dog will start to show a furious attitude which is more characteristic of the disease and which gives it the name "rabies".
The symptoms they present will be the following:
- excessive salivation. It may have the typical white foam with which this disease is related.
- an uncontrollable urge to bite things.
- excessive irritability. In the face of any stimulus, the dog becomes aggressive, growls and tries to bite.
- loss of appetite and hyperactivity.
Some less common symptoms can be lack of orientation and even seizures.
4 If we don't pay attention to the previous symptoms and we don't take the dog to the vet, the disease will enter the most advanced stage, although there are dogs that don't even get to suffer it.
In this step the dog's muscles start to become paralyzed, from its hind legs to its neck and head. You will also have lethargy, continue to pour white foam from your mouth, bark abnormally and have difficulty swallowing due to paralysis of the muscles.
It is very important that puppies are properly vaccinated to avoid this terrible disease. Read our full article on the rabies vaccine.
This article is for information purposes only, at PeritoAnimal.com.br we are not able to prescribe veterinary treatments or perform any type of diagnosis. We suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case it has any type of condition or discomfort.