More Dangerous Than Ever...

You are walking along, minding your own business when...oh, look at that cute dog. Where is the owner? You don't want to leave it wandering around aimlessly, so... being the good person you are you decide to add another boarder to your home until you can find the owner. You choose to give him a name...after you realize it is a "him" of course. Let's see. He's a shy little guy. How about "Bashy" since that is easier to say than "Bashful"? You are not aware that this pup has rabies. You can, however, see that a wash is in order. Okay, let's face it. You want to be a good Samaritan to this dog, so the little guy gets a "makeover"... courtesy of "you". Everybody falls in love with this cute, cuddly canine. There is only one problem. You see, when he was a scruffy stray a person might have noticed that something was a little off. An experienced eye would see his skittishness. Could that behavior be normal? If a dog catcher was called he would have verified that the dog had rabies.

Rabies is a disease caused by a virus that can affect the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) of any kind of mammal, including humans.

It's not always easy to detect rabies, since infected animals spread the disease through their saliva or brain matter. (Yuk) People may be exposed to rabies when they are bitten by an infected wild or domestic animal. Fortunately for us, because of widespread animal vaccination programs, people in North America aren't exposed very often to rabies; it's more common in developing nations.

Signs of rabies in animals may include having excessive saliva or sometimes foaming at the mouth, paralysis, or behavioral changes in your pet (such as shyness when the pet was friendly) or no fear of humans in a wild animal.

A rabies infection in humans begins with vague symptoms such as fever, cough, or sore throat followed in several days by more serious and rapidly progressing symptoms such as restlessness, hallucinations, and seizures. The final stage is coma and death.

Rabies is nearly always fatal if not treated before the appearance of symptoms.

Now that this little guy has been "cleaned up" on the outside, it will be much more difficult to detect a problem...and because of that, he is...

More Dangerous Than Ever...