18/04/2024
Rabies (Mad dog disease) ________________________________________________
Rabies is a disease of dogs, foxes, wolves, hyaenas and in some places, it is a disease of bats which feed on blood.
The disease is passed to other animals or to people if they are bitten by an animal with rabies. The germs which cause rabies live in the saliva of the sick (rabid) animal. This is a killer disease but not every dog which bites is infected with rabies.
When the rabid animal bites another animal or human, the germs which live in its saliva pass into the body through the wound caused by the bite. The germs travel along the nerves to the brain. The time between the bite and the first appearance of signs that the bitten animal or human has been infected can take from 2 to 10 weeks or more. The time taken depends on the distance of the bite from the brain. If the bite is on the face or head, the bitten animal or human will quickly show signs, but if the bite is on the leg it will take much longer for signs to develop.
General signs of rabies
You should first look for the marks of the bite and discover where and when the animal was bitten. All rabid animals show similar signs in the beginning.
they change their normal behaviour and behave very strangely.
They stop eating or drinking.
Male animal will try to mate (mount) other animals.
there is no change in the body temperature.
These signs will continue for 3 to 5 days. Then, before it dies, the animal will develop one or the other of two types of the disease:
the furious (mad) type of the disease makes the animal aggressive and it will bite anything.
The quiet (dumb) type when the animal is quiet and does not move.
Rabies in the dog
Dogs show either of the two types of rabies.
a dog with the dumb or quiet type of the disease cannot move. It looks as if it has a bone stuck in the mouth and saliva drips from the mouth.
rabies in the dog lasts about 10 days before the animal dies. If the animal does not die after this length of t