The disease known as rabies is a disease that happens in mostly all warm blooded animals such as: bats, foxes and raccoons. People are also at risk in getting rabies.

Rabies is known as a type of dog disease can be contracted from an already affected dog or other warm blooded animals. In order for rabies to develop, the saliva of the affected dog must transfer to the bloodstream of the victim by an open wound, mucus membrane, or even a bite.

The timeframe between the infection and the development of symptoms or the incubation period differs for this type of dog disease. The incubation period is usually between 2 - 3 weeks but can take up to several months.

Because the rabies virus travels to the brain along nerve networks, the farther the location of infection from the brain, will affect the process of the incubation period of rabies. After rabies gets travels o the brain of its victim, it then journeys along the nerves to the salivary glands where it starts to increase.

So, the sign of the dog disease, rabies, is due to what is known as encephalitis, or the inflammation of the brain. The early sign of this dog disease known as rabies may be as simple as a detectable and not explainable change in a canine’s behavior. If your dog is very quiet and friendly, this dog disease may turn him into a violent and ill-tempered dog. An introverted and quiet dog may abruptly become excessively affectionate. Another sign of the rabies dog disease is when a dog develops a fever accompanied with vomiting and diarrhea.

As the dog disease rabies escalates, your dog will be affected by showing a violent and angry behavior. Your dog could also become paralytic, and a dog with rabies may show signs of single and sometimes both behaviors.

The violent and ill-tempered behavior that is in connection with rabies is what is often known as “mad dog behavior”. When a dog has mad dog behavior, he tends to react in a ferocious and aggressive manner and will not hesitate to bite anything that comes across his path. Eventually, he will go through intermittent convulsions that increase in length and frequency. Then paralysis will set in and eventually lead to death.

With a paralytic form of this type of dog disease, the dog’s head muscles become paralyzed and results in the mouth falling open and the tongue hanging out. At this point, a dog with rabies dog will be unable to swallow and is extremely thirsty. A dog with rabies will begin to drool often and paws at his mouth because of paralysis. During the progressive stages of this dog disease, paralysis takes control of the dog’s whole body.