• Transmitted via the saliva of rabid animals, passed on through bites or scratches
  
• Virtually 100% fatal in domestic animals and people
  
• Clinical signs vary from colic to lameness to neurologic disease

Rabies is known as “the great imitator” because it can present with a variety of initial clinical signs. Just ask Ann Dwyer, DVM, of the Genesee Valley Equine Clinic in Scottsville, N.Y., who has seen three rabid horses while in private practice (see page 24 for more information). She describes, “One was a juvenile Quarter Horse that presented with colic, but rapidly progressed to neurologic signs of stumbling and an unsteady gait. Another horse was crazed and had ropes of saliva coming from her mouth. She attacked anything that was near her. (This is often referred to as the furious form of rabies.) And the last horse presented with fever and being off feed. By the next day it was having difficulty swallowing and was lethargic.”

Because of the profound neurologic disease, or progression of further neurologic signs, all horses were euthanized and tested for rabies–and all were positive. Dwyer, her technicians, and several people who had contact with the horses had to receive post-exposure rabies vaccinations