3 Signs That Your Cat Has Feline Rabies
In this article we will tell you what are the symptoms and signs that indicate if a cat has feline rabies. This disease, mainly related to dogs, also affects felines.
What to know about feline rabies
It is a viral and infectious disease that any mammal can suffer, although it is more common in dogs. Feline rabies is serious and, because it affects the central nervous system and causes encephalitis, it can lead to the death of the animal.
For a cat to become infected, it must be bitten by another infected pet or mammal. In the case of cats, we must be very careful, since they usually fight with each other when there is a female in heat or for territorial reasons. When wounds become infected and exposed, the virus is more likely to enter the body.
The good news is that feline rabies can be prevented with vaccination. The vaccine is given at four months of the animal’s life and then it is repeated every year as a booster.
In the event that you find a stray cat and take it to the vet, it will be one of the first preventives that you place. This is because it is a very serious disease, and once it is spread, the animal is likely to get worse and die.
Symptoms and signs of feline rabies
The first days after the infection of rabies you will not notice anything strange in your pet, since the virus is incubating and developing inside, and in that phase it is asymptomatic. Later, there will be certain changes in your habits and in your health. These are some of the typical signs of feline rabies:
1. Strange behavior
Since the virus mainly affects the central nervous system, the cat is likely to be more irritable, more nervous or less tolerant of contact with people. It is normal that he wants to attack his owners or other pets, that he becomes angry for anything and that he hides.
Aggression, anxiety and restlessness are the main changes if you have been infected with rabies. But if the animal has been somewhat ‘wild’ before – if it is a stray – it is likely to become a docile and lovable pet overnight.
2. Physical symptoms
Sometimes behavior changes can be attributed to other issues such as the time of year, the arrival of another pet, heat, etc. However, there are physical symptoms of feline rabies that are beyond doubt.
Among these signs we can highlight fever, excessive drooling, loss of appetite, increased water intake, excessive vocalizations, changes in meowing, apathy, listlessness and lack of personal hygiene. All this appears in the first phase of the disease.
3. Serious alterations
In the second stage of feline rabies, the behavior of the animal is much stranger than at the beginning, and that is why it is known as the ‘excited or nervous phase’. The cat will run or walk compulsively and aimlessly, will be increasingly aggressive, will have coordination problems, will suffer seizures and will bite itself, especially the tail.
Already in the last stage of rabies – called paralytic – the symptoms are more than serious and irreversible. It may suffer breathing difficulties, paralysis of some part of the body or in its entirety, suffocation and foam formation in the muzzle. Unfortunately, after that there will be nothing more to do for the animal and it will pass away shortly.
Since feline rabies has no cure – as of yet – the best way to prevent the cat from getting infected is through early vaccination.
