What should you know about dog have rabies?

Rabies is a serious infection transmitted when infected saliva enters a bite, scratch, mucous membrane, or open wound. You cannot confirm safety from the dog’s appearance alone. The risk assessment considers the animal, the contact, the location, local rabies patterns, and whether the dog can be observed or tested. Touching a healthy dog or contact with intact skin is not the same exposure as a bite or saliva on damaged skin.

Wash and flush a bite or scratch with plenty of soap and running water as soon as possible, then seek urgent medical care. Do not wait for symptoms and do not close a deep wound yourself. Tell the clinician when and where the contact happened, whether saliva was involved, and whether the dog is owned, vaccinated, available for observation, or has escaped. A clinician may recommend Rabies Post-Exposure Prophylaxis. Vaccination records can help, but they do not replace assessment.

Seek same-day urgent advice after any bite, scratch that breaks skin, or saliva exposure to the eyes, mouth, or an open wound. Go immediately for a deep wound, injury to the face or hand, uncontrolled bleeding, or a dog behaving unusually. Once symptoms begin, rabies is extremely serious, so prevention must be decided before then.

Ask whether your contact counts as an exposure, which wound care and vaccinations are needed, whether treatment should start now, and how the dog’s status can be verified safely.