Has your dog been vaccinated for rabies? Whether you own a dog or not, do you know the symptoms of the virus? Kevin Holt wishes everyone did. Holt was eight years old when a dog that hadn't been vaccinated put him at serious risk of contracting the virus himself. "I lived close enough to my school that I had the option of walking or taking the bus," Holt says. "I chose to walk that day because it was nice out, but it was very close to being a fatal mistake." Dramatic as the buildup sounds, his encounter was far from a Cujo situation. The dog didn't burst free of the chain or leap the fence between them. Instead, he noticed the animal "shambling around the yard with half a foot of chain dragging behind it," considered petting it, then decided against it because of its confused demeanor. Maybe ten feet later, he heard the same fence jingle. The dog had slipped out through a gap in another corner of the yard. "I don't know that he was coming after me," Holt says. "He certainly bit me, regardless of whatever made him decide to come out in the first place." It got him good, too. Pearl-white dots still line his upper ankle where the little dog ("Think grandma's terrier size," Holt said) managed to find a bit of exposed flesh. Holt ran home crying, his parents were alert enough to know the signs, and within an hour Holt was in the hospital. Though the dog died, it was at least given the better of two possible exits. Animal control captured the animal the same day; had they not, things wouldn't have stopped nearly so quickly. Jenna Stregowski, a veterinarian technician, said in a post to her website that afflicted animals die within about a week of contracting the rabies virus. In the time between infection and death, they can suffer a host of symptoms, including confusion, mania, and severe headaches. Foaming at the mouth, perhaps the most well-known symptom in popular culture, is the result of neck and head paralysis and the ensuing inability to swallow. "Clinical signs of rabies are rarely definitive," The Merck Veterinary Manual says about the virus. "The most reliable signs, regardless of species, are acute behavioral changes and unexplained progressive paralysis." The manual also notes two types of rabies in dogs: furious and paralytic. Both names match their descriptions well. In general, however, the guide cautions that the change itself, not the actual mood the animals shifts to, is the biggest warning sign. "This division is of limited practical value because of the variability of signs and the irregular lengths of the phases," the manual says. In plainer English, if a dog is acting weird, stay away. Prevention is by far the easiest way to deal with the virus, Stregowski says. Dogs and other pets should always be vaccinated. Due to concerns of overuse in the one-year vaccines, a three-year version is now available. "Unfortunately, there is no cure or effective treatment for rabies," Stregowski says. "Animals with obvious and advanced signs of rabies must be euthanized." Lesser-known signs of the virus include 1. General restlessness 2. Hypersensitivity to visual and audio stimuli 3. Behavior that is not hostile but still less friendly than your dog displays around other animals With any luck, you'll never see those signs (or any others) in any animals you come across. Advances in science have made treating the disease far easier when it comes to human patients, but it's still a nasty ordeal. "I felt like death for a week," Holt said of his own experience. "It was like having a kid's body and the energy of an old man." Holt now considers the experience more educational than traumatic. For instance, he says it helped him identify a potentially rabid raccoon during a camping trip with friends as a teen. But that edge of fear is still there. He thinks it probably always will be. "Hopefully more people learn about it through reading than my way," he says, laughing. "I wouldn't recommend my way to anyone."