According to a site I found regarding rabies, an animal is not contagious unless it is showing symptom of full blown rabies.

"s an Animal Contagious During the Rabies Incubation Period?

During the rabies incubation period, a bite by the infected animal does not carry a risk of rabies because the virus is not yet in the saliva. Only late in the disease, after the rabies virus has reached the brain and multiplied there to cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), does the virus move from the brain to the salivary glands and saliva."

If the other animal l is healthy and is not showing signs of being sick, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

For more information concerning rabies, see the link below.

A dog who is infected with rabies will die within 10 days. Rabies is a slowly kills the brain and over 10 days you will see these effects in the infected animal. If the dog who bit is still alive after 18 days, you are safe and the person and dog are both fine and will not get rabies. Dogs who have bitten and have been reported as biting will be quarantined for 10 days with someone monitoring them to make sure no rabies symptoms appear. If within those 10 days the dog is still fine they do not have rabies.

A.) The person bit should still go to the doctor's and get a vaccination.

B.) Just because a dog bit someone, does not mean that it had rabies.

C.) The life-span of a dog with rabies varies. Very rare will a dog actually survive rabies.

D.) A person or dog bitten by an unknown dog (or other animal) should always be treated without waiting for symptoms, given the potentially fatal consequences of a rabid biter: there have been very few cases of someone surviving rabies when treatment was not begun until after symptoms appeared.

F.) After a typical human infection by bite, the virus enters the peripheral nervous system. It then travels along the nerves towards the central nervous system. During this phase, the virus cannot be easily detected within the host, and vaccination may still confer cell-mediated immunity to prevent symptomatic rabies. Once the virus reaches the brain, it rapidly causes encephalitis. This is called the “prodromal” phase. At this time, treatment is useless. Then symptoms appear. Rabies may also inflame the spinal cord producing myelitis.

The period between infection and the first flu-like symptoms is normally two to twelve weeks, but can be as long as two years. Soon after, the symptoms expand to slight or partial paralysis, cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, terror, hallucinations, progressing to delirium.[citation needed] The production of large quantities of saliva and tears coupled with an inability to speak or swallow are typical during the later stages of the disease; this can result in “hydrophobia”, where the victim has difficulty swallowing because the throat and jaw become slowly paralyzed, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst. The disease itself was also once commonly known as hydrophobia, from this characteristic symptom. The patient “foams at the mouth” because they cannot swallow their own saliva for days and it gathers in the mouth until it overflows.

Death almost invariably results two to ten days after the first symptoms; the few humans who are known to have survived the disease[citation needed] were all left with severe brain damage.

G.) In Rabies: The Facts[6], Kaplan et. al. describe several typical cases, including one of a 23 year-old Englishwoman:

“On June 17, 1981 she was bitten on the ankle by a dog in New Delhi. On August 18, about two months later, she experienced the first prodromal symptoms. She became anxious and depressed, and it became impossible for her to drink more than small sips of liquid. While sleeping, she frequently sat up in bed suddenly, terrified. On August 19, she became confused, hallucinated, and was incontinent of urine. On August 20, she was unable to eat or drink and was taken to the hospital where she hallucinated and screamed in terror. Misdiagnosed as a psychiatric case, she was injected with a tranquilizer and sent home, however she repeatedly woke up screaming in fear and became so wild and agitated that her husband felt he could not deal with her by himself and took her to her mother's house. She remained terrified, hallucinating and screaming in horror throughout the night. She had no water for almost three days. She fell into a coma the next morning, and died on August 23.”

http://www.deperros.org/saludycuidados/r... : This page is originally in Castilian, or Spanish, but I earned an online translator to translate into your language, a friend of Australia. I live in Cocorote, Yaracuy State, Venezuela, and I hope that the information here appears to be of some help you for your concern. Until then, then.

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The canine rabies

By: Dogs

The canine rabies is a disease present in all continents and is caused by a virus of the family Rhabdoviridae.

Although all mammals can be infected with the rabies virus, dogs are the main transmitters of the disease in the world.

The only places in the world where there is no rabies virus are Australia, the British Isles and Antarctica. Apart from these places, the rabies virus exists anywhere else in the world.

This disease is fatal and can affect human beings. Therefore, all countries take measures to prevent, contain and try to eliminate it.

Transmission of canine rabies

The canine rabies is transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal. Normally this happens through a bite, but some have been documented cases where the rabies virus has been transmitted in aerosol particles floating in the air. These cases, however, are strangers and only have happened in many inhabited caves where bats infected.

The most common carrier of rabies throughout the world is the dog, but any mammal can be. In some places, cats are carriers more frequently than dogs.

Wild animals can also be carriers of the rabies virus and, as such, can transmit it to domestic animals or to humans. Bats, raccoons, skunks and foxes are common carriers of rabies virus.

It is known that the rabies virus does not last much beyond a body alive. It has been reported that can remain active on carcasses of animals up to 24 hours but not more.

Symptoms and diagnosis of canine rabies

The rabies virus has different incubation times in different species and produces three phases of symptoms characteristic, although not always show all phases. While all mammals are susceptible to rabies, we know that skunks can be asymptomatic carriers in some cases.

Symptoms of rabies in dogs usually appear between three and eight weeks after infection. However, cases have been reported incubation longer, up to six months.

In humans, symptoms usually appear between three and six weeks after infection, but also have been reported cases of incubation longer.

The phases characteristics of rabies are:

 Prodromal phase. It is characterized by behaviors aprehensible, nervous, anxious and voluntary isolation of the dog. It also produces fever. The conduct tends to change during this phase, making dog-friendly form of acting suspicious, timid or irritable. The aggressive dogs can become docile and friendly. This phase usually lasts two to three days in the dog.

 Phase furious. It does not always show, but when it does feature is the phase of what is known as "furious anger". It is characterized by irritability of the animal and hypersensitivity to visual and auditory stimuli. At this stage, the dog does not rest often and seems to be active long time. Dogs bite everything that puts them on the road and with the progress of the disease, showing disoriented and end up having convulsions. Eventually die. This phase normally lasts between one and seven days in dogs.

 Phase paralytic. This phase is characteristic of what is known as "dumb rabies" or "paralytic rabies" and neither is presented in all cases. May occur after the phase or Phase prodrómica furious. Its symptoms include paralysis of the muscles of the head and neck. Thus, the dog can no longer swallow and saliva constantly. The lower jaw was paralyzed leaving his mouth open, the landlord may give the impression that your dog has something stuck in my throat. Eventually, the paralysis affects the diaphragm and the dog died of respiratory failure.

The diagnosis of rabies is based on an analysis of nerve tissue of the brain, making it necessary to kill the dog to diagnose whether it has rabies or not.

There have also been tried other techniques to diagnose rabies in early states, without killing the animal. Among these techniques is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR by its acronym in English), but for the moment the precise diagnosis involves the death of the dog to analyze your brain.

Prevention and treatment of canine rabies

There is no treatment for rabies once symptoms have been submitted. In these cases, the affected individual is sentenced to death.

However, there are e