In this stage the disposition to wander is characteristic. The rabid dog leaves his home and wanders off a long distance, say ten or twenty miles, snapping in his travels at man or beast that may irritate him, returns dirty and exhausted, and seeks anew his dark place of seclusion, or he may snap at and bite even his master. To those who come in contact with him at this time the dog is especially dangerous from his extreme irritability though weak and exhausted.
If the wandering rabid dog meets a strange dog he attacks him and bites without growling or barking. If the bitten dog does not yelp nor retaliate, but simply flees, the rabid animal moves on, but if he bites back, or howls, he worries him, rolling him over and biting again but always in silence, in marked contrast with an enraged but healthy dog. If he comes up with a herd of cattle or pigs or a flock of sheep or fowls, the result is similar. If they remain perfectly still they may possibly entirely escape, but if they scamper off with noise as usually happens, he rushes at them and bites one after another, so that in a confined yard or park all may suffer. A man meeting the dog increases his danger by making an outcry, whereas if he remains perfectly quiet he may possibly escape. Bouley says that a canine attendant is, in a sense, a measure of protection to a man, as the rabid dog attacks first the animal of his own species, giving the man a chance to escape.
In his wanderings the rabid dog will swim rivers, having no dread of water, just as at home he will plunge his nose in water though unable to swallow. When abroad in this way he exhausts himself by his paroxysms and may perish in one of them, or he may meet his death from man or animal. He may in his exhausted state seek a dark secluded place where he may remain for a time and renew his travel later, or he may pass into the paralytic condition and gradually sink.
When shut up, and his vagrant disposition curbed, the paroxysms are liable to appear intermittently, a period of torpor and quiet alternating with one of restless movement, searching, scraping, howling, biting of any animals within reach and later of men, beginning with strangers. A paroxysm can usually be roused by shaking a stick at him and always by presenting another dog.
There is sometimes a difficulty in deglutition, the dog acting as if he had a bone in his throat which he was trying to dislodge, and fatal bites have been sustained during well meant attempts to remove the hypothetical bone. This bears a resemblance to the pharyngeal spasms which are such a marked feature in the hydrophobic man. But it is not roused, as in man, by the sight or sound of water. On the contrary, water is sought and often swallowed at first and even, exceptionally, throughout the disease. He may even take his usual food for a time. The bowels are usually torpid, and any fæces passed are black and fœtid. Diarrhœa may set in later.
In the early stages the rabid dog walks or trots like any other dog. It is only when exhausted by wandering, or violent paroxysms, or both, that he droops his head and ears, hangs the tail between the legs, and slouches along with arched back, and unsteady, swaying limbs. The appearance of these last symptoms implies advancing debility and paresis, and the near approach of paraplegia. The symptoms may, however, be temporarily relieved by a period of seclusion and quiet.
In dumb or paralytic rabies the striking peculiarity is the omission of the preliminary furious stage, and the disease merges at once into paralysis after the premonitory symptoms. In these cases the early nervous symptoms tend to prostration, weakness and dulness or even stupor, there is no disposition to escape, but rather to seek seclusion and quiet, there is rarely howling and then only at first, and soon there is paralysis of the masseters and dropping of the lower jaw, and there is neither ability nor desire to bite. From this the paralysis extends to the hind limbs and then to the fore limbs and trunk. In other cases one limb is the first to suffer, followed by the face, limbs and body. The most prominent feature is the widely opened mouth, the flaccid, hanging tongue and drivelling saliva. The buccal mucosa, at first red and moist, becomes bluish, dry and powdery. The eyes are dull, mournful, suffering or altogether without expression and the pupils are usually widely dilated. The hind limbs are usually utterly helpless and often the fore ones as well, the prostration is extreme and the patient lies quiet and helpless until released by death in two or three days.
A third form, known as the lethargic, is a modification of the paralytic. There may be neither delirium nor marked paralysis, there is no drooping maxilla, pendant tongue nor stringy, hanging saliva, but only a profound, nervous prostration and complete apathy. The patient curls himself up in some dark, quiet corner and cannot be roused by coaxing or punishment, by hunger or thirst. In this, as in the dumb rabies, the common test of presenting another dog fails to rouse excitement or paroxysm. If left undisturbed, these patients may live to the tenth or fifteenth day.
Beside the typical forms there are all intermediate grades, inclining more or less toward the furious, or the paralytic or lethargic. Galtier mentions cases that showed aphasia, scarcely any disposition to bite, swaying movements of the body and limbs, muscular incoördination, tucked up, tender abdomen, rolling the body like a barrel, and marked dyspnœa. Others show at first a slight disposition to bite which is quickly checked by a very early paralysis of the masseters. In still others the attempts to bite are still seen after dropping of the jaw, but though still moved, it cannot be completely closed.
In exceptional cases rabid dogs have shown intermissions of apparent soundness extending over eight days (Youatt), two months (Pasteur), or even six months (Perrin). Rare as these are they must apparently be accepted, and must qualify to some extent the trust reposed in immunization.