A Lee County, Fla., horse was confirmed positive for rabies last week, according to numerous published reports. A report from News-Press.com, a local news website, indicated that the horse, who resided in North Fort Myers, was the first rabies-related death of a domestic animal in Lee County in two years.

Rabies–a zoonotic disease that can be spread from animals to humans–is caused by a lyssavirus that affects the neurologic system and salivary glands. Horses are exposed most commonly through the bite of another rabid animal.

Rabies’ clinical are variable and can take up to 12 weeks to appear after the initial infection. Although affected horses are sometimes asymptomatic, an infected horse can show behavioral changes such as drowsiness, depression, fear, or aggression. Once clinical signs appear, there are no treatment options.

Rabies can only be diagnosed postmortem by submitting the horse’s head to a local public health laboratory to identify the rabies virus using a test called fluorescence antibody. Thus, ruling out all other potential diseases first is very important in these cases to avoid potentially unnecessary euthanasia