When someone gets bitten by an animal, why do we need its head to tell if it has rabies before treating them (shouldn’t we treat them for rabies regardless)?

Question

When someone gets bitten by an animal, why do we need its head to tell if it has rabies before treating them (shouldn’t we treat them for rabies regardless)?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Rabies infects the brain, so they need to examine the animal’s brain at the state lab.

You don’t want to go through rabies treatment unless you have to. It sucks. It’s painful and can be expensive.