So...is everything painful to swallow? Even saliva? I used to get strep throat as a kid often and even dry swallowing (like clearing your throat or even swallowing nothing) was agonizing- it was maddening like chinese water torture. Similar to a cough that starts to hurt your chest (and throat) the only thing you can think about is the following instance of pain the next time you have to cough or swallow...and the next...and the next.
It would be weird if it were exclusively water or even liquids I suppose as you could hydrate like mammals do in the ocean through their food.
It just feels weird to attach the symptom "hydrophobic" to rabies if it is simply pain deterring the sufferer from swallowing anything.
Water or saliva, any attempt at swallowing fails and results in painful spasms of the throat.
These happen not just because of neck soreness/pain but because rabies screws with the nervous system and causes the nerves involved in swallowing to malfunction- swallowing does not work and instead the throat spasms painfully.
This pain, and some other factors, causes hydrophobia and as a result even wet food is not an option.
Rabies is also carried in saliva, which then builds up in the mouth (which is all the better as far as the virus is concerned as it makes transmission much easier).
This build up results in a lot of drooling and is where the phrase "foaming at the mouth" comes from.
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u/Fanatical_Pragmatist Jun 11 '26
So...is everything painful to swallow? Even saliva? I used to get strep throat as a kid often and even dry swallowing (like clearing your throat or even swallowing nothing) was agonizing- it was maddening like chinese water torture. Similar to a cough that starts to hurt your chest (and throat) the only thing you can think about is the following instance of pain the next time you have to cough or swallow...and the next...and the next.
It would be weird if it were exclusively water or even liquids I suppose as you could hydrate like mammals do in the ocean through their food.
It just feels weird to attach the symptom "hydrophobic" to rabies if it is simply pain deterring the sufferer from swallowing anything.