A dog bite?

[hassassin]

3 years ago, I was bitten and licked(on my toes) by a small dog. My skin seemed intact, without any scratch. However, I'm not sure that if my fingers touched the toes to check, and then these fingers touched other areas of my skin, Could I get rabies in this situation?

[shannon781]

Just clarification, a person or an animal that is bitten can survive for years without showing signs. It is the infected animal showing signs that bit another animal or human that will die within 10 days.

[BluCrystal]

No.  You do not have rabies, or you would have been dead a week after the dog 'bit' you, AND it didn't even break the skin.  Time to stop worrying about this.  Blessings - Blu

[shannon781]

If it did not break the skin or you didn't have any open wounds, you are not likely to be infected Rabies infects the nerves. Also, even if a dog technically has rabies, they can't infect you unless they are showing signs of being "rabid" (behavior changes, salivating, unable to close the jaw, etc). When the dog gets to that point where they are clinically exhibiting signs of rabies, they don't survive for more than 9 days. So, if that dog was still alive 10 days after it bit/licked you, it was not able to spread the virus. If you are worried, you can always have your doctor run a blood test to check for your level of rabies titers.  It is true that rabies stays latent in your nerves for up to 9 years (longest reported human case) like a herpes virus, but, like I explained earlier, a dog can't infect anything through a bite unless the virus comes out of the nerves and causes the "rabid" signs..then they die shortly after. I hope this helps.

[Jerry_NJ]

In my view:  No I don't think so  I believe rabies has to get into the blood stream, just on the skin isn't enough to infect.. I doubt that getting some on the lips, say, would be a worry either.  Licking fingers?   Not recommended.

You said 3 years ago, why worry now?