Disadvantage are the cubes must be fed in a controlled manner to prevent over consumption and there may be an additional cost due to processing. When all the advantages are considered, alfalfa cubes can provide horse owners with a high quality, nutritious, and convenient product that is a viable alternative to hay in feeding programs for their horses. These figures represent only laboratory-confirmed cases since not every neurological horse which dies is submitted for necropsy and rabies testing. With such a variety of clinical presentations, diagnosis in the live animal is difficult. The disease usually progresses to death in four to five days, although survival to 15 days is possible.
Diagnosis is made on laboratory testing of tissues taken at necropsy.
Most of the rabid raccoons were found in 19 states along the eastern seaboard, east of the Ohio River in the North and east of the Appalachian Mountains in the South, where there is currently an epizootic of raccoon rabies. However, in 1994 one Kentucky horse was confirmed to have been infected with bat rabies. Specialized testing of brain tissue to determine the source of rabies is routinely done in humans, but is not commonly performed on animals. Rabid bats were found in 46 of the 48 contiguous states and pose a threat to horses, other mammals and people. Four cases of human rabies in 1997 were the result of rabid bat exposure and 19 of 21 human cases of rabies in the United States from 1990-1997 were due to the bat rabies variant.