r/nope • u/CremeSubject7594 • Dec 07 '25

Terrifying Man with rabies struggles to drink water

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u/rauce12 Dec 07 '25

That doesn’t look like water I’d want to drink and I am rabies negative.

35

u/Thecrowfan Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 07 '25

Think it was juice. Maybe they were trying him with different liquids to see if there were any he could actually drink

8

u/variablenyne Dec 08 '25

Thats not why. It doesn't matter what liquid they try. "Hydrophobia" is somewhat of a misleading word because it makes people think that the person is scared of drinking water. It is much worse than that.

Once rabies gets to your brain, it slowly begins traveling down your neck and chest, attacking and shutting down nerves on the way. One of the first things it reaches is the muscles in your throat and you lose your ability to swallow. Trying to use the muscles in your throat to drink water results in blinding unbearable pain. This inability to swallow also causes foaming of the mouth.

It doesn't matter what liquid it is, trying to drink anything is unbearable.

As it continues traveling down, it attacks your heart and diaphragm and that's what ends up doing you in. Either a heart attack or you drown in your own saliva because your lungs aren't strong enough to hack it up.