Coppermine (Feb 21/05) - A Kugluktuk family is without their pet dog for at least three months while it sits in quarantine in a Yellowknife cage.

The dog was flown to Yellowknife earlier this month after it attacked a fox.

After sending the fox's head away for rabies testing, the results came back positive. That meant the dog also had to be tested.

"And the dog's vaccination was overdue a couple of months, so they implemented a quarantine," said Dr. Tom Pisz, owner of the Great Slave Animal Hospital in Yellowknife where the dog is being kept under watch.

Pisz added that the dog does not have signs of the viral disease.

Exact details of the case weren't released because they are deemed confidential, he said.

Pisz said rabies is a serious disease in the North among wildlife, but is not common in domestic animals.

The disease is transmitted by saliva and that means people are also subject to it, Pisz said.

"There is no treatment and if you contract the virus you are basically dead," he said. "We have to wait and see if (the dog) develops the symptoms. But this dog is a pet dog and the family wants to save him."

Rabies is fully preventable with proper, up-to-date vaccinations, he added.

"If the dog was vaccinated, then quarantine might be reduced to 10 days. It's up to federal veterinarians how long the quarantine is."

Any people around the suspected animal would have to be inoculated for the disease, as well, he said.

In small communities, dogs suspected of being in contact with rabies will usually be immediately euthanized to prevent the spread of the disease.

Recently in a Northern community (Pisz wouldn't say which) an entire dog team was put down because it killed a fox, Pisz said.