Treatment after exposure can prevent the disease if administered promptly, generally within 10 days of infection.[18] Thoroughly washing the wound as soon as possible with soap and water for approximately five minutes is effective in reducing the number of viral particles.[57] Povidone iodine or alcohol is then recommended to reduce the virus further.[58]
In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people receive one dose of human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG) and four doses of rabies vaccine over a 14-day period.[59] The immunoglobulin dose should not exceed 20 units per kilogram body weight. HRIG is expensive and constitutes most of the cost of postexposure treatment, ranging as high as several thousand dollars. As much as possible of this dose should be injected around the bites, with the remainder being given by deep intramuscular injection at a site distant from the vaccination site.[20]
The first dose of rabies vaccine is given as soon as possible after exposure, with additional doses on days three, seven and 14 after the first. Patients who have previously received pre-exposure vaccination do not receive the immunoglobulin, only the postexposure vaccinations on days 0 and 2.
The pain and side effects of modern cell-based vaccines are similar to flu shots. The old nerve-tissue-based vaccinations that require multiple painful injections into the abdomen with a large needle are inexpensive, but are being phased out and replaced by affordable World Health Organization intradermal-vaccination regimens.[45]
Intramuscular vaccination should be given into the deltoid, not gluteal area, which has been associated with vaccination failure due to injection into fat rather than muscle. In infants, the lateral thigh is recommended.[60]
Source: Wikipedia
I attended a short report by a wildlife grad student doing a trapping and radio collar study on coyotes in Osage County OK. She had to do the preventative course of injjections before starting the study. Her work was goiing well and had been underway about month when she made her report. She was successful making her first trap on the first time she placed traps.