I heard rabies described as an experience of being thirsty for water without the ability to be satiated. So no matter how hydrated the rabies infected mammal is, they see you as standing in the way of them and the last mud puddle in the Sahara. That’s why they have an irrational instinct instinct to tear through you or anything else in its way. Similar to how you would tear off the branches of a fallen tree to get to your goal. Just instinctively acting to get an obstacle out of your way.