Bats and Rabies

M

me2

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Oct 11, 2003
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Long story short, I got out of the shower last night to find a bat flying around the living room. I shut the door to the kids room, and tried to shoo it back outside, but it was having none of it. If flew upstairs and we killed it and stored it outside. After thinking about it I started reading about rabies. Very, very serious disease there.

So all the information I could find said that it was considered reason to start the injection treatments if you woke up and found a bat in the room with you. The kids were asleep in another room, but the door was open, so to me this is essentially the same room. My mom and stepdad were asleep upstairs while this thing was doing laps around the living and dining room. It was not around that I saw when I got in the shower, but when I got out I saw it fly through the living room. I hope the body is in good enough shape to test. All the sources said the animal should be euthenized and kept refrigerated until it could be tested. It was between 35 and 40 F last night where it was stored, and it was "euthenized" with a walking cane. I know I'm being somewhat paranoid, but the virtual 100% fatality rate means I don't want to sit around and just wait to see what happens. Bottom line is how much do I need to worry about the kids and the parents, even though they were on a different floor?
 
it's definitely something to be considered. most refrigerators are about 40 deg. or slightly less, so the sample is still valid.
My advice, Get it tested.
better to pay and get the bat tested than to p[ay to get everyone innoculated which is very expensive.
I think the odds are slim that anyone was bitten.
However better to be safe than sorry.
 
I've had them come from my upstairs and killed them and not got tested but never had them in the part of my house I was actually sleeping in.

My wife works for the health dept and has to take bats to the lab a lot. Vast majority negative. She says the bat might be ok to test but if you crushed the skull they probably couldn't test it.

She says the chances are slim that your kids or other people actually came in contact with it unless you see them regularly in your house but there is a chance like you read.

I had some friends live in an old house and actually woke up and found one tangled in her hair. Killed and didn't test. I'd have been nervous as hell.
 
Am I missing something? Was anyone bit? What state do you live in? was it day or evening? Believe it or not these questions have large bearing on the possibility of rabies, but really there are other issues such as bacterium and parasites. I have lots of knowledge in this area, if you have any questions pm me.
 
We can't actually PM, being basic members. Email me please.

It was 11 pm or so, the bat was circling the lights between the living room and dining room. I don't know if anyone was bitten. I know I wasn't, and neither my mom or step dad were while we were chasing the bat. My only real concern is how long was it in the house and did it go into the kids room while they were asleep and bite one of them. Less so is did it go upstairs and bite my mom or stepdad. My mom has lived in the house my entire life, 36+ years. Bats frequently fly around the street light catching insects. This is the first one I've ever seen or heard of in the house. They live in rural western North Carolina, outside Asheville. I don't know enough about bats to know if it was acting strange. Having it inside is strange enough for me. I also don't know if I crushed it's skull. I don't think so. It was one swat as it flew by and knocked it into the wall. It twitched a little, but that was all. I really didn't want to kill it, to the point of missing intentionally hoping it would fly out the doors. Thanks for any advice/information. If it weren't for rabies being so highly fatal, and the need to do something before symptoms start, I wouldn't be too worried about it. 99.99% once symptoms are evident (according to CDC) is too high to take a chance, I think. Then again, I work in Clemson a lot, at the stadium fairly often, and there are more bats there than you can count. No reports of rabies I've ever heard.
 
One of the local vet schools will test them for free in my area ,I would say it is worth it to have it tested. I know that it can be good for the local DNR/Fish&Game people to know about infected animals in the area. I don`t think you or the kids are in any real danger but it is always good to be safe. Now you have to find out how it got in so it can`t happen again.
 
Part of spending summers in a cottage in Northern Vermont was sharing the place with bats.

Bats at night and hummingbirds at day.

IMHO, the bats one needs to worry about are the sick ones.
 
We sent it off to the Health Department. Should have results by tomorrow.
 
My Dad is a MD and said he saw a 2 year old that died from rabies they traced back to a bat.

IF you have the bat get it tested and go from there!
 
Rabies is only a danger if someone was bitten.. or the saliva of the animal entering an open wound.... if no one was bitten then i don't think there is anything to be worried about.. and as long as it wasn't a vampire bat then it is unlikely that it would have bit anyone without them knowing....
 
I've had two properties with bats in and I like them. If I were going in a cave full of bat shit I wouldn't want to be breathing that in but I'm totally unconcerned about rabies. I had a dead dry bat living on a clock in the hall for a couple of years before it got a bit threadbare from vacuum cleaning and got binned. Of all the bats examined since 1986 only 9 have shown EBLV. Of course when some bat-wrangler died from EBLV some folk got excited, but folks that get excited by statistics like that are the same kinda dullards that want guns, knives and some dogs banned or would shoot a lion rather than grasp the trivial nature of the numbers. My understanding is that within the US of the 19 people that acquired rabies over a 9 year period 17 cases were linked to bats. At less than two cases a year I'd be massing my defenses elsewhere. I'd rather enjoy them than go out with a badminton racket hunting them in case they gobbed at me.
 
There has been no subject with Rabies that has generated more misinformation and fear than bats and rabies. In the United States from 1995 through 2009, an average of two people per year have died of rabies associated with bats.
I was just in a cave with bats about 3 days ago.

:)[video=youtube;cdg76SPZNC0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cdg76SPZNC0#![/video]
 
good words Joe! one of our researchers here at UNC specializes in bats. i had an issue with a large brown bat making his home in my car port just above the sliding glass door. so i spoke with him about it and he said his only concern would actually be the viruses and bacterias that could be in the poop of the bat. rabies was very very low on his list of concerns and told me not to even worry about that. however i did need to clean the bat poop up with rubber gloves and etc. i had no idea what they could carry and by gosh joe seeing your vid of you on top of all that guano make me squirmish LOL. for the record not all bats carry viruses and etc. but they are upping the research on bats bc they are immune to a lot of illnesses that affect humans. thats his job. he offered to drive all the way to my house to get the bat but the bat never came back.. i guess the bat got the hint after i shoo'd him away a few times with a broom mid day
 
Well, it's been 5 days now and no word from the health department on the test results. I'm told that no news is good news, and that they generally don't call if there is a negative result. Still, a voice mail or something would be nice.
 
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