Rabies

[HuckleberryBlackcurrant]

We found a bat in our spare room today. We live in the US. It is currently triple bagged in our refrigerator waiting to be sent to the health authority for analysis for rabies. We won't know if the bat is rabid until Wednesday. We are terrified. We have no idea when or how it got in. We have 2 kids and I am 37 weeks pregnant.

Apparently rabies vaccinations can cost thousands of dollars which we really can't afford right now .

If you believe in the power of prayer please send one up for us. We are very very scared.

Read the thread for god's sake

Moron.

Hoping everything is OK for you and your family, OP

Everyone jumping on op is out of order, things are different in the us to the uk as some posters have clearly pointed out.

Why would you say that? If you were pregnant with a young family would you be chill about rabies? You grow up

Wow, I'd be scared, and ever hazard is a million times more frightening when you're pregnant. I hope you hear back soon @HuckleberryBlackcurrant

Even the UK guidance says to get vaccinated if you have slept in a room with a bat, and we hardly have rabies here at all. The guidance is very comprehensive (google Department of Health Green Book). If I recall correctly, it said the saliva can transmit without a bite - assume by contact with your mouth or eyes etc.
I’m surprised/ not really surprised that post-exposure vaccination isn’t free in the US though.

You say the bat was in the spare room, op? Was the door to that room open or closed? What about the rooms that you and your family were sleeping in? Can you get advice on this particular scenario from whichever organisation in the US would know about these things?

It's very English centric forum (mainly posters from England based on school exams etc) and lots of people can't omprehend someone else from places where things are different can be on here... Or that things are done differently elsewhere.

Yes when I had a rabies vaccine at my GP, they told me a current unvaccinated patient had travelled to India been bitten by a rabid dog as a result they were taking anti viral medication and would need to be take it and keep being tested for at least a year to find out if they had contracted rabies.

Horrifying.

OP- Was the bat still alive when you found it? Was anyone bitten, scratched or licked on open skin (mosquito bite/scratch etc)? Did you use thick gloves when handling and wrapping it?

Have you checked with your insurance provider whether you'd be covered for vaccination? This may not be feasible at all, but could you cross a border to Canada or Mexico and pay for it there?

For everyone saying I'm ridiculous. The bat was very much alive when I found it. My husband killed it before we bagged it up. If I had seen the bat fly in and caught it right away I wouldn't be worried. The reason we are worried is because we have no idea when it got into our house. A few days ago our kids left the door open for an extended period of time in the evening so it could have been in our house since then.

The bat was in a bedroom next to where our children sleep and the door was open.

There have been people who have been bitten by a bat and not even known because the mark is so small. This bat was very tiny.

I guess it's not something that is on a lot of your radar screens, being in the UK, but it is very much a risk here. We have to keep our dogs and cats vaccinated against rabies, and we live in a rural area where we do see a lot of raccoons and other animals that may carry rabies.

I think if our health authority told us to send off the bat first thing Monday morning then they don't see us as overreacting. In fact, that is exactly what you are supposed to do. The lady that we spoke to was very concerned that my husband had initially thrown the bat away. He spent an hour looking for it in the field. It hadn't moved. That is a sign of a sick bat, or so the woman on the phone told us.

When I called her back to tell her we had found it, I could hear her relief over the phone.

Do some research and try and put yourself in our shoes. Rabies kills almost 100% of those who show symptoms.

For those asking about us getting the vaccinations, apparently they can be obscenely expensive if the bat comes back non rabid. We spent a long time on the phone with various clinics/hospitals and no one could give us any indication of exactly how much this would cost. Of course, this happening on the weekend means that we can't get a hold of billing at our hospital, or our insurance.

Maybe people think I'm being dramatic. I'm sure I am. Only 3 or so people die from rabies in the US each year. But it's not something we are wanting to take a chance on. We have three children to think about.

@LMNT we don't think so, but we can't be 100% sure. The guidance here is to contact your health authority if you find a bat in a sleeping area. We don't know how long the bat was in the house.

There have been cases of people being bitten and not knowing. I do feel like you would feel a bat biting you?! But apparently it has happened where someone has not felt it.

@Imknackeredzzz

We don't know how long it has been in the house. The door to the room it was in was open. We have recently had guests staying in that room- my sister and her husband, and my baby niece.

@WhatHasHeDone
Yes, my husband killed it

You are being hysterical and your husband shouldn’t have killed the poor thing.

@CoachBeardsJane
Thanks. We can't get a hold of our insurance as it's the weekend. I thought surely the would have some sort of out of hours line but no.

@Tillyteacup
We were told by the health department that 1 in 200 bats carry rabies. And it was acting sick. I think we did the right thing. The only way to test an animal for rabies is to look at it's brain.

We have had raccoons killed on our property as well and would do so again if they posed a risk to our family/pets.

I don't think people in the UK realise how much or a risk rabies is in other countries. You must always assume if you're in an area with rabies and you find an animal known to carry rabies that you've been exposed to it. Sorry you're going through this OP but you need to get the shots, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

@CC4712

We are 12 hrs away from the Canadian border but that may be something to think about actually.

The bat was alive when we found it. It didn't move much though. I think it was stunned. I didn't go near it as I'm pregnant and they can carry all kinds of diseases apart from rabies. My husband did use gloves to handle it and it definitely didn't come into contact with him.

What worries us is the potential it may have been in our house for some time.

This tik tokker is going through the same issue in US.

You can hear her rational for getting the shots. As far as I'm aware you dont need to download the app to view the video?

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJVsg661/

@Isntthisniceandnew

We should hear back about the bat by Tuesday and we will be able to get the shots then if it comes back as positive for rabies. Thanks for being understanding. I think a lot of posters from the UK hear rabies and almost think it's an urban myth but it's absolutely not.

I maybe would have thought the same before.i moved over here. But now I know that people just don't survive rabies.

@NameChange280
Thank you.

Rabies develops incredibly fast from what I remember, so if you haven't got any symptoms you're fine.

No it doesn't. It can take weeks for symptoms to appear, of course it depends what part of the body you are bitten, because the virus has to reach your brain.

In the UK of course we don't have to worry about rabies, but since it is 100% fatal then of course you would want to get the bat checked and if need be, get the treatment.

My native country is now classed as rabiea free but as dog owners, I remember very well the precautions when encountering risky wildlife.
Hopefully it was just sick with something else.