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.

Which is why you send in dead ones IF you find them dead. Once rabies symptoms appear it is 100% fatal, the symptoms usually appear in 2-10 days. How long do you think it takes to send a bat to a lab, them test it then send back the results? More than 2 days when I sent one in.

You found a bat and instead of helping it outside you killed it?!

You are cruel ridiculous people.

I think some people are just trolling at this point.

And I'm from a country where both bats and rabies are prevalent and bats used to occasionally get into the house.

They don't randomly fly up and bite you. The only way you'd get bitten is if you handled one and you'd certainly notice.

We'd generally pick them up in a tea towel or similar to put then out.

Well I've been bitten by bats on several occasions and I've totally known about it so I'm finding the idea of undetectable bites a bit far fetched. Most bats are insectivores and don't randomly bite humans (I've only ever been bitten whilst handling them). I'm not saying impossible just incredibly unlikely.

Op, have the injections if that’s what the authorities advise. I say this as someone who lives in a country where there are rabid Foxes for eg and I would always follow government advice on what to do after being bitten by any animal.

We've got our problems in the UK, but I'm so grateful that we aren't as quick to kill every creature that happens to cross our path. Poor bat.

You would think so, but then there is a special kind of stupid roaming among us proven by@JudgeAnderson @ThisIsACoolUserName

@Swrigh1234 As I've said I grew up in a country with both a prevalence of rabies and bats.
Bats are indigenous wildlife and rescue organisations there take great pains to treat injured ones.
They, unlike the OP and you, are not hysterical and ill informed. The irony of you calling me stupid is hilarious.

I'm not stupid in the slightest. I've read every one of the OP's posts and can't see justification at all for killing the bat. As I say, I'm thankful we do things differently in the UK and bats and other wildlife are protected.

So your husband killed the bat but then he spent an hour looking for the bat that was apparently just sat in a field.

No OP you just killed the bat. That's sick.

I'm from the UK had have bats fly around nightly where we live. I certainly don't go round killing them.

Human lives above the life of a potentially rabid bat.

OP I guarantee won't get into any bother for killing a bloody bat that entered her home and put her children at risk.

Even in Australia, farmers are allowed to shoot flying foxes after the death of a little boy who was scratched by one of these bats and died in an horrendous way.

Bats get killed in rabies areas, and will continue to be, law or no law.

I don't blame OP's husband at all.
The bat needed trapping and killing anyway for testing as there is no way of telling if it bit her children.

Clearly you have no idea that the OP lives in a rabies area, not UK, and the bat needs to be tested to see if it was rabid.

How do you not understand? What is difficult to comprehend?

Honestly the intellect level on MN nowadays is shocking.

Hi, I had a similar experience in Belgium last year which I posted about on here. UK medical advice is that if you have been in a room with a bat and are a young child / sleeping adult, then you should have a full rabies course. This is for any bat outside the UK and I had a potential bite mark on my leg. I didn’t start my course until a week after the possible contact but the incubation period can be up to two years and I could not have coped with the anxiety of potential symptoms and the horror of then knowing it was fatal. The vaccine reduces the risk to virtually nothing.

Once the doctor I saw, saw the video footage of the bats in my room he agreed that I needed a course of vaccinations. I also spoke to a member of the virology / rabies control team in Cardiff who confirmed that I needed a course. We are so lucky here that the NHS provide this service for free and that I didn’t need to worry about cost. OP I hope the results come back as negative and you get some peace of mind, as it is an incredibly worrying situation. It is highly unlikely that you will have been exposed and you can start the course of the vaccine any time after contact, it doesn’t need to be in the first 48 hours, though that is preferred.

Someone needs to get the CDC to change their advice as some people on Mumsnet obviously know more about it then they do.

https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/bats.html

I haven't said there is something I don't understand or comprehend. I've said I see no justification. Quite different.

If a bat has been in rooms where people are sleeping {OP's children} the bet needed trapping for testing as she has no way of knowing if her young sleeping children were bitten or not.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/02/480414566/bats-in-the-bedroom-can-spread-rabies-without-an-obvious-bite

Edit :Bat not bet

I am a former member of the rabies testing team in a US state public health laboratory.

This has to be one of the worst threads I have ever come across on MN, in terms of the shocking replies. The level of scientific and medical illiteracy on display by many is absolutely terrifying.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publish very clear guidance for this exact situation. Testing and prophylaxis (vaccination) should be done whenever exposure cannot be definitively ruled out, including when a bat is found in the home. The guidance states that in such instances the bat should be captured for testing.

OP, you have done everything exactly as you should. You are working with the local health department and following their guidance. Storing the bat as you have for testing is ideal, and will mean the lab is much more likely to be able to get a result.

Waiting for testing and results is a very stressful time for anyone who goes through this. I myself have also been through this process and had to receive post-exposure rabies vaccination.

I want to reassure you that the processes for testing and management of any required post-exposure prophylaxis are extremely rigorous and well-established. In the event of a positive or inconclusive result, the epidemiology team will work with you to identify exactly which members of your household should be vaccinated. They will also help you find vaccination services that will be in-network for your insurance. Your insurance will then very likely cover the majority of costs. The vaccination is 100% effective at preventing rabies when given in a timely fashion.

Ignore those suggesting that you should prioritize a bat over the lives of your entire family. Rabies is as serious a threat as it gets. You have absolutely done the right thing by taking it seriously. Anyone suggesting otherwise should be ashamed of themselves. It is a sad irony that people feel they can be so nonchalant about this horrific disease precisely because of the incredible success of modern public health management of the disease.

I mean, I don’t disagree (grew up in Ireland with an entire childhood of horrifying public health ads about the risk of rabies coming in via smuggled pet animals — anyone my age will remember the gruesome photos of the infected man foaming at the mouth and a dazed-looking golden cocker being lifted out of a car boot), but that’s what you are likely to get if you post on a site which is about 97% composed of people from a different country with a very different situation in relation to rabies (and bats, for that matter) about a US-specific problem, both in terms of public health guidelines about rabies AND about the disabling cost of vaccinations.

Best wishes, OP.

The issue is that even with explanation some still keep mumbling their own.
The inability to accept things are different in different places is slightly embarrassing.
Even countries with rabies present will each have somewhat different advice.

@AxolotlOnions and others condemning the OP for killing the bat. The OP is in a rabies area not the UK. Bats are protected in the USA but the advice if you think you might have been exposed or it's in a sleeping area is to capture the bat for testing. The bat will have to be humanely put down to be tested, so in the end the bat dies. From the OPs description that the bat had not moved from where it was initially released chances are it was ill. No one is going to prosecute the OPs husband for killing a bat in this situation.

There is a version of rabies in bats in the UK called Lyssavirus, its not the same as classic rabies which is what the OP.is talking about. If a bat gets in your house here the advice is to release it if possible or capture it if not, if you think you've been bitten or scratched you still need to get medical attention, although the risk is a lot lower.

Typically symptoms appear 20 to 90 days after exposure. Although some have presented sooner and other much later. Testing in countries like the USA for rabies is done very quickly if being done because of a potential exposure, usually with results in less than 48hrs.
This is a lot different to the time frame in the UK for sending in bats that have been found dead as the UK testing is for surveillance not for post exposure so there's no need to rush it.

Hope you and your family are ok, OP. Very best of luck for tomorrow's result and please keep us posted 🤞