I need to be told I'm being ridiculous. Rabies/ bats?

[Anxiouspotat0]

Hi.
So, I go abroad on friday for two weeks.
Yesterday I woke with a weird.mark on my hand. I google lensed it to be told it looks like a bat bite. I measured it and it is the right size. IGoogle of course recommended a full course of post rabies exposure vaccines as bats arre the only.animal in the UK that cam carry a rabies like virus.

Here's the thing. I walk the dogs of an evening. There are sometimes bats around flying overhead but I.am confident I would have noticed one stopping to land on my hand (apparently they don't bite mid flight and have to anchor theirselves). It's the hand I hold the dog lead with. To my knowledge (I am confident) one never got anywhere near close. Which leaves one flying in through a window and biting me in my sleep (google says you'd always find a bat in the room, there is 0 evidence of any bat) I also have dogs that bark if a spider farts so if a bat was in tbe room surely they' have woke me up.

I'm waiting for the GP to get back to me (111 told me to send them a photo) .Obviously rabies is 100% fatal and not something to mess with. BUT if I do the jabs which are 4 jabs over 28 days, I will have to either not go away (it is incredibly important to me, it isnt a regular.holiday and I can't reschedule it) or source 1/2 jabs in the US which insurance would not cover. Tens of tbousands of debt which I cannot afford. All on the slight chance a bat somehow entered my home, bit me, and left with0 trace, and when only 0.5% of tested bats even carry the virus even if it was a bat bite.

I don't even know if the NHS would recommend thr jabs given I was never directly near a bat or found a bat in a room, but I'm just stressed as hell, please be gentle. But I'm hoping to be told that you regular unanxious people would just assume a spider bite or anything else and go about their lives without worrying about rabies. I am a super anxious person as you can surely tell.

Thanks if you made it this far.

Closer one

On return from the US get the vaccination for rabies, then it's only two post treatment doses. My DD has her's done, she holidays across Asia. I agree with a poster that you need to see a GP and get extra medication for this episode. Do you think that you could be sabotaging going on holiday?

I dont qualify for treatment, unless I physically saw a bat in the room which I didnt, and private costs thousands which I dont have and is only in London.

Unless you mean the pre exposure ones?

OP, the bat experts here say it's not a bat bite, and the GP (who took your case seriously) also said it's ok. Which means the likelihood it's fatal is much less than being hit by a car when you're on holiday (or something similar).

This reminds me of something Jordan Peterson said, something on the lines of - what's understandable is being anxious and terrified all the time, the truly amazing thing is that we're not... In other words, life is scary, you can die of anything at any time. But do you really want to spend your life like that? Being terrified all the time of all the things that definitely won't happen to you (because there's only one way to die!)? Not sure that helps, but it put things into perspective for me.

OP, are you willing to say roughly where in the UK you are?

As PP have said, the incidence of rabies in this country is very, very, very low - the official statistic is that only 0.3% of bats carry the virus. Only one person has ever caught rabies from a bat in the U.K. and that was a professional bat-handler.

Bats aren’t going to swoop silently into a room at night, bite your hand, and leave. They’re noisy buggers. Have you ever seen videos of a bat caught in a room?!

However , health anxiety is shit and I get what it’s like to believe that you’ll be the exception (you won’t be, but there’s no telling your brain that when you’re in the midst of it).

So, to tackle this practically - only two species of bat carry the virus. One hunts exclusively over water so that rules them out. The other is only found in certain parts of the country so where are you?

Even if you are in that part of the country, only 0.3% of the bats carry the virus anyway - plus there’s no chance you’ve been bitten but if we can completely rule it out, it might quieten your anxiety.

Actually, you say the indents are 3mm apart? That’s too small for the type of bat that has the potential to carry rabies.

This is OK. You haven’t been bitten by a bat.

If you’re still stressing, go and have a look in your bed. Are there any poppers or seams that could have indented your hand? Do you wear jewellery? Edge of a remote control or Kindle?? Your indents almost look slightly bruised now - which tallies with something hard or sharp digging into your hand for a long period while you slept. They don’t look inflamed like a spider bite etc.

How the hell would your GP know whether that was a bat-bite or not?

The skin isn’t broken and it looks nothing like a bat bite. Even I can see that and I’m not a doctor

I've had post exposure treatment twice - once was free on the NHS, and the other was in March this year and was about £80 (in a private London clinic)

OP, are you willing to say roughly where in the UK you are?
She's said she's in the Midlands.

Indeed.
So why bother sending it in?
Now the GP has to give a definitive answer which is open to complaint if they get it wrong.
Go to the fucking zoo OP and ask someone who knows about bat bites FFS

Are you sure? Surely your local travel clinics offer post exposure treatment it’s only 2 extra doses compared to pre exposure, why would you have to travel to London for that? Have you actually spoken to anyone at the travel clinic? Not sure how close this one is to you.

https://thetravelclinicmidlands.co.uk/rabies-vaccination/

Post exposure neefe immunoglobin which is very hard to source, UKHSA control it. And they denied me

Thanks for everyone who has tried to help.

PP on page 2 has very similar marks to mine, she said in DM they suddenly appeared and lasted years. So that has helped. Also this has helped. I feel like my dents are deep enough that very sharp bat teeth would have noticeably pierced the skin to bite that hard. And hurt or bled at a minimum.

In response to a.PP One if the bat types to carry it are in my area.

I've decided to just go to the US and try to forget about it. I know if it was on most parts of my body I wouldnt have even noticed it at all or not for weeks. I know if the internet wasnt a thing a bat bite wouldnt have crossed my mind at all. I know even if it is a bat bite the chances of it being that 1 type of bat here to carry it (we have like 6 types here) and for that one bat to also be rabid are also very small. I could get the jabs in the US but I would rack up tens of thousands in medical bills (it is that expensive if you look into it, especially for the day 0 jab) which I cannot afford.

I think im going to ring my insurer as im wondering if I am now bitten or scratched by something there if they would then cover it, now having a urgent care trip on my file before flying.

(Meant to attach this)

The vaccine will still protect you even if you don’t receive HRIG, HRIG acts immediately at the wound site, the vaccine takes a few days to build up your immunity, if you are convinced you have been bitten (and I doubt you very much have) you could still get the vaccine at your travel clinic.

Yes, the post-exposure rabies vaccine alone can still provide strong protection, but Human Rabies Immunoglobulin (HRIG) is critical for high-risk exposures like bat bites because it neutralizes the virus immediately at the wound site while your body builds its own immunity. If HRIG is unavailable or delayed past 7 days from your first vaccine dose, medical protocols rely fully on prompt, optimized vaccination combined with thorough wound washing

Sorry to hear of your anxiety around this. I agree they are strange marks indeed - but nothing like a bite. Surely bats wouldn’t have teeth that big? On a side note do we know where in the midlands bats carrying the virus can be found?

They don't do HRIG except in a "red" scenario in the UK. Generally the vaccine alone is sufficient.

Not that the OP has actually been bitten so she doesn't actually need any treatment. But even if she did need treatment she doesn't need the HRIG.

When I put your image into ChatGPT it suggests skin conditions as possible answer. No mention of bites.

Exactly, she doesn’t need HRIG, the vaccine would be sufficient and she doesn’t even need that as she hasn’t been exposed to a bat.

' I think im going to ring my insurer as im wondering if I am now bitten or scratched by something there if they would then cover it, now having a urgent care trip on my file before flying.'

I think your current insurance will now be void, and I think they will now charge you lots of money to reinsure you.

Yup even though she’s not been bitten she will have her insurance voided and a huge charge levied. For no reason other than sadly bad health anxiety

Oh I do apologise, please don’t wait until you are dead before seeking help, that was awful advice

I haven't read the full thread but do you sleep with earrings in? Maybe you slept on your hand and it left a mark? Fellow health anxiety sufferer here, it's so hard isnt it.

Yes pre exposure. My DD gets rabies (£79) along with the Heps and Typhoid, but only because she does wildlife stuff when she goes to Asia. It means only two doses, if bitten. There is a shortage of the full post exposure treatment, in some rural areas, so my DD thought it was worth it.

Pre exposure isn’t very useful after the fact.