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.

A. We don't have rabies in this country
B. That is not a bite

Sorry - the only photos I have are of the two bites once they had been ‘iodined’ and dressed in A&E

Thats ok! Thanks for looking. Were they red/ any blood?

They both bled but not enormously - very small wounds

We have a small number of bats with Lyssavirus in this country which is the same type of virus that causes rabies. It’s incredibly rare, but still just as fatal.

@Anxiouspotat0these were the websites I looked on initially and took the UKHSA one with me to A&E

https://share.google/cqDD58pOG7Uwpb4DY

https://share.google/PpN4EArGAaYgxqbFp

I think your anxiety has got the better of you, thay looks like you’ve held something that’s left a mark or pressed up against something, it’s not even punctured,

and we have bats, I can assure you, you’d know if one was in the room,,even when asleep.

Thank you! As far as im aware they only serm to treat if you,know you were bitten OR you wake up to a bat in the house with you, even if no marks are found. So I do not tbink they will offer me the jabs. I do wish the GP would just get back to me though

I've been hit in the face by a flying bat in Bali. I think I got bat poo on my face. I promise you, you'd know if the blighter landed. It is kind of etched in my memory. I didn't get bitten and nothing happened. I really do think you would have noticed a bat biting you.

What a dilemma OP.

It does seem highly unlikely, but could it be possible a bat bit you when you were walking the dog and you simply didn't notice.

Bats are again extremely unlikely to have rabies in this country, but when it comes in rabies you don't want to fuck about. And my feeling is that an unwell bat is possibly more likely to bite a human (act unusually).

I wonder if there's a way you could get some medical coverage for USA that would reduce the payment and treat existing conditions?

How effective is just getting the initial medicine? Or delaying the 2/3/4th doses?

You have two odd little indentations on your hand, the skin isn't broken, it doesn't hurt. Those are the facts. Coincidentally, it looks a teeny tiny bit like a bat bite might look - that's interpretation. The context is that you haven't, to your knowledge, been bitten by a bat or even had the opportunity to be bitten by a bat - "bats exist where I live" does not equal "maybe I've been bitten by a bat and didn't notice"

You really, really have not been bitten by a bat.

We have bats in our attic. They do sometimes get into the house if we leave the patio doors open in the evening.
I don't understand people saying they are noisy, ours do a few tours around the living room then leave and they fly silently.
Maybe different types are noisier. Ours are pipistrelles.

I'd definitely ring 111 for advice re whether a GP or minor injuries is indicated.
Or ring the tropical diseases centre in Liverpool?

If they do say you need the jabs, maybe precautionary, I was able to order an injection from my GP for hormone treatment as part of cancer recovery - I took the injection plus letter with me and just sourced a nurse at a doctors surgery to administer it - quite a deep injection, could not be self administered. This was France, wonder if they would allow you to take your own to US?

That really doesn’t look as if the skin is broken, and I’m sure you’d have felt it if it was a bite.
I do feel it’s important to correct the misconception that we don’t have what people are calling vampire bats in the UK. Very sadly a man died from bat rabies from a bat bite in Scotland in 2002. However he was a conservationist working with and handling bats, and on this occasion did not wear protective gloves.
It is so exceptionally rare that I think you should not worry.

Rabies in the UK has pretty much gone. There is such a tiny chance of getting rabies here and even smaller a chance of being bitten by a bat with rabies.

Doesn't look like a bite and doesn't look like it's gone through the skin. The fact you didn't see a bat, hear a bat, feel a bat and that your hand isn't sore is all pretty good stuff.

I've witnessed a lady being bit by a bat - she had caught it with her bare hand. She definitely felt the bite and let go, shaking her hand.
It was flying round in the library of a NT property whilst she was talking to a group of visitors.

I would phone 111 rather than wait for a GP, we did this and then booked into minor injuries for treatment. Your marks are identical to my sons. Whilst the risk of rabies is extremely low we took the view that the next six weeks would have been awful , worrying about every sneeze or feeling of tiredness. You dont recover from rabies and may even need to declare it on entry to the US. Get it seen this morning.

Those marks do look unusual.
We've had a bats fly in the bedroom window. Didn't make any sound, at least none that my ears could pick up.
We have dormer windows and have had random cats come in as well as a bees nest just outside. I now have nets up. Mesh with velcro sewn around fixed to stick on velcro on the window frame.

Do you wind your dog lead around your hand? Is there a buckle or something metal on it that could have caused this?

Ps the health worker must complete a Risk Assessment form and this determines the follow up action. You may well come back as low risk, son was medium. You can google the form

There are some known cases of rabies survival… Jeanna Giese was a recent one without pre or post rabies vaccines

I did ring 111. They told me to wait for gp.
Is your son tbe one that knew there was a bat in the room? From my understanding theywill treat anyone who wakes to a bat even if there is 0 mark as a preventatove measure as their bites often leave no mark.

I’m sorry you are suffering with this situation. I understand that your anxiety is causing it, not the strange mark on your hand, and all the reassurance in the world doesn’t really help, as the anxiety just says, yes, but what if..

I imagine if even doctor comes back and gives reassurance that the chances of it being a bat bite are zero, the anxiety will want to say ‘what if the doctor is wrong?’

I think the most pragmatic, helpful approach here is to seek medical assurance (done), and even more importantly, treat your anxiety. Pay attention to that and your physical state. Stacks of help on the web (better use of it than Dr Google).

Caveat: limited bat experience, although the come in the house often (woodlands). I always know about it! Anxiety experience- plenty.

Wishing you well.

We sleep with a butterfly net in the room because bats get in frequently when the window is open even a tiny bit. The bedroom ceiling is vaulted and the bats fly round and round panicking and pooing while my cats go mad.

husband is away atm. The window is tight shut. You’d know about it if a bat had been in your bedroom.

I dont think you have been bitten by a bat. What does the dog lead look like? Is there something there that could have left an indentation?