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.

Interested to know where you were when bitten while asleep..never worried about bats until this post.

Well, when we had bats outside porch of stepdad’s holiday home in France they never bit us. Not saying it never happens.

Rabies jabs in the U.S. will not cost you tens of thousands of dollars… they’re about $300 per dose uninsured.

Your injury doesn’t even look like it’s broken skin. If it didn’t break the skin then the disease wouldn’t get into your blood.

Check your bed. I reckon you’ve slept with your hand resting on something - a bead, belt, phone cord etc

Also check the lead. You could have been pressing your hand against part of it that left an indent.

I really wouldn’t worry - it was Argentina and we had specifically gone to find them (work thing before people think I’m totally stupid!)

Globally, dogs spread 90% of rabies cases.

I just remembered being young, and watching my neighbour get bitten by a bat (rural area, see hundreds of them each evening - saw one lying looking injured so they picked it up to move it away from the cats). It must be 25 years now and no ill effects...

Fair enough, let us know how you get on. You'll never relax if you didn't go in.

Someone reading your comments could be put off contacting their GP at a time they need medical advice. This is an incredibly unnecessary and unhelpful post. The woman who recently died from a puppy’s scratch thought the scratch was ‘nothing’. Here, the op has a distinct puncture mark. She doesn’t know what caused it. Like a sensible person she’d initially tried to find that out herself. She called 111, they told her to see the GP.

She put in the post title "tell me I'm being ridiculous" she is! I could understand if she'd been caving somewhere with bats and she couldn't be sure she wasn't bitten, but she didn't actually see a bat, has no reason to think it was a bat and only 0.3% of bats in the uk carry the virus anyway. I mean does everyone go to their gp everytime they find a mark on their hand thinking omg rabid bats, poisonous spider/snake bite? Nope because that would be ridiculous! 111 will tell you to ring an ambulance for a paper cut, it isn't really a very good gauge for how serious anything is!

Of 19000 bats tested for rabies since 1986, less than 0.3% were positive, and less than 150 people a year in the UK are bitten by bats. Additionally, the 2 species that account for all that 0.3% are not the most common species of bats found in the UK - 75% of bat interactions/sightings in the UK are common pipistrelles and these have never been found to carry rabies.

@Anxiouspotat0 is flying back to UK to get the jabs a possibility? Cheaper than paying £££ for the jabs overseas?
Hope you're okay.

I think it's highly unlikely to be a bat bite and even more unlikely if it is that it had rabies.
But I also have anxiety (thanks, perimenopause) and, while I might not have googled for it, I can imagine convincing myself that it was a rabid bat bite.
I suppose the GP have advised urgent care to cover their arses (and the OP's) on the tiny chance that it WAS a bad bat bite, and to keep the load off the GP.

You havent been bitten by a bat. You would know if a bat had bitten you on your walk or if one had got into your room.
Not to mention it looks clearly more like an indent of something rather than any form of bite. There's no redness, the skin hasn't been punctured.

The chance that a bat has snuck into your room, bitten you with large and not too sharp teeth and snuck out again is pretty much non existent, add to that the chance said bat has rabies.

Your GP isnt going to be able to tell you if you've been bitten by a bat anymore than anyone else can, if you've told them you think you've been bitten then they'll likely tell you you need a course of the rabies vaccine

But how many of those are people like OP who have literally nothing to suggest they've been bitten by a bat other than 2 indents

Dr's arent trained to be able to diagnose bat bites over indents. If someone says "I think I've been bitten by a bat" they will need to manage it as such.

Bless you OP. Im glad you got through to the GP for advice.

Not an expert, but your photo just looks like an indentation to me.. I'd be more concerned if it left a red mark and swelling. I think there may be other things that can cause lumps/indentations in your hands, particularly if you do a lot of typing

I sympathise with your anxiety. Could it be that it's the thought of travelling to the US and the notoriously expensive medical care that worries you? You said it was for a reason and couldn't be cancelled or deferred. Are you having to organise other travellers? I'm the only one in our house who ever bothers to read insurance documents to make sure we are fully covered and the list of eventualities they contain can make you really nervous I know. This is seen as a defect, but in fact it means that you are literally making sure your trip goes smoothly. And it's clear this is what you are worried about. I think you'd be less anxious if you were not also travelling but just at home.

I would mention to your anxiety to your GP and see if they have any advice.

I hope all goes well today and you can go on your trip with a relieved mind.

It's not ridiculous to put the question out there. Best of luck.

We are in Ireland. We had a bat come into my son’s bedroom while he was on the PlayStation. It was utterly silent and went round round round, it was hypnotic to see. He just shrugged saying oh it’s a bird. He is leaving me alone though (!!!) he then the bat hid.

I was like Rambo. It took me three days to locate him. He would make an appearance in the night, then disappear in front of our eyes!

I was horrified and kept imagining him getting wrapped up in our hair.

i found him hanging vampire style off the back of a door upstairs. He was TINY.

I also googled bats like mad in that time.

god never again. Go to the doc and ask. I would.

I have loads of bats flying around outside my house I duck when I go out the back when it’s dark, whenever I’ve been bitten by something I have never once thought I have been bitten by a bat.
I would know if a bat came anywhere near me close enough to bite me it’s not a mosquito

It’s really not. They’re not an expensive jab to get. A few hundred pounds not thousands

I hope getting checked gives you peace of mind.

I was bit by my pet rabbit a couple of years ago and was scared about rabies, but theres no evidence of a rabbit ever passing rabies to a human so I did eventually relax. I would do the same in your situation. Better safe than sorry.

If there’s even a small chance it was a bat they will treat you as small possibility it is, but like you said 100% fatal if so. You get it even with a bat in the room you were sleeping in with no obvious bite due to the risk. There is a dedicated line the doctors phone for advice and algorithms

'their teeth are so fine they don't always break the skin'

Right. So if they don't break the skin you've nothing to worry about.
And there's no puncture visible in your photo.

Op you’ve not been bitten by a bat, it’s an indent from something.

we have bats, trust me you know when they are in tn4 room, and they don’t just randomly bite you , they will avoid you at all costs.

The skin isnt obviously broken but google did say many bites don't leave visible marks/ their teeth are so fine tbey don't always break the skin

Yes, it reminded me of this woman who didn't realise she was bitten:

The app also explained that the bat’s teeth are so small, she may not have felt the bite.

https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/14/holidaymaker-needed-rabies-treatment-bitten-bat-rescued-pool-29132962/

Anyone else getting anxious now?? I've never thought to be worried about a bat biting me in my sleep but I am now!

We have them swooping around the garden and sometimes if the patio doors or velux windows are open one gets in. The usual course of action is to drape a towel over your head and chase it back out, but now I'm thinking that is stupidly antagonistic!! We have also woken up and a bat is in the house, presumably having been shut in unknowingly. Don't like to think they could sneak up and bite us without even waking us up - eek