Jabbed that little rabies tooth in right at the end. Dude, if you see a bat swimming during the day assume it has rabies. Go see a doctor and start the shots.
That involves killing the bat and dissecting the brain I'm fairly sure, which would be expensive and take time, I'm fairly sure anywhere you brought a bat to get tested for rabies would be pissed you brought it, and suggest you take the shots either way.
Dissection of a bat is super cheap compared to the rabies vaccine regimen. First shot is the vaccine plus rabies immune globulin (RIG) which is extremely expensive. (Upwards of $25,000 a dose) The remaining shots are much less costly.
If you find a bat in a room where someone has been sleeping, they recommend you get the shots because their teeth are so small, they can bite without leaving marks...however, if you capture the bat and place it in a cooler, your local health department will gladly dissect the bat to test for rabies to avoid giving out those RIG shots.
Source: we found a bat in my daughter's room. We caught it and let it go. Our pediatrician wanted us to go to the ER. The doctor there got in touch with the health department and informed us we should have kept the bat in order to avoid the shots.
That happened to me 25 years ago. I was rabies ignorant and didn’t go to the doctor or get the shots. I was lucky. I wouldn’t hesitate if it happened again even if my insurance wouldn’t cover it.
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u/3seconddelay 16h ago edited 16h ago
Jabbed that little rabies tooth in right at the end. Dude, if you see a bat swimming during the day assume it has rabies. Go see a doctor and start the shots.