Bat in my apartment with my cats and I

[just_shoot_me]

At 5:30 this morning I discovered a bat in my apartment behind a radiator. After many WTFs, I looked online on how to contain it. Taped a sheet around my radiator and did more research. The bat got out and started flying around the room. I opened the window screen where it gravitated to, grabbed a pillow case and caught the bat, releasing out the window.

My cats are UTD on rabies (due for a 3 year booster in September 2026), do they need a booster now? I’m at the ER for the post exposure series as I type this.

[NaturallyHappy]

Yikes! I don’t know, but I am very glad you went to the ER. I hope you weren’t actually bitten.

[Ghazzu]

@just_shoot_me

My cats are UTD on rabies (due for a 3 year booster in September 2026), do they need a booster now? I’m at the ER for the post exposure series as I type this.

Check with your state public health department, but I’d get them boostered even if not required.

[just_shoot_me]

I don’t think I did but I’m not willing to take chances with rabies

[NaturallyHappy]

Nor should you. I was hoping you didn’t have to deal w the bite, too. I have a friend who was bitten in the thumb. He said the bite was worse than the treatment.

[Christa_P]

Far better to be safe. I just read about the British woman that died from rabies months after being scratched by a puppy while on vacation.

Briton dies from rabies after ‘scratch’ from stray puppy in Morocco

[just_shoot_me]

So sad.

[emeraldcity]

Glad you’re getting your shots! Call your vet to be sure, but IMO just get the cats the boosters now. It isn’t going to hurt them.

[just_shoot_me]

So just in case anyone’s interested, the post exposure rabies vaccine is 2 shots of immune globulin (1 in each butt cheek) and the actual rabies vaccine in the arm 4 times. Today was day 0.

[PonyApocalypse19]

Just had to go through this with my horse (bat found in his feed bucket during the day)! He had to have an emergency visit (weekend call naturally) and get a booster. They highly recommend a booster as soon as possible for any vaccinated pet that may have been exposed and then monitor for 30 - 45 days (it may be different for different species). You can call your local county animal control and they can advise a specific protocol after speaking with the county vet. If you had kept the bat, they would have tested it for rabies. I totally get not keeping the bat for testing - I didn’t think to keep the one in his bucket either. Your vet can also call the state vet and determine if there’s any other course of action like quarantine etc.
The incidence is low, but once rabies symptoms develop they are fatal. I’m so glad you took it seriously and went to the hospital! You’re right, you can’t be too careful with rabies - it’s not something you want to mess around with.
Once you’re back home, definitely try to find how the bat got in and have your landlord fix the problem. You don’t want a repeat! Hopefully, it’s an easy fix/something you can mitigate in the mean time.

[just_shoot_me]

The cats went to the vet for boosters as soon as I got home from the ER.

[S1969]

I had numerous bat encounters in an old house years ago and it never occurred to me to worry about rabies because I never touched it. It hasn’t happened in years (no longer living in a 150 year old brownstone) but I’ll be more careful in the future.

I will say my cat caught them every time. I have no idea how.

[Cat_Tap]

Apparently it doesn’t even have to be a bite, bat saliva alone will transfer rabies.

[OzarksRider]

Several years ago a man in Missouri was bitten by a bat that was in his house. I don’t know whether he didn’t realize he had been bitten or just didn’t think anything of it, but he didn’t get the rabies shots and subsequently contracted rabies and died.

[FrittSkritt]

That happened here in Australia fairly recently, only with bat lyssavirus (same disease family as rabies). He had supposedly gotten the shots, but died several months later having contracted the virus.

Man dies from 'rabies-like' virus after bat bite in NSW first

[LCDR]

There is a recent news story about an uninsured woman who had a bat fly into her mouth. She received the medical regimen for rabies. Her medical bill for that was $21,000.

[NaturallyHappy]

My friend who was bitten had insurance. His bill was 20k. Last I knew he was still duking it out w his insurance company to pay it. I’ll have to ask about that.

[just_shoot_me]

She’s from Massachusetts and I saw that on the news.

I just looked online at the 1st 2 claims, the immunoglobulin injections were almost $10k and the rabies vax was $1755 each.

[just_shoot_me]

My responsibility so far for the 1st 2 shots is my ER copay. I feel very fortunate.

[just_shoot_me]

That’s tragic and sad. Poor guy.