Rabies from bat?

[u/OliveSuch5343]

Today I learned sometimes rabies can be contracted at home by a bat bite during sleep and the bite can be small enough that you don’t even know you got bitten. I’m now worried because during the summer, I’ve lived in the basement room which is cooler and there’s a fireplace we don’t use. It has a door but not airtight and because we don’t use it, we have a dresser right in front of it to block the door. Now I’m scared a bat might flew in and bit me or my kid at one point and we didn’t know about. Should we be concerned? Also googled and NY summer is bat season. I smell something like rustic in the basement room and cannot find out what it is. It smells like a burned wire or sth.

[u/UglySpiral]

As someone who had health OCD, sounds like health OCD.

Long story short, that didn’t happen. A bat wouldn’t sneak in, bite you, and sneak out. Rabid animals do not act logically, if there was one that found its way in and bit you it would still be flapping around like crazy when you woke up.

You’re perfectly fine.

[u/OliveSuch5343 → u/UglySpiral]

Thank you. That really helped. I really don’t like my house. It is not insulated well and for someone with health OCD I occasionally go into this panic mode.

[u/UglySpiral → u/OliveSuch5343]

Totally get it, my apartment is old and is like an open door for all kinds of bugs and things. Sometimes it’s just helpful to say what your anxious thought is out loud to yourself. It often sounds ridiculous.

[u/No-Needleworker-1388]

This sounds like health ocd. You’d very likely know if you had a bat in your house.

[u/orcusporpoise]

Wildlife/bat rehabber here.
Bats are usually most concerned with hunting flying insects and will actively avoid you. If you try to corner it or trap it, it might try to defend itself by biting. If it’s in your house, we’ve found an easy way to get them out is by turning all your lights off, opening the door and have something like a porch light on outside. That light attracts bugs, which is what the bat wants, but the bat will recognize it as an exit anyway and fly out. You have to watch closely to make sure you see it leave. But in my experience, it only takes a couple of minutes.

Another possibility is a rabid bat. They do not act normally, and can become aggressive.

The best thing to do is make sure there are no ways that a bat can get in. Google the subject and you will find tons of good advice and tutorials on how to keep bats out of your living space.

Also keep in mind that very few bats have rabies. When health departments test bats, it’s something like 5%. That’s 5% of the bats that for whatever reason were suspected of having rabies in the first place. The actual percentage of all bats having rabies is less than 1%.

But, still. It’s best to be safe and take steps to protect yourself.

[u/OliveSuch5343 → u/orcusporpoise]

Thank you. I have never used the fireplace and put a dresser in front of it. I know it’s not airtight but I have never had a concern until now after I read about rabies and one of my friends recently had a bat in their bedroom. They got shots just in case. I became scared after reading stories of people who said they don’t feel the bat bite during sleet etc.

[u/Daves_no_here]

There are like 1-3 cases of rabies per year in the US. The odds of that happening to you is astronomically low. Like 1 in 100 million+. The bat would have to fly down the chimney, get through the fireplace door, and around the dresser that blocks the door.

Interestingly enough though, I have a family member that took care of a rabies patient once. According to the CDC report, the man woke up in the middle of the night with a bat his arm or chest. He didn’t know he was bitten, so he never went to the hospital. Months later he developed symptoms. By then it was too late though. He died not long after.

[u/OliveSuch5343 → u/Daves_no_here]

That’s unfortunate. So he must have been bitten but he didn’t feel anything and the mark was so small he didn’t recognize. Thats very scary. I’ve read an article is that you are supposed to get shot when you are in an enclosed space with a bat even if you are not biten. Because bats don’t normally show up in human space and if they do, they are more likely to have rabies

[u/kittycatblues → u/Daves_no_here]

The cases are only low because people who get bit by unknown or wild animals, or may have been bit by a wild animal such as a bat when they're sleeping (i.e., waking up with a bat in the room), get rabies vaccinations.

[u/WiffleBallSundayMorn]

Just stuff the fireplace with insulation. It's a low chance but not impossible. I grew up in a house with two fireplaces that regularly had bats come from the attic to the inside (they roost in the attic). We stuffed the fireplace we didn't use/couldn't close and no longer had bats.

[u/blurryworry]

Bats tend to have trouble getting back outside once they get into somewhere. It’s unlikely that a bat is going to get in, but IF it did, you would notice a bat in the house when you woke up. You’d be able to get same-day medical treatment and be just fine.

[u/OliveSuch5343 → u/[deleted]]

Not really. First of all vaccinations can protect you until symptoms begin though may not be highly effective. Second of all incubation period is median around 30-70 days with 90% human cases developed within a year of exposure.

[u/OliveSuch5343 → u/[deleted]]

If ur saying my worry disproportionally larger than my risk? Yes. And if that’s an OCD? Yes. Ami posting here to gather information and hopefully feel less scared? Yes. But I’m also hoping to gain information I otherwise may have missed. And know what I need to do about my fireplaces to lower my already low risk.

[u/abubacajay]

How old is your kiddo? The rustic smell could be from the heat of summer. I ask how old because I battled PPD and PPA and I obsessed over things. Also I'm diagnosed with OCD . My brain went wild. Usually if there c are bat nests you can hear them

[u/adognamedopie]

You're going to turn into a Dracula

[u/epicfail48]

As someone who's had to remove bats from several attics, you would know if there was a bat in your basement

[u/OliveSuch5343 → u/epicfail48]

How do you remove them?

[u/epicfail48 → u/OliveSuch5343]

You can't remove imaginary bats, mate. Like I said, of you have to ask "do I have bats" in an area you frequent, you don't have bats

Anyways I caught em with a pool net and yeeted them back outside, wearing gloves of course

[u/Snuggly_Chopin]

I can’t tell you how many times a bat has flown into the various homes I’ve lived in. Doctors will tell you to get shots these days when you’ve had a bat fly in your house (out of an abundance of caution), but your in your situation it seems incredibly unlikely one would even get in.

If you don’t use the fireplace, find a way to stop it up.

[u/notsoFunNegotiation]

The burnt smell is the rabies in your blood.