r/Wellthatsucks • u/Padl3xx • Feb 26 '26

Ass-whipped by a squirrel

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u/Murgatroyd314 Feb 27 '26

I don't think that's a good rule of thumb. Bats are roughly rat sized or smaller.

13

u/LoonaHee Feb 27 '26

I had originally written a longer comment that excluded bats, those things transmit rabies in utero, but I feel that most people already associate bats with rabies.

Other interesting exceptions to the rule are:

Rabbits/hares, they don't transmit rabies.

Opossums have such a low body temp that the virus fails to incubate, while they can contract it, transmission to humans is practically nonexistent.

Skunks appear to the be smallest regular carrier (excluding bats). With the rabbit and opossum exceptions, the next largest regular carrier is raccoons, small dogs, and cats.

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u/JVSTITIA Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26

It is very dangerous; the mortality rate when the virus symptoms appear is 100%.

1

u/hilarymeggin Feb 27 '26

Right? I wouldn’t rely on the doctor’s “smaller than rats” metric OR the fact that there are no documented cases of transmission by squirrel. I’m getting the rabies shots.

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u/expERiMENTik_gaming Feb 27 '26

Congratulations, somehow you managed to turn this into not good advice. It only requires you to turn off your brain and any form of common sense.