Bat in the house - rabies scare!

   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #21  
Worldwide, dogs are a common carrier of rabies and is one of the main way humans get rabies.
My second assignment in the USN was to a squadron in Rota Spain.
A fellow officer there was bitten by a puppy that had been given to him.
The puppy was killed, and the head sent to Madrid for analization by a Spanish lab.
The results did not come back in a timely manner and the guy died, because he received the shots too late.
A very sad story.
 
   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #24  
My second assignment in the USN was to a squadron in Rota Spain.
A fellow officer there was bitten by a puppy that had been given to him.
The puppy was killed, and the head sent to Madrid for analization by a Spanish lab.
The results did not come back in a timely manner and the guy died, because he received the shots too late.
A very sad story.

Apparently a carrier animal will show symptoms and die within a few days. Wouldn’t it have been faster and easier to just cage the dog and watch it?
 
   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #25  
Apparently a carrier animal will show symptoms and die within a few days. Wouldn’t it have been faster and easier to just cage the dog and watch it?
Most people have a sick animal and don't know what it is. In the case of dogs and cats, they'll be slobbering saliva on you. A buddy of mine family had a ill heifer so they brought into the stock yard to make sure she was getting feed properly and they could watch her. She was quite ill so they were feeding her via bucket of feed. They eventually called the vet who got out of his truck, looked at her from a distance and said "she's got rabies". All in the family who had been feeding her got vaccinated. It can happen to anyone.
 
   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #26  
Most people have a sick animal and don't know what it is. In the case of dogs and cats, they'll be slobbering saliva on you. A buddy of mine family had a ill heifer so they brought into the stock yard to make sure she was getting feed properly and they could watch her. She was quite ill so they were feeding her via bucket of feed. They eventually called the vet who got out of his truck, looked at her from a distance and said "she's got rabies". All in the family who had been feeding her got vaccinated. It can happen to anyone.

They obviously expected it had rabies otherwise they wouldn’t have killed it and sent the head for testing. In another day or 2 the dog would’ve died or at least developed obvious symptoms.
 
   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #27  
Apparently a carrier animal will show symptoms and die within a few days. Wouldn’t it have been faster and easier to just cage the dog and watch it?
I have absolutely no idea of the thought process that occurred in that situation.
 
   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #28  
No, bats are one of the most common carriers of rabies.

Raccoons, skunks, bats and foxes.
This is from the CDC:
Most people assume bats carry rabies which they can, but not a large percentage.
Most bats don't have rabies. For example, even among bats submitted for rabies testing because they could be captured, were obviously weak or sick, or had been captured by a cat, only about 6% had rabies.



CDC Works 24/7 › education
 
   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #29  
I had an uncle (RIP) who was trapping animals for their hides; this was back in the 40's, during the war. He was skinning a skunk, that it turns out wasn't really dead, and it bit him. He had to take a series of shots; in those days, they gave the shots in the stomach. No fun to hear him tell it.
 
   / Bat in the house - rabies scare! #30  
Yes, most bat's, as most mammals, do not have rabies. That is correct.

As of 2018, bats were the most frequently wild animals reported with rabies.

from here:

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