oh MY gawd

[L_n_O 3]

THEY GOT HIM!!

NO MORE BAT!

[L_n_O 3]

They said they're gonna behead the bat, find out if it has rabies, and if it does, my fiance has to then get 5 rabies shots...

He'll know wednesday if the bat was rabid.

and he'll be hearing a lot from the state dept, public health over the next few weeks.....

[Emancipation 2]

This thread rocks!!! So glad i saw it!! It made me laugh outloud- the play by play!

To creep you out further, my grandmother had a dozen bats in her attic... we TOLD her how unhealthy it was begged her to do something, but she refused not wanting to "hurt the dears".. yeah..

When you can see their excrement coming through the walls.. you know you got an issue.. She finally changed her mind...

Happy to report... no more bats at Grandmies!

[Jasman0717 9]

If the bat bites him, it will give him super powers. That is how Batman was born! If it happens, he'll have to chose another super hero name

[featherB 1]

They're going to BEHEAD the bat?! Yikes!!

Poor little flying mousey thing!

(I think bats are cute. But I still wouldn't want one in my bedroom, granted.)

[Bootylicious!! 2]

We had one in my house once when I was younger. My dad and brothers were gone on a trip so it was just me and my mom at home. She called one of my uncles over to capture it and they chased it all night long, never could catch the thing. The next night it was out and about again flying all over the house. She called another uncle and he came with a tennis racket. He had no problems finding and disposing of it.

[Lance27 32]

We had one in my house once when I was younger. My dad and brothers were gone on a trip so it was just me and my mom at home. She called one of my uncles over to capture it and they chased it all night long, never could catch the thing. The next night it was out and about again flying all over the house. She called another uncle and he came with a tennis racket. He had no problems finding and disposing of it.

HAHAHA... The "Bat" got wacked by the "Racket" - Racket 1 : Bat 0

[featherB 1]

It's weird reading this, my reaction is 'oh my god, they're not allowed to hurt the bat!!' - in the UK, bats are protected by law and if you have bats roosting in your house, tough luck, you're not allowed to evict them! Things are obviously a bit different here!!

[Sinergy 3]

I love bats

[almaty 19]

They said they're gonna behead the bat, find out if it has rabies, and if it does, my fiance has to then get 5 rabies shots...

He'll know wednesday if the bat was rabid.

and he'll be hearing a lot from the state dept, public health over the next few weeks.....

where is Ozzy at when you need him?

[maya62 7]

Not to pee in anyone's cheerios here, but this type of situation should be taken seriously...

Most of the people in the US who have died in the US from rabies in the past few decades have died from the bat variant of the virus. Some have no history of a bite (ie, perhaps may have been bitten while asleep and the bite was so small it went unnoticed...).

I'm glad the OP's SO notified the health dept so they could follow up. Rabies is definitely a consideration anywhere in Virginia, particularly with bats, foxes, skunks and raccoons, but any mammal can get rabies, including unvaccinated pets (or pets whose vaccine has expired). Keep your pets' vaccines current!

Here is more info:

rabies stats in VA by species - pick a year in the pull-down menu in the upper right corner of the screen - it shows several positive bats in NoVa area in recent years

http://vdhweb/epi/dzee/rabies/index.asp

and the CDC rabies site, which is great:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/

Best wishes,

Maya

[raymaga 25]

We woke up in the middle of the night once at our mountain cabin and heard swooshing noises..... it was a bat flying around in our bedroom.

We got up and turned on a light by the patio door to attract the bat's attention, then opened up the patio door, and the bat flew right out.

We didn't even consider getting rabbies shots because we weren't bitten by the bat. I guess it's alright, though, because we're still alive and well and that was many many years ago.

[maya62 7]

For anyone who has a (possibly morbid) interest in human rabies cases, like me, you can read more about individual cases here:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/prof...al/professi.htm

Scroll down about halfway to MMWR write-ups under "human rabies"

All sad stories, all pretty much preventable. Horrible way to go.

Vaccinate your pets, report all bites to your local health department.

Maya

Edited to add: A teenager just passed away in May of this year in Texas of a bat bite that occurred while he was sleeping in his bed. He knew he got bitten because it woke him up, but he did not report it and did not get the post-exposure series of vaccines (which, BTW, are nothing like what you may have heard of in the past... they're not anymore painful than any other shot in my opinion... I've had 3 of them as pre-exposure protection for my job and they weren't any big deal, imho).

Edited July 10, 2007 by maya62

[isleta521 5]

Holy Bat sht man.

Oh,

I mean holy sht bat man !!

[L_n_O 3]

Ya, in the past, if you suspected a bat bite, you had to get shots in the STOMACH!

They guys at the house told him last night that they don't do that anymore.. just 5 shots to the arm..

and the other thing about bat bites thru research at 3 am last night and animal control at SO's house) is that you often never know you've been bitten.. they're almost impossible to see cuz their teeth are like little pins.. and you'd essentially be looking for a little pin ####### on your skin which is most times impossible to see....

He should get the phone call about the bat's rabies status this evening or tomorrow morning..

(ps, the reason they're beheading the bat is b/c it's the only real way to tell if it has rabies)

And I was trying to tell my fiance to go into his bedroom and get the camera just to take a picture of the bat last night and he was like "HELL NO!!! YOU THINK I'M GOING IN THERE AGAIN WITH THAT THING STILL THERE?!$%"