<p>I didn’t read all of this thread but I can relay a successful bat catching story. My sister has a lake house and from time to time things get in. Our parents had gone down with her and she was fixing dinner when the bat was discovered. My dad became worried that the bat, which was in the kitchen area, would somehow contaminate the food, dishes, etc. so he busied himself with the “saving” of the dishes and food. Her husband went and got a captains hat (you know to keep the bat out of his hair) and a hockey stick a began flailing at the bat. My mom locked herself in the bedroom. My sister, a very pragmatic person and something of a naturalist got a laundry basket and a large piece of cardboard. She put the laundry basket over the bat “sealing” it to the wall, slipped the cardboard under the basket, trapping the bat and safely took it out side. I have used this method to catch birds in the house and a similar version to catch bugs.
They didn’t have rabies shots, but I would agree that any contact with the bat would necessitate that, or even if you were just concerned about it I would go ahead and consult a health care professional.</p>
<p>In 2006, a 16 year old Houston boy died of rabies after a bat got into his room while he was asleep. He woke up when the bat brushed against his face. The bat was shooed outside. A few weeks later the boy became ill and subsequently died. </p>
<p>I’d go for the shots if a bat were in a family member’s room when he was asleep.</p>
<p>I had a bat hanging in the light fixture in a classroom I was teaching in years ago. Told the class that we were leaving as quickly and quietly as possible. I shut the door and called the custodian who chased it down with a broom, I think. </p>
<p>Several years ago when S1 was about 10 and we lived in Missouri, he saw an injured squirrel. Kind hearted S wanted to help it, but it suddenly came to life and bit him. Ran away, too. I called the doctor. S was pretty sure the squirrel had fallen or been hit by a car, but we couldn’t catch it, and I thought it might have been ill. Doctor said there hadn’t been rabies in the area for 5 or 6 years, so shots weren’t necessary.</p>
<p>When I was in college, a bat flew into our apartment. We sealed off the living room and chased the thing but it disappeared. We searched every square inch of that room for hours and could not find the thing. It seemed to have just vaporized in thin air. With great trepidation we slipped out of the living room and kept the doors shut in the apartment as none of us were interested in having the thing nest with us while sleeping. </p>
<p>The next day, my roommate noticed a dark streak in a very thin V-shaped vase in the living room. She picked it up to clean the streak, and the bat flew out. She screamed like nothing I ever heard. You would never have guessed that the bat could have squeezed into that vase. But it did. Fortunately, we did get it out of the apartment.</p>
<p>You are absolutely right about the dangers of bats. Our local hospital is dedicated to a little girl who died of rabies from a bat bite. The parents had no idea that she was even bitten. It was not until the autopsy that the cause of death was determined. She was bitten on the head; did not even feel it.</p>
<p>We finally got the bill from the hospital for the two rounds of shots that the two of us had.
The total billed to our insurance company was over $16,000. The expensive part was the immunoglobulin. It was a strange thing that no one in the ER could tell us ahead of time how much any of it was going to cost. I could see how someone who doesn’t have insurance would certainly think twice about going thru with the shots. Our share of the bill was $550.</p>
<p>omg…i had no idea it would cost that much!
My friend has had bats come in her house…twice in the last month. One of her friends told her she should get rabies shots for herself and her family (including small children). Her H told her the friend was crazy…you only need shots if you’ve had contact. At the time, it seemed to make sense and I agreed. Uh…oh…should I tell to go get shots? I don’t think they were sleeping when the bats came in…</p>
<p>Shots are recommended if you have been asleep or incapacitated or for a child who is too young to know if they were touched by the bat. You don’t have to be bitten to get rabies, bats preen their furr by licking it so the saliva on their furr can carry the rabies to a small open cut in your skin, or if you touch it and rub your eye. If you have been asleep in the room with the bat and can’t say for sure that you haven’t had contact with it AND YOU DON’T CATCH the bat, it is recommended that you get the shots within 2 days. Again, my recommendation is to catch the bat, because otherwise, you are going to have to get the shots.</p>
<p>Well, what would you know? We got a bat in our bedroom in Cambridge, MA! I cannot figure out how on earth it got in. Our windows are closed, our doors were closed. We opened one window and somehow H managed to hit it when it was close to the window, then somehow got it to fly out. No rabies shots for us. But who needs such excitement at a quarter to eleven? Tomorrow, I’m going to inspect all the windows.</p>
<p>I read an article about 2 weeks ago on-line that said that spelunkers have gotten rabies from apparently inhaling saliva of infected bats. The article said that even if a bat flies through your hair and you don’t think you were bitten, you should get shots because bats have very sharp teeth, and you may not have realized you were bitten. In addition, their saliva could go into a scratch on your scalpe.</p>
<p>I was reading about this because some friends an encounter with a rabid fox and they had to have rabies shots.</p>
<p>Yep, that was me too, as per my earlier post.</p>