# Wife found dead bat in house -- rabies confirmed.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 16, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674 "2014-08-16T12:41:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/21 "2014-08-17T03:30:02Z")
Just today my wife called me to see something, outside neighbors in their yard had a dead bat impaled on a stick, I was like wtf and she said she thought they were going to eat it. Trinidad wtfisms ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/22 "2014-08-17T03:31:08Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Trinidad wtfisms You should start a special thread for those. I’d subscribe to it. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/23 "2014-08-17T04:33:02Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > I keep reading this thread title as “Wife found dead in bat house – rabies confirmed.” I read the thread title exactly the same way…at least that isn’t how this has played out. ---
**Author:** ![CodeB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85e7bf/32.png) [@CodeB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CodeB)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/24 "2014-08-17T04:57:55Z")
I misread your title as Dead wife found in house. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/25 "2014-08-17T05:00:12Z")
At first I thought maybe it was missing a comma but no, it’s missing an “a”. ---
**Author:** ![MrsTime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@MrsTime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrsTime)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/26 "2014-08-17T05:13:09Z")
When I was a child my grandmother told me a story about another little girl, she said one day the child was playing and a dog ran up and bit her dress. The girl then went to the house to sew the tear the dog had made in her dress. When she was finished she bit the string to then put the needle away. Some time later the child died of rabies. Then I found out that bats are the only mammal that contracts rabies , survives and become carriers. Just looking at pictures of the horrid little things makes me sick to my stomach. So we were living across the street from a young couple who thought it was so fascinating that they had bats in their attic, I thought it was scary enough that I asked my husband to make sure there were no small holes around the outside of our home where bats could get it. I still hate even the idea of a bat! ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/27 "2014-08-17T11:36:44Z")
Back in the 80s a boyfriend’s relative was a landlord, and occasionally we’d help the relative with general upkeep and such. We were “on call” the week the relative/landlord went on vacation, and of course we got a call from a babbling tenant asking us to come over and “catch this great big bug thing!” My boyfriend packed a butterfly net because he was betting it was a bat. And it was. A baby brown bat that somehow slipped into a back bedroom from the attic. The tenant had closed the bedroom door, but reported that it was flying in circles then hiding within the curtain folds. The details are hazy now, but I remember that my boyfriend and I managed to catch the bat in the net and we let it go in the backyard. I don’t ever remember anybody saying anything about rabies then – not the tenants, not the relative/landlord, not my boyfriend, nobody. The big thing I always heard about bats was that they go for your hair and they’ll get tangled in it. Of course that’s probably an old wives tale :shrug: ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/28 "2014-08-17T13:35:28Z")
I had a bat in my house just last night! It wasn’t the first time though. As before the cat caught him. I finally got the cat to drop it, then the dog darted in and picked it up. After that the bat was dead. Both animals had had their shots, so no worries there. As before, alive or dead, I picked up the bat with a thich oven mitt. It was a very small specimen, so I flushed it as I would have a dead mouse. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/29 "2014-08-17T20:14:33Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > Some states will pay for rabies shots. It never hurts to ask. > I had them about 25 years ago. Even then they didn’t give them in the stomach. They were painful, but not the nightmare they were. > I think I paid about $500 for the doctor’s visits. I don’t know what they cost my insurance company. > $11,000 sounds excessive. But apparently, I’m wrong. > [Guess what first rabies shots in the ER cost? - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=650902) [you’re off by a factor of between 11 and 20](http://health.costhelper.com/rabies-vaccine.html). $1000 total is more like it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/30 "2014-08-17T20:30:52Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > [you’re off by a factor of between 11 and 20](http://health.costhelper.com/rabies-vaccine.html). $1000 total is more like it. [Or maybe not.](http://www.c-ville.com/fox-news-after-possible-rabies-exposure-southwood-bite-victims-face-costly-treatment/) > [@](#): > > The cost of post-exposure rabies treatment is steep. The first shot, the Rabies Immunoglobulin (RIG) is given at the hospital and, according to UVA spokesperson McGregor McCance, costs between $4,500 and $9,000, depending on a person’s weight. A series of three or four rabies vaccines is then administered over the next month, and the health department charges $255 for each of these. From January 2012 to September 2013, 135 people in the health district received post exposure treatment, said Napper. [The Costs of Not Dying From Rabies](http://thebillfold.com/2012/11/the-costs-of-not-dying-from-rabies/) > [@](#): > > 1. RPEP costs a flippin’ ton. [This site](http://www.ndhealth.gov/disease/Rabies/QandA.htm), the first Google result for “cost of rabies vaccine,” offers a poor estimate of “anywhere from $2,000 to $7,000+ per person.” ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/31 "2014-08-17T23:16:50Z")
> [@MrsTime](#): > > Then I found out that bats are the only mammal that contracts rabies , survives and become carriers. Just looking at pictures of the horrid little things makes me sick to my stomach. So we were living across the street from a young couple who thought it was so fascinating that they had bats in their attic, I thought it was scary enough that I asked my husband to make sure there were no small holes around the outside of our home where bats could get it. I still hate even the idea of a bat! I’m sorry you dislike bats. I love them. You’re wrong that bats are asymptomatic carriers of the rabies virus. There is a lot of misinformation about rabies. Maybe if you understood it better, you wouldn’t be so afraid. This might help: [http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/rabies.pdf](http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/rabies.pdf) OP, I’m sorry your family has potentially been exposed. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/32 "2014-08-17T23:35:43Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > $11,000??? > > I had a partial rabies series a few years ago–they stopped when it became obvious the cat wasn’t infected. The vaccine was only available through emergency rooms, so I had to go in each time. My insurance billed me $100 each time, which seemed high. So in all I spent $300-400. > > Eleven thousand is simply theft. Yup… and that is just for the shots… and there are six members of the family - total bill almost $70,000. ---
**Author:** ![MrsTime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@MrsTime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrsTime)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/33 "2014-08-18T05:16:56Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > I’m sorry you dislike bats. I love them. How can anyone love something as potentially dangerous as bats? The bat in the OP’s post didn’t even bite anyone, and they are having to have the rabies vaccine. OOOH I bet they are just loving bats all to pieces…not. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/34 "2014-08-18T05:22:57Z")
Isn’t it just a little absurd, and possibly a cash cow, to vaccinate anyone who may have been in the vicinity of a bat(confirmed rabies or not)? I mean unless you’re a blackout drunk or something how could you not notice being bit by a bat? Seems like a scam to me, or just absurd overkill. It would be like putting everyone on a limited course of antivirals if they ate at a restaurant where a chef was diagnosed with HIV. EDIT:I could go right now(night) and sit on a bench in a public park under a streetlight and watch HUNDREDS of them flying very close to my head eating bugs. I’ve had several fly into my house and annoyingly not be able to get out(they don’t go for your hair BTW). I mean I should be dead right? ---
**Author:** ![Amberlei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Amberlei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amberlei)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/35 "2014-08-18T05:26:51Z")
When I was a grad student, a tech in one of the other labs found a dead bat. He was holding it by a wing, waving it around in the air while he marched down the hallway, “Hey, look what I found! It’s a dead bat, come look!” I made him drop it into a biohazard bag, sealed it up and called EHS to come for it. It wasn’t rabid, thank goodness, but the truly scary thing is is that that tech is now in medical school. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/36 "2014-08-18T05:30:17Z")
> [@Amberleia](#): > > When I was a grad student, a tech in one of the other labs found a dead bat. He was holding it by a wing, waving it around in the air while he marched down the hallway, “Hey, look what I found! It’s a dead bat, come look!” I made him drop it into a biohazard bag, sealed it up and called EHS to come for it. It wasn’t rabid, thank goodness, but the truly scary thing is is that that tech is now in medical school. I can recall several times in Texas people would be like aww we found this dazed squirrel/baby raccoon/possum/ etc mammal that was just going in circles in our yard and might be sick how cute lets nurse it back to health. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/37 "2014-08-18T05:35:54Z")
Where I went to college, there we bats all over. They’d fly in an open window, we’d chase them around with nets, and let them go. It would never have occurred to me to even consider rabies shots if I weren’t obviously bitten. ---
**Author:** ![PorchePine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/38 "2014-08-18T06:37:11Z")
> [@MrsTime](#): > > How can anyone love something as potentially dangerous as bats? The bat in the OP’s post didn’t even bite anyone, and they are having to have the rabies vaccine. OOOH I bet they are just loving bats all to pieces…not. Far more people are bitten by dogs every year, often with serious injuries requiring expensive medical treatment, than are exposed to rabies from bats. How could anyone love something as potentially dangerous as a dog? ---
**Author:** ![PorchePine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/39 "2014-08-18T06:41:24Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Isn’t it just a little absurd, and possibly a cash cow, to vaccinate anyone who may have been in the vicinity of a bat(confirmed rabies or not)? > > I mean unless you’re a blackout drunk or something how could you not notice being bit by a bat? > > Seems like a scam to me, or just absurd overkill. It would be like putting everyone on a limited course of antivirals if they ate at a restaurant where a chef was diagnosed with HIV. > > EDIT:I could go right now(night) and sit on a bench in a public park under a streetlight and watch HUNDREDS of them flying very close to my head eating bugs. I’ve had several fly into my house and annoyingly not be able to get out(they don’t go for your hair BTW). I mean I should be dead right? If you actually handled the bat, then you could very well be exposed to the virus. If you had contact with any of the bat’s bodily fluids, you were exposed to the virus. Since rabies is a fatal disease, and from my understanding, you’re dead meat once symptoms appear, getting the treatment seems like a pretty good idea. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674/40 "2014-08-18T06:47:06Z")
> [@MrsTime](#): > > How can anyone love something as potentially dangerous as bats? The bat in the OP’s post didn’t even bite anyone, and they are having to have the rabies vaccine. OOOH I bet they are just loving bats all to pieces…not. Only one or two people die per year from rabies. Me? I’m one of those people to whom mosquitoes are enormously attracted. Bats are my friend! Plus, those mosquitoes carry all sorts of stuff that is much more likely to spoil your day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-found-dead-bat-in-house-rabies-confirmed/695674.md?page=3)