Rabies

[Eventer]

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Hi, I've been a lurker up to this point.

I have a non-veterinary question to ask, but I thought someone on this board might know the answer. I received the pre-exposure rabies vaccine before working this summer researching bats. Today I received a bat bite that broke the skin. The grad student said it really was no big deal, as you get bitten almost every day if you work in the field (which is what he used to do), so long as my titer was OK. Do all of you agree with that? Should I undergo the post-exposure treatment? I got the shots last February, so obviously my titer should still be quite high.

The bat is not abnormally aggressive, he was just looking for his breakfast and my hand apparently got in his way🙄. But I know that doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility that he has rabies.

 

[HeartSong]

Is this a bat you can watch over the next couple of days or is it an untraceable bat in the wild? In the best case, if it is a bat you can keep under observation, you'd just have to watch it for 10 days to see if it develops symptoms of rabies.

If it is not a bat you can keep an eye on, then it is up to you the level of risk you want to take as to guessing whether or not the bat has rabies. The rabies vaccine will not completely protect you. The person administering the rabies vaccine should have told you this. But anyone who has had pre-exposure vaccines who is suspected to have come in contact with rabies should get a modified post-exposure series of shots. You should NOT receive immunoglobulins and it is important to make sure the doctor understands that you have gotten pre-exposure vaccines so they should not give you immunoglobulins. You should receive 3 shots instead of 5 or something like that.

 

[david594]

I got the shots last February, so obviously my titer should still be quite high.

Obviously? Do you have some magic titer viewing ability via which you can tell your titer just by looking at your blood? Its not obvious, its an assumption.

And its a medical question having absolutely nothing to do with veterinary medicine, so this thread will get lock.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

SDN is not for medical advice. Closing.