Kitten and bat in house

[Stargazerlily6200]

Last night was our first night in our new house. I had all 6 cats in my room with my 4 year old daughter and we were sleeping. The cats were restless and were fighting off and on with each other. At one point, I had my baby kitten 14 weeks on my chest. I noticed something more out of the corner ofmy eye and thought maybe it was a moth. It turned out to be a bat. I hadn’t really been asleep all night and none of the cats were really bothering it because it was flying around. I grabbed my daughter and my kitten (who was due for her first rabies vax this morning) and ran out. (All other cats are fully vax.) I cried all the way to the vet. They believed that the kitten would be ok and gave her the first rabies shot anyway. They didn’t see any wounds and asked us to keep her in the house for 4 months. I am so worried about her. Was this the right thing to do? We also were told we dont have to separate her for 10 days but just to always keep an eye on her. I am just sick with worry. All other kittens were fully vaccinated and my husband said the bat crawled under my bedroom door and flew into the kitchen. He opened the door when it got tired and landed and then let it fly outside.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
You did the right thing

 

[Margot Lane]

Pretty sure you’ll be OK.

 

[BoaztheAdventureCat]

I think you'll be fine; just try not to let your cats go after bats.

 

[neely]

Do you have a chimney? Bats frequently enter through a fireplace chimney too. Your husband and you may want to take an inspection of the outside of your house and look for any cracks or openings. My sister lives in an area that is more prone to bats and she's spotted three in the house at different times.

 

[Stargazerlily6200]

we do have a chimney. We had a wildlife guy come over yesterday and he will seal everything next week (Labor Day). He said that there wasn’t an active infestation so I’m hoping I never see one again.

 

[Luvyna]

You did the right thing and I think your kitten will be okay!

I'm actually more worried about you and your family because I'm assuming you are not vaccinated for rabies. Where I live, anyone who has contact with a bat is required to report the exposure because it's a rabies risk.

When did the bat go into your home and when was it flying around, was it during the day? If a bat is active during the day or behaving aggressively this is unusual and a sign that something could be wrong with it. Are you 100% sure that you and your family members did not touch the bat?

It may be worth calling your local wildlife or health authority to ask about the level of contact you had with the bat and whether or not it's a rabies risk. If anyone touched the bat, they should probably get vaccinated for rabies.

 

[Stargazerlily6200]

The bat was in the house at night but it was still terrible.

we live in VA but just moved from NC. I went straight to the ER with my 4yo in VA and they tried to talk me out of the vax. We called our ped at Wake Forest who immediately scheduled our shots on Thursday evening at the ER in our old home town. We got the first shots Thursday and we get our next one tomorrow. The shots were painful but yes exactly everything you said: we don’t know if we were exposed because we were asleep so the shots were our only option since the bat wasn’t captured.

 

[Luvyna]

Glad to hear you decided to get the shots even though the first ER tried to talk you out of it - better safe than sorry! Hope all goes smoothly with the shots