Pet owners stay on the alert for rabid bats

A rabid bat found dead at Bend’s Pioneer Park last Thursday caught the attention of pet-owners, worried about the chance of infection in dogs and cats — and thereby infecting humans.

Dogs are curious animals, and if one running through the forest without a leash discovered a bat or any other wild animal on the ground it would sniff it out. If the wild animal happened to be a rabid bat and the dog mouthed it, there’s a more than incidental chance of passing rabies from bat to dog.

Most cats — house or feral — are very aggressive hunters and can snatch a low-flying bat out of the air with unerring accuracy. Obviously, if the cat seized a rabid bat and killed it, it could be curtains for the cat. Just one good reason to teach a cat not to catch birds.

Rabies is a viral disease affecting the central nervous system. It is almost always contracted by exposure to a rabid animal, ordinarily through a bite or scratch, but sometimes also when saliva comes in contact with broken skin, eyes, nose or mouth. Untreated, rabies usually results in death.

Typically, dogs and cats receive their first rabies vaccine when they are about six months of age; a second shot is given at 18 months and lasts up to three years. Boosters should then be administered regularly every three years.

If your cat comes home dragging a dead bat, the best procedure is to take the cat and the bat (in a plastic bag) to the veterinarian as quickly as possible. The veterinarian will notify the county health department about the bat, give your cat an additional rabies vaccine and tell you to watch the cat closely for 45 days.

A handful of rabid bats are reported across the state each year; last year, for example, saw seven such reports statewide. A total of 87 cases have been reported since 1994, including seven in Lane County and a record 10 each in adjoining Linn and Douglas counties. Two rabid bats were also discovered in an apartment complex in Multnomah County in the summer of 2002. In most circumstances, rabid bats are migratory species, not our “resident” bats.

Shannon Dames, communicable disease coordinator for the Deschutes County Health Department said that 9 percent of bats test positive for rabies. Considering that at least nine species of bats migrate between Oregon and the southern latitudes each season, which total hundreds of thousands of healthy, rabid-free individuals, the risk of rabies being transferred to humans is very slight.

That said, however, the best solution for avoiding rabies (or other serious illness, such as the Bubonic Plague) from any wildlife — alive or dead — is by not handling them or encouraging them to climb into your lap.

Keeping your pet on a leash is further protection from coming into contact with rabies.