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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2022)
The Columbia Press 4 Bat: Child has close encounter with rabies Continued from Page 1 with their pets and themselves to protect against rabies, said Emilio DeBess, a public health veterinarian. “Never handle bats, and make sure your cats and dogs are up to date on their rabies vaccines,” he said. “If you find a bat during the daylight hours, it is probably not healthy and should be avoided.” While bats play a valuable role in nature, contact with them should be avoided. Sick bats may flop around on the ground or otherwise act un- usual. Rabies is a viral disease of mammals that attacks the an- imal’s nervous system. Rabies symptoms in wild- life, particularly foxes and rac- coons, include lethargy, walk- ing in circles, loss of muscular coordination, convulsions, irritability or aggressiveness, disorientation, excessive drooling, and showing no fear of humans. If you find a sick bat or other sick wildlife on your property, take children and pets indoors and do not handle it without protection. Use a disposable container with a lid to scoop the animal into the container and dispose of it in the trash. Typically, animals acquire rabies by eating or coming into contact with a rabid bat. Very few bats in Oregon have rabies and rabies in other wildlife is even more rare. Aspen’s grandparents, who live near the new middle school in Warrenton, took all the right steps. July 1, 2022 Bat encounters If you find a sick bat, contact the Department of Fish and Wildlife at 503-325-2462. If your pet has contact with a bat, immediately contact your veterinarian. If a bat has contact with a human, call Clatsop County Public Health at 503-325- 8500, if with an animal, call Clatsop County Animal Con- trol at 503-861-7387. Not knowing the protocol or the urgency, all of the adults present began scouring the in- ternet for information, includ- ing Parrish’s dad, her brother, and her mother-in-law, who just happened to pull up to the house. They were unsuccessful in contacting the public health department because it was af- ter hours. So they took her to the emergency room at Seaside Providence Hospital for evalu- ation. “Ultimately, they decided they had to take her in to get these shots,” Parrish said. “The doctor agreed, yes she needed to start taking these shots. It didn’t appear she was bit, but even the saliva, if you have a cut or open sore you can get it. And sometimes the bites are like mosquito bites.” Rabies shots are not nearly as painful as they once were. Aspen received two injec- tions that first night and is in the middle of the course of three follow-up injections. “She is doing pretty well,” Parrish said. “She knows she’s got to get one more shot, and she’s not too thrilled about it. But she gets a special treat of her choice. She cries and then recovers pretty quickly.” Her family made the right decision to immediately seek treatment, Parrish said, be- cause rabies is 100 percent fatal. What initially had been preventive, the shots became potentially life-saving once test results came back on the bat. “There’s not very much awareness out there,” she said. “Start thinking about, OK, what if someone not very bright or a young child does encounter a bat. What do you do?” Aspen could have set the sick bat down and told no one. “I’m extremely grateful that Aspen showed my mom. That we knew about it,” Parrish said. “That was like God pro- tecting her. … I’m just so grate- ful for modern medicine, too. “The biggest reason that I wanted to share with others is that I want people to know that, even if a bat flies in your room at night, you’ve got to take it seriously. I didn’t quite realize how serious it was.”
