Cats and Bats – a Dangerous Combination

Cats and bats – a potentially concerning combination. That’s the message from Deanna Schwab, DVM, a Sonoma Valley veterinarian and co-owner of Valley of the Moon Veterinarian Hospital. 

Schwab reached out to the Sonoma Valley Sun after a client reported that her strictly-indoor cat had presented her with a bat she had killed inside the house. The cat-owner had the good sense to collect the bat and have it submitted to Sonoma County Animal Care and Control, where it tested positive for rabies. Because the cat was vaccinated against rabies it was not at risk for infection, although, as Schwab explains, “out of an abundance of caution, we did booster the cat.”

But the cat’s owner was not vaccinated for rabies and house bats are known to bite sleeping humans. As Schwab explained, “It is known that the bite of a bat can be so subtle that almost anyone would sleep through it.” So the cat’s owner, said Schwab, could have been infected. “Since she had no idea how long the bat was in her home,” Schwab said, “she was theoretically at risk. ”So, again, out of an abundance of caution for her, the cat owner went ahead and received a series of inoculations to prevent her from getting infected. It should be noted that the old-fashioned rabies vaccine, once administered as a series of extremely painful injections directly into the abdomen, are obsolete. Today’s human rabies vaccine is administered as a series of relatively-painless shots in the shoulder, like any other vaccine. 

And that’s the point of relating this story. Explains Schwab, “My interest in publicizing this is that we have a lot of clients who don’t want to vaccinate their indoor cat for rabies, believing there is no risk to them.  After a case of rabies in a cat in Glen Ellen, approximately 15 years ago, it became a law that all cats in Sonoma County be vaccinated for rabies. Prior to that it was only suggested they get vaccinated.  Still, many of our clients balk at it.  I’m hoping that clients will read this story and realize there is a reason we vaccinate for it.”