An increase in rabies cases found in skunks in Sheridan County is prompting Wyoming health officials to remind people that there are a number of critters around the state that can give people rabies.
Skunks, bats and raccoons are some of the most frequent carriers, and it’s easy to spot a rabies-infected varmint if you know what to look for. Essentially, look out for the crazy.
Health officials stress the number of animals found to have contracted the deadly disease remains small and is comparable to last year.
If you’re unlucky enough to get bitten by a rabid animal, it’ll cost you. The series of shots needed to counteract the deadly disease can run into thousands of dollars.
While more skunks have been found with the disease, the number of bats detected with rabies has appears lower with four months left in the year. But bat bites always have the potential to transmit rabies.
Data posted online by the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory in Laramie shows that through August, there have been 15 positive rabies tests among skunks, more than double the cases compared to last year, out of 426 total exams of bats and skunks for rabies. All of the rabid skunks have been found in Sheridan County.
Six bats have also tested positive. They were found in Carbon, Goshen, Laramie, Sheridan, Sweetwater, and Teton counties.
In 2023, there were 526 total exams of bats and skunks yielding positive results in 14 bats and six skunks. Seven of the bats and all six skunks were in Sheridan County, while three bats were from Teton County, and one each from Freemont, Sweetwater, and Washakie counties.
About 90 people have shown up in Jackson’s St. John’s Health emergency room this year, worried they have contracted rabies. Hospital spokesperson Karen Connelly said that’s about typical for the year, according to the hospital’s Emergency Department director.
“He said rabies post-exposure prophylaxis is a common visit for us in the summer,” she said. “We are the only place where rabies immune globulin is offered in our county.”
Last year, the Wyoming Department of Health issued an alert due to the small rise of rabies cases among bats in Sheridan County. The department reminded residents that rabies is passed on through bites or scratches and that bat bites are small and not always visible.
Anyone with direct contact with a bat or anyone sleeping in the same room where a bat was found should seek a medical assessment from a medical clinic or hospital, health officials said.
Bat Expert
University of Wyoming Assistant Professor of Zoology and Biology Riley Bernard knows a lot about bats. She is the program director for the North American Society for Bat Research and for the past three years has overseen lab testing on bat specimens in the state.
“So far this year, I would say based off of the number bats that have been submitted and the number of bats that have been found positive it’s actually quite low, lower than last year but within the range of normal,” she said.
Bernard said the bats typically submitted for rabies testing are found in human structures or pets have found them. Most of those bats are doing things bats in the wild “shouldn’t be doing.”
Nationally, the number of bats positive for rabies from those submitted for testing averages between 1% to 4%. A recent national study showed rabies in 6.7% of bats submitted. In Wyoming, the general range of positive findings for the past four years range from 2% to 7%.
“For bats in general in the wild, the likelihood of positivity is much lower — about 1%,” Bernard said.
Wyoming Department of Public Health spokesperson Kim Deti said rabies exposure needs to be taken seriously.
“It is deadly if someone develops symptoms,” she said. “It’s critical to receive treatment quickly after a potential rabies event. The last rabies death in our country was in Utah in 2018. Prior to that was Virginia in 2017 and then Wyoming and Puerto Rico each had a human death in 2015. Rabies is more common in some other countries.”
University of Wyoming Assistant Professor Riley Bernard puts a track device on a myotis, or mouse-eared bat. (Courtesy Riley Bernard) 
The rabies virus through a microscope. Most humans affected by the virus die. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) 
University of Wyoming Assistant Professor Riley Bernard holds a Townsend’s big-eared bat. She said only about 1% of bats in the wild carry rabies. (Courtesy Riley Bernard) 
At the Metro Animal Shelter in Casper Manager Jodi Decker said they don’t get many wild animal calls, but do respond to may dog bits. She advises pet owners to ensure rabies vaccinations are up to date. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Left, University of Wyoming Assistant Professor Riley Bernard is an expert on bats and rabies in Wyoming. Right, Dr. Mark Dowell said waking up with a bat in the room usually generates serious thought about whether to seek the expensive vaccine. (Courtesy Riley Bernard and Dr. Mark Dowell)
Wyoming Case
Mark Dowell, a doctor at Casper’s Rocky Mountain Infectious Disease, said he remembers the Wyoming case, believed to be the first in the state. He was called about it.
“It was a woman in the western part of the state that woke up with a bat on her leg and she was an older lady, and the husband caught the bat, took it outside, put it in the trash, never thought twice about it,” he said. “And then about six to 12 months later the woman started acting somewhat unusual neurologically and they thought she had dementia and suddenly toward the end the husband thought, “O yeah, there was that bat there that time.’ They did an MRI of the brain and found some changes suggestive of potential rabies, ran the test, they were positive and of course she expired.”
While rabies is rare, Dowell said every summer he hears from people worried about potential exposures. Sometimes it is a dog bite, or someone bitten trying to feed or “mess around” with a raccoon or a skunk — sometimes a cat, and then there are the bat calls.
“When we get those calls, sometimes people are panicking,” he said.
Deti and Dowell both said some exposure scenarios are not straightforward.
For Dowell, he said getting bit when trying to break up a dog fight between your pet and another pet is not a high-risk exposure. He was once bit by a dog while jogging and knocked on the door of the home to ask the dog’s owner about whether their pet had been vaccinated.
It had, so no risk exposure.
Ceiling Scenario
But what about waking up in a cabin with a bat on the ceiling?
“Most bats don’t carry rabies as we know or there would be a lot of people getting rabies all the time. You have to be in the wrong place at the right time,” Dowell said. “It depends, if you wake up with a bat on the ceiling, you don’t know if it aerosolized virus or flew around or is just nesting up there. That’s one risk. If you wake up and the bat is on you or in your vicinity, that is a completely different discussion.”
Dowell said he tells people who have a bat near them or on them to strongly consider rabies prophylaxis. As for the bat on the ceiling, they need to consider how many times they have been exposed to the bat and how much risk they are willing to take.
While being bit or scratched by a bat is an automatic trigger for the rabies shots, Dowell said bats also are thought to be able to aerosolize the virus which according to current understanding means it may be possible for a person to just breathe the virus in at night when a bat flies around them.
“The (individual) story is what leads me to recommend prophylaxis,” Dowell said. But the cost of the vaccine and the immune globulin is not cheap, and health insurance typically does not pay.
Expensive Treatment
Dowell said costs for the four-dose vaccine and immune globulin can be several thousand dollars. Typically, doctors’ offices will not have the vaccine and some small emergency rooms in the state also might not have it readily available because of the expense, and its shelf life.
Should the vaccine be needed, Dowell said waiting a couple of days for it to shipped is not an issue.
“If you go to an emergency room and they don’t have it and you need it, and they can get it in a couple of days, there is not harm to you whatsoever,” he said. The four-dose vaccine is given on day zero, three, seven and 14. The immune globulin is administered with the first dose of the vaccine.
If people encounter a bat in their dwelling, Dowell said people can call exterminators to capture the bat and then have it tested to see if it is rabid, but once again it is expensive.
“If you are going to kill it. You leave it right there. You call the animal control people in your county and you say I’ve got a bat I’ve just killed and you stay away from it and you let them handle it,” he said. “And they will go get it examined. Otherwise in that scenario, that is a high-risk exposure.”
Pets And Rabies
On the pet side of the state’s rabies story, Wyoming leaves vaccination requirements to to counties. Natrona County is among the counties that mandates the vaccine.
At the Metro Animal Shelter in Casper Manager Jodi Decker said Natrona County requires all dogs and cats to be licensed and to get the license the owner must show proof of rabies vaccination.
Decker said her department does not get a lot of calls dealing with wild animals such as bats, skunks and raccoons. They do deal with dog bites.
“If we have a dog bite and they have not been vaccinated for rabies, we actually don’t have any concrete way to say (they don’t) unless they are tested. And rabies is in the brain so essentially if there is any dog bite and their dog doesn’t have any proof (of a) rabies vaccination, we do have to send it for testing unfortunately.”
To do that, the dog is euthanized, and a brain sample sent to the state’s lab.
“So that happens quite often, because people are not vaccinating for rabies,” she said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
