Ozzie was rescued and brought to me for assessment and initial care.
He's a very skinny 9 week old baby Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who was noticed hanging fairly low in a tree for a few days.
At rescue he was very passive and almost comatose.
In care, he had a few moments of wakefulness but mostly he was unresponsive. Glucose and fluids didn't improve his consciousness level.
I really thought he was dead in the morning, but he was still clinging onto life.
I took him to the vet for further assessment, and he was euthanased.
His body was sent off for testing because the vet felt he was sufficiently neurologically puzzling for him to possibly be ABLV+.
ABLV is Australian Bat Lyssavirus which is one of the rabies family of viruses.
He tested negative.
RIP little Ozzie.
In Australia the only virus we worry about is ABLV, which is Australian Bat Lyssavirus. It’s the Australian variant of the rabies family of viruses. You can only catch it if you’re bitten or scratched by an infected bat. Less than 1% of the population may have the virus at any given time. This virus kills the bat in a relatively short period of time.
In order for the virus to be transmitted, the bat has to be sick at the time of the bite or scratch. It has to be actively shedding the virus from its brain at the time of the bite or scratch. The virus has to be present in the saliva at the time. The virus has to come into contact with a nerve ending through a bite or scratch. If the bat has licked its claw in the previous half hour, the virus could be present and still living on the bat’s claw. The virus isn’t spread via blood or into your blood. It is spread if it contacts a nerve ending. If you live in Australia and are bitten or scratched, the health department will vaccinate you for free. The bat will be euthanased and sent off for testing. If it comes back negative, the vaccinations will cease.
I rescue maybe 100-300 bats a year. I have seen 3 cases in all my rescues over 12 years, and I could ID them as being in trouble, just not sure if they were infected, just could see the In Australia the only virus we worry about is ABLV, which is Australian Bat Lyssavirus. It’s the Australian variant of the rabies family of viruses. You can only catch it if you’re bitten or scratched by an infected bat. Less than 1% of the population may have the virus at any given time. This virus kills the bat in a relatively short period of time.
In order for the virus to be transmitted, the bat has to be sick at the time of the bite or scratch. It has to be actively shedding the virus from its brain at the time of the bite or scratch. The virus has to be present in the saliva at the time. The virus has to come into contact with a nerve ending through a bite or scratch. If the bat has licked its claw in the previous half hour, the virus could be present and still living on the bat’s claw. The virus isn’t spread via blood or into your blood. It is spread if it contacts a nerve ending. If you live in Australia and are bitten or scratched, the health department will vaccinate you for free. The bat will be euthanased and sent off for testing. If it comes back negative, the vaccinations will cease.
I rescue maybe 100-300 bats a year. I have seen 3 cases in all my rescues over 12 years, and I could ID each of them as being "wrong". I wasn't positive they were infected, I could just see they were very "wrong".
