Rabid bat bite in Keystone sends Colorado high country visitor to the hospital

A man visiting Keystone learned a bat that bit him tested positive for rabies.

Jesslyn McGill, Animal Control Supervisor for Summit County, said it's an uncommon occurrence, but it's not unheard of.

The bat had been sent for testing after the victim went to the hospital.

"He described that that morning he was staying at a place in Keystone, leaned over the railing, and the bat ... he saw something fly up and go fly around his arm and it ended up being a bat," McGill said. 

"He got bit in the forearm, they were able to catch it, and he went to the hospital just as a precaution."

That's exactly what he needed to do to be safe.

McGill said they usually test a few bats a month for rabies and in her 10 years working with the county she has only seen a handful come back positive. While it's very unlikely to be an issue, rabies is not something to take likely, McGill Said.

"Once you show symptoms it is not a curable disease," McGill said. "I wouldn't say it is a need for panic, just that was one that had an interaction with a person and that one got tested. I think it is just something we live with just like anything else, but is it, not a generally high risk."

While summer has an increased risk of bumping into a bat and therefore increased risk of bumping into a bat with rabies, McGill said it's still a low chance anything to that magnitude happens, and winter time is even less likely. She said bats don't show an obvious difference in behavior like one might imagine with a dog or a skunk, but it's best just not to touch bats if you can help it.

McGill said, they're happier left alone anyway.