Boy, 9, starts treatments for rabies after bat bite

BENNINGTON, Vt. -- A 9-year-old boy has begun a series of anti-rabies injections after a rabid bat bit him.

William Buckley said he felt a slight pinch above his right ankle while he was sleeping on Wednesday night. He tried to kick it away, but the animal then bit his leg, stomach, back, and elbow.

''I screamed bloody murder," he told the Bennington Banner.

His parents, Tammy and Paul Buckley, ran to the room and found the small bat.

Paul Buckley caught the bat in a towel, then drowned it in a bucket of water, put it in a plastic bag, and froze it.

''This animal didn't seem right," Tammy Buckley said. ''It was moving strangely, not flying at all, and it made an odd sound that we hadn't ever heard before."

The Buckleys took their son to the emergency room at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. Doctors treated the bites as if the bat had rabies and William started a series of anti-rabies injections.

The bat was picked up by health officials on Thursday morning. On Friday, test results confirmed that the bat was rabid.

Travis Buttle, the senior state game warden for Bennington County, emphasized the importance of testing vicious animals.

''Anyone who gets bitten should try to locate and contain the animal," he said. ''Not that I want people to wrestle a large animal to the ground." Bite victims should call their doctors, Buttle said, who recommend the rabies vaccine in uncertain instances.

The Health Department recommends that any bat found in a room with a sleeping individual or an unattended child, or a bat that has made physical contact with an individual, should be tested for rabies.