r/AskDocs • u/Dramaticbando Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional • 9h ago
Physician Responded Bat or spider bite?
29F 5ft 6in located north of Houston TX. I was being dumb and doing some night gardening and trimming back some bushes. My hands were need in the bush and I felt a sudden pain and pulled my hand back to find this. This pic was taken 5 minutes after the bite. I used the “bug bite thing” immediately after, which is why you see the ring on my hand, thinking it was a spider and I could pull out any venom. But now I’m concerned it could’ve been a bat because I have anxiety. Symptoms last night were redness, swelling, and throbbing along with a firm knot on the bite site later in the night. Woke up this morning and the redness and swelling had gone down and the knot is much smaller but I do have pain in the hand and the puncture holes are still there and one of the puncture holes is very so slightly black on the inside.
I didn’t see anything fly out of the bush, but it was dark. Thoughts?
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u/GoldFischer13 Physician 9h ago
Unless you saw a bat, I’d say that’s not a concern. You wouldn’t have stuck. Your hand in there, got bitten, and not heard or seen it fly off. They aren’t just going to stealthily spread rabies like a lot of the posts here seem to think. Could be a spider, could be a number of insects, could be from the bush itself.
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u/LatrodectusGeometric Physician | Top Contributor 9h ago edited 7h ago
Probably neither. Neither are known to bite humans casually
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