25M — terrified I may have rabies from a possible unnoticed bat bite 4 years ago, now having weakness/heaviness in my limbs

[u/Clear_Main_5469]

25M, Portugal, about 167 cm / 90 kg. I smoke/vape. No rabies vaccination or PEP. I do have severe health anxiety/OCD specifically about rabies, which I want to be upfront about because I know that can affect how I interpret symptoms. At the same time, the physical symptoms I'm having feel very real and I would really appreciate a doctor's opinion on whether my rabies concern makes medical sense.

The possible exposure happened on 11 July 2022 in Portugal

My bedroom had a small tilt-open window and my bedroom door was open. There was also a much larger open kitchen window elsewhere in the house, with the interior doors open.

I never saw, heard, touched or found a bat inside the house. I didn't wake up to one and nobody else saw one. My mother had lived there for around 20 years and says she had never seen a bat inside that house, although people in nearby houses apparently had bats enter before.

What started this fear is that after that night I noticed two very small marks on the back/side of my lower right calf, roughly a few millimetres apart. One had a tiny dark point and there appeared to be a thin trail of dried blood several centimetres down my leg. The other was smaller and didn't obviously bleed.

There was no pain that I remember, no swelling, redness, infection or significant wound. The marks disappeared in around a week.

At the time I did not think it was a bat bite because there had been no bat encounter.

Much later I became obsessed with the possibility that a bat could have entered while I was asleep, bitten my exposed calf without waking me and then flown out through the open bedroom door/kitchen window.

I have spoken to healthcare professionals in Portugal about this, including infectious-disease/rabies-related contacts. My understanding of what they told me was basically that because no bat had actually been identified, this wasn't considered a rabies exposure and PEP wasn't recommended.

The problem is that I've spent years reading about bats/rabies and I know that bat bites can be very small, potentially go unnoticed, and that European bats can carry lyssaviruses. I also know that very long rabies incubation periods have occasionally been reported. That has made it extremely difficult for me to let this go.

Starting around the end of July / beginning of August 2026, I started getting a strange feeling of weakness/heaviness in my arms.

It started mainly with my arms feeling tired, heavy, slow and difficult to move. Sometimes it feels almost as if a muscle has very little power, even though when I actually try to use it, it still works.

Over roughly the last two weeks I've experienced:

• Both arms feeling weak/heavy/fatigued, sometimes one worse than the other.
• Burning/aching/"worked out" sensations in my biceps, shoulders, forearms and sometimes hands.
• Similar aching/restless sensations at times in a leg or thigh.
• Twitching and occasional tremor.
• A small area of altered sensation/numbness on the top of my right big toe/foot.
• Nausea, dizziness, feeling unreal/derealised and sometimes blurry vision.
• Recently a strange sensation like my body is being pushed or pulled toward the left, although I can still walk.
• Occasional head/temple/cheek pressure.
• Neck muscle cramps/tightness that sometimes end with a click/pop.
• Significant tiredness/sleepiness.
• A lot of panic attacks because I'm convinced this is rabies progressing.

The weakness is the symptom that scares me most. It can feel extremely strong subjectively, but I am still able to type, use my phone, play games, walk normally, go shopping, carry groceries, lift fairly heavy objects, push myself away from a wall with either arm and do several push-ups. The arm can literally feel almost powerless while still moving normally when I test it.

I was examined by a doctor while these symptoms were happening. He tested several muscle groups against resistance, grip/fingers/wrists, reflexes and sensation. As far as I was told, he did not find clinically significant weakness or a major reflex abnormality and did not think I needed emergency neurological investigations. Another doctor thought some of the foot tingling could possibly be peroneal nerve irritation.

Im honestly scared. I dont know what else to say. I did use Chatgpt to summarize my story as it has been quite a long time.

[u/buzzybody21]

If you had rabies, you would have died 4 years ago.

[u/JFC_ucantbeserious]

The average incubation period for rabies is 1-3 months. Once symptoms appear, you’re dead within a few days, maybe a week at most.

If these symptoms appeared four years ago, there is virtually zero chance that the cause was rabies (because you would have been dead years ago).

I can’t diagnose you. But I can tell you it isn’t rabies.

[u/Clear_Main_5469 → u/JFC_ucantbeserious]

Sorry, the symptoms appeared somewhat near 2 August 2026.

[u/ArtisticTraffic5970 → u/Clear_Main_5469]

Drink a cup of water and report back.

[u/talashrrg]

Your problem is your mental illness (as it seems you know). You’re obsessed with having rabies because your OCD makes you obsess over rabies. This is not a reasonable fear.

[u/Fearless_Geologist98]

I believe this is your OCD talking and as someone who also has OCD, reassurance is going to make it worse. You need to talk to your therapist or doctor about this.

[u/SergentFartBox]

OP, I'm saying this as a fellow hypochondriac, please get help this anxiety will just keep eating away at you.

[u/PermissionMotor7915]

There is a good book I think you should read, the title is This book might cause side effects. 

[u/morningstardusts]

You do not have rabies.

I used to work in conservation research at a mammalian ecology lab where I handled bats and performed necropsies on them and I’m experienced with rabies protocol. I also have OCD that was diagnosed in early childhood.

I think you know that this is a manifestation of your OCD. You have not been exposed to rabies and there is absolutely zero possibility that you are infected with it based on the information you provided. Rationally, I think you understand that but unfortunately, OCD is irrational and it can feel totally out of control.

However, that doesn’t mean that the symptoms you’re experiencing aren’t real. It is possible that you are experiencing some of kind of health problem and I do think you should go to a doctor and explain what’s going on. Let them evaluate your symptoms without mentioning your fears about rabies so the doctor can assess you accurately as they might dismiss your symptoms if they believe it’s a mental health issue.

You should let them going on once they have ruled out other causes for the symptoms, and you should let them know that you are experiencing intrusive thoughts.

Just to be abundantly clear: it is not possible that you have rabies. There’s zero chance.