Rabid Bat Turns Up Under a Vehicle in Ingram — Kerr County's 8th Case This Year
INGRAM, Texas — Somebody in Ingram looked under their vehicle last week and found a bat. It turned out to be rabid.
The bat, discovered on a property in the 200 block of Hwy 39, is Kerr County's eighth confirmed rabies case of 2026, county officials said Tuesday. Nobody was bitten or otherwise exposed.
The timeline ran about as fast as these things go. Kerr County Animal Control got the call Wednesday, Sept. 9. An officer picked up the bat that same day, packed it for the lab and shipped it Thursday. By Friday, the lab had called back with a positive result, according to KCAC Director Reagan Givens.
Bats are the usual suspect in Hill Country rabies cases, and this one fits the pattern: no attack, no drama, just a sick animal turning up somewhere it had no business being. The danger is in what happens next — a curious dog, a kid who wants to help, a hand reaching under the bumper.
Givens' advice hasn't changed, and he isn't shy about the stakes. Rabies, he said, is a "terrible, neurological disease," and you never know when you or your pets might run across something carrying it. Don't pet or feed animals you don't know, he said, and that includes the stray dogs and cats that seem friendly enough.
If you see an animal acting strangely — staggering, unusually aggressive, out in daylight when it shouldn't be — Animal Control wants three things: what it looks like, exactly where it is and which way it's headed. Call 830-257-3100 during business hours. After hours, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office takes those reports at 830-896-1216.
