Weird coon encounter so I thought I would share

I live across from white rock creek in dallas. I was walking my GSP this evening and had a weird encounter with a raccoon. At first a car stopped in front of my house not trying to hit it and it just went under the car and wouldn't come out. I walked up and was able to get it out. The weird thing is it would not run away, I see quite a few around my house, but this one was acting strange. It was not afraid of me or my GSP, in fact it came after us. I put up my dog and grabbed a broom handle and tried to get it to go away, but it just came after me. I ended up pushing it away from my house about a hundred yards trying to keep it away from my house and dog. About ten minutes later I walk out front to see if it is still outside. I walk out and the thing runs at me again. At this point I am convinced something is wrong with this coon. Sooooo... I grab a baseball bat and when it runs at me a again and I know no neighbors are watching I take the fatal swing. I called the city to come pick it up, and they said it would be less than 24 hours for them to come pick it up.

rabies in your area?

Rabid?

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rabies in your area?

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Not that I know of, but not sure where I would here about it.

Forrest Gump approves the use of the broomstick to remove the coon.

Hopefully it did not come in contact with you or your dog. It very well could have had rabies. If you made contact at all you probably need to get checked out.

it was on bath salts.

Lots of distemper in that area.

That and a good chunk of your neighbors feed them.

Distemper is active in Austin coons too. Vaccinate your dogs.

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Forrest Gump approves the use of the broomstick to remove the coon.

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Underrated post.

That is extremely too much violence against a coon. I am alerting the media and the president. We are going to confiscate all baseball bats and broom handles and make it illegal to own or manufacture any more. No congress needed. Going to use an EO.



I couldn't resist!!!!

But seriously, sounds like rabies. Take it to a vet if its head is still intact.

Justin '03

Could be either distemper or rabies. I'm betting on distemper.

Wash the bat off with bleach. I'd say 100% solution.

From the map above...what is a deer with rabies like?

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Could be either distemper or rabies. I'm betting on distemper.

Wash the bat off with bleach. I'd say 100% solution.

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100% bleach is not a good antiseptic. It needs to be diluted with water to be activated.

Deer succumb very quickly to rabies. Usually first noticed when they start stumbling around, and vocalizing, then dead pretty quick thereafter. Virtually always linked to skunk. Actually if you look at the variants map, in Texas other species getting rabies is nearly always linked to skunks.

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it was on bath salts.

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100% bleach is not a good antiseptic. It needs to be diluted with water to be activated.

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The bleach you buy in stores is already diluted significantly - it is about a 2% to 3% bleach solution. Industrial bleach runs either 12.5% or 15%.

While you think you did a good deed by calling the city, wait until they quarantine your dog, house, yard and you. And then they send you the bill for it all.

Any particular reason why there are so many rabid skunks in the DFW area?

...and north and east of DFW.

Milwaukees Best Light---And why would they do that? Dog is probably vaccinated for distemper and rabies. Unless the op had saliva or central nervous system fluid making contact with a mucous membrane, yippy skippy.

The DFW area always has a bumper crop of rabid skunks. Sort of like how the Hilll Country normally accounts for most of the rabid raccoons. Part of it is a misunderstanding about skunk biology. People tend to remove skunks at a high level, they are density dependent breeders, so with intense removal efforts you actually get more skunks. Get a spike in population, get a spike in rabies. Other issues is you have multiple municipalities submitting animals for testing, especially out of Tarrant County.

[This message has been edited by ursusguy (edited 1/11/2013 9:43a).]

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Milwaukees Best Light---And why would they do that? Dog is probably vaccinated for distemper and rabies. Unless the op had saliva or central nervous system fluid making contact with a mucous membrane, yippy skippy.

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Because they are bureaucrats.

I'm doubting that he has industrial/health services cleaning agents.

Bleach will kill rabies virus and distemper virus; ask the vet school and/or your local vet.

If a parvo/distemper/rabies animal comes in the normal course of action is to mop the floor and totally go clean suit on the room/chair/cage they come into contact with. (all with a bleach solution)

There are MUCH better cleaning agents for this out there, but it's the best one that the average person has at home.

Milwaukees Best Light, it sounds good and funny, but that's not the way it works.

But if a quarantine is warranted, it dang well needs to be done.

[This message has been edited by ursusguy (edited 1/11/2013 10:14a).]

Oh, but it is the way it works. Granted, I took it to extreems in my original post, but good, well intending citizens often get their pets unnecessarialy quarantined and get stuck with the bill. You do the right thing by calling the authorities and some egghead comes out with their government guide book and turns your world upside down, then sends you a bill for "helping you". You have no recourse because by the time you can get a suit to stop them, or take some kind of legal action, they have already taken your dog and started sending you bill. Don't let them take your dog, and things get much worse real quick.

Best play, keep your mouth shut and your business to yourself.

From that map, I am pretty sure that Oklahoma is sending rabid skunks into Texas.

I don't know why they would do that. I wish they would stop it.

Milwaukees Best Light, so what about the situations where they follow your advice, and there is legit rabies? There's been multiple cases of that happening in Texas, then a lot more people end up having to do post-exposure treatment.

Following the "government guide book", have your pets vaccinated. Puts you into a low risk situation, and most likely will do a simple on site quarantine.

Here's an example:

Back in another life, I used to manage Veterinary practices. A client was forced to quarantine their dog for a while with us. The client found a dead bat on their property and the dog was near it. The client didn't know if the dog had touched the bat, but got the dog away from it as quickly as they could. The dog was 1 month overdue on its rabies vaccine. It had last received a rabies shot 13 months prior to the incident. The dog was given a 3 year vaccine, however, at that time, the State of Texas did not recognize the vaccine as good for 3 years, and the dog had received the 3 year vaccine yearly for a couple years. I don't remember what the clients tab was, but it was 3 figures for making a phone call. The client told me, 'Next time, I will just use the pooper scooper and put the damn thing in the trash'.

Yep, and that is why you stay on top of your vaccinations.

I know it happens, the alternative ain't great either.

Pretty much anything with bats is going to get bumped up in priority.

[This message has been edited by ursusguy (edited 1/11/2013 11:31a).]

FYI--I was talking to a wildlife rehabber today, since January 1, they have picked up 35 raccoons with distemper. Most from the north end of Whiterock, and north up the creek. Plano has picked up another 37 with distemper.

It "may" get some media attention in the next week or so.

[This message has been edited by ursusguy (edited 1/22/2013 9:27p).]

Wow. Now I don't feel so bad for bludgeoning it with a baseball bat.

Be careful with that bat. Obama will ask Congress to ban them if you aren't careful.

You called the city? Man, where is that OB poster that was on here a couple weeks ago....he usually eats these things!

harge57,

When I was a kid (12 or so back in around '77), my grandfather in Houston asked me to bring one of my double spring leg traps next time I visited. He had a coon that would lift his garbage cans out of their holder onto the ground and make a mess. This coon made himself at home, and would watch TV through their sliding glass door, then do damage.

Well, we set the trap before dark. Tried to stay up, but fell asleep. About 11pm when all were in bed we heard a banging. Opened the back sliding glass door and there he was, trapped by a foreleg. My grandfather proceeded to lay a beat down of Buford Pusser style beatdown with an old axe handle w/ leather strap wrist cord (which I still have) upon the coons head. Blood splatter on the side of the house/skull caving beatdown on him. We were afraid to shoot the shotgun in the city limits (Pine Chase St. area, now a Mc Mansion area). Seriously, his head was caved in somewhat.

Well, about 5Am, with everyone sleeping nicely after the blood letting, we hear a banging again. That "male" coon had his leg chewed halfway through, and was yanking at the trap secured by the chain. It took several more blows from the axe handle, and a dropped 10lb rock to finish it off.

You might want to check on the dead coon tonight......as you might have just pissed him off.

Edit: for changing "buck" coon to "male" coon, caue the litbard folks from the Politics board may interpret it in a bad way and make a big deal of it. They lurk this board, you know.

[This message has been edited by Old Sarge (edited 1/22/2013 10:31p).]