Had a very scary encounter today. Always be prepared.

Glad you are OK and be careful.

But, what is this sleep you speak of ?
 
Hey Kalel, you may want to make sure if you have dogs and/or cats, that they are up to date on their distemper shots.

BTW - Good throw ;):D
 
tomthebaker said:
Actually, Rabies is quite treatable, as long as treatment is begun within a few days of being bitten. By the time there are symptoms - it is too late.

Rabies treatment used to be a series of 30 shots way into the stomach area over 30 days, but now it is a little better, but still painful.
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Exactly..................once you have symptom's....................nothing nice will follow. I had a good talk with my children after this post just to make sure..... they do not approach any animals, touch any animal's, and although, they have been told before about rabies, I am just not sure they would remember as they love animal's and I worry about accidental contact with a Rabid Animal or Bat since I live in a very Rural area. In my younger year's, I have pulled some ignorant stunt's with animal's while Trapping, getting bit and scratched luckily, none had rabies. I do not believe everyone that got bit, would seek medical attention immediately and would probably wait for some symptom to appear depending on the amount of hassle involved. Even if the animal was not sick, it would be a hassle for sure to go to the ER, time, then spending money ect......... I think Hunter's post is a good one for more awareness on this issue. :)
 
KalEl said:
Actually it wasn't at all. Thats what's scary about it. I thought for a moment that it might just be a raccoon that people in the area had fed and had lost its fear of humans but it acted very strangely and was not mentally there.

Whats so scary is that my nephew and the other little kids that play in my back yard and surrounding houses could have though "aw a cute little raccoon. Lets feed it and pet it." and become infected by saliva without knowing.
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That's the way Raccoons are KalEl. I get them on my porch ALL the time. Some of em will run off when I open the door to shoo them away, but some of them will just look at me and take more pursuading. I've squatted down on my porch and sat and watched em wander about, lookin at me, then moving on. Generally speaking, they're just REALLY curious about stuff. If the lil guy wasn't foaming at the mouth, snarling or coming AT you, then he/she is no real threat. Yeah, it's a wild animal and should be treated with respect, not taunted, but for the most part, they just want food. :)
 
ttoney83 said:
That's the way Raccoons are KalEl. I get them on my porch ALL the time. Some of em will run off when I open the door to shoo them away, but some of them will just look at me and take more pursuading. I've squatted down on my porch and sat and watched em wander about, lookin at me, then moving on. Generally speaking, they're just REALLY curious about stuff. If the lil guy wasn't foaming at the mouth, snarling or coming AT you, then he/she is no real threat. Yeah, it's a wild animal and should be treated with respect, not taunted, but for the most part, they just want food. :)
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I totally agree. Kal's reaction was a natural one (not having lived in KY for long-I lived there for 20 years and encountered countless raccoons)- and rabies are no joke if one actually encounters it. But you know what, Kal is alive and well and didn't get infected and now he has a good story to tell. To me, that's something to celebrate.
 
Next time instead of yelling, screaming, throwing things and grabbing swords just throw a trash can over it. Then call animal control. If you want to be nice put an apple or banana in the trash can.

I've seen plenty of coons act that way. And a coon that's very tired and hungry will certainly act that way. Heck I know I've acted that way after a bad stomach flu. Living in the wild is tough and sometimes all it takes is running away from a predator or two and you are completely drained. It's why they tell you not to get close to animals in the parks. 1 or 2 scares can be a death sentence for quite a few large animals.

Rabid raccoons on the other hand tend to attack and chew on inanimate objects like tires. And yes I've seen a coon do that. It was obvious it had rabies.
 
heh. Didn't realize this was an oldy. I'm not quite sure how I stumbled upon it (searching??!?!) but wasn't too happy about the OP's reaction. Sorry about digging up an old thread.
 
Yikes! Sounds like someone's been feeding it...

Rabies is extremely rare, even in wild animals. I don't remember the statistic, but there hasn't been many cases of rabies in the US in the last quarter century or so because of the enormous effort to vaccinate pets and eliminate it wherever it pops up in the wild. I think bats are the primary carriers these days, but like I said, it's very rare. You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery and being struck by lightning on the same day than catching rabies.

All that said I understand the treatment is no picnic if you get it.

I had a similar experience with a fox as a boy. I was at a creek near my house and felt what I thought was a dog sniffing my butt and I turn around it's a one-eyed fox. That's right, not just a regular fox, but a one-eyed fox. I was crouched over picking shells out of the water and as soon as I stood up he ran.
 
Many illnesses have been mentioned that can make coons crazy. I don't know about you all, but I have seen the damage a 20 pound boar can do. I don't think he over reacted at all. Crazy raccoons that have been fed and lose their fear of humans have no place in a neighborhood. I do like the idea of the trashcan over him tho. But in my neighborhood he probably would have met a qui k end via broad head.

If you enjoy wildlife the best thing you can do is let them be wild. Don't feed them or try to tame them. You are setting them up for failure. Let them live wild and happy.
 
DanBo82 said:
Yikes! Sounds like someone's been feeding it...

Rabies is extremely rare, even in wild animals. I don't remember the statistic, but there hasn't been many cases of rabies in the US in the last quarter century or so because of the enormous effort to vaccinate pets and eliminate it wherever it pops up in the wild. I think bats are the primary carriers these days, but like I said, it's very rare. You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery and being struck by lightning on the same day than catching rabies.

All that said I understand the treatment is no picnic if you get it.

I had a similar experience with a fox as a boy. I was at a creek near my house and felt what I thought was a dog sniffing my butt and I turn around it's a one-eyed fox. That's right, not just a regular fox, but a one-eyed fox. I was crouched over picking shells out of the water and as soon as I stood up he ran.
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It is coming back more and more every year here in the south east. Further north every year too. I have been a Animal Control Officer for going on 5 years. In that time we have only had one bat turn up positive. We are in a Rabies zone because of an outbreak in Racoons a couple counties south of here. From what I here North GA. has many positives every year.
Hope the canine variant never comes back in dogs but people are getting very bad about not getting their animals vaccinated. Feral cats are the most worrisome to me. We handle hundreds a year and rabies is popping up much more in feral cat colonies. Mostly in the western US right now.
 
Hmmm, feral cat colonies... sounds like I've got some reading to do ;)

I must have been mistaking the canine strain for rabies in general, I actually didn't know there was more than one kind, thanks for setting me straight. I figure I'm about half right, most of the time :)
 
I haven't noticed this thread before, and I wasn't there, so who am I to tell if it was an overreaction or not.

BUT, this comment in the OP:

4) I caught a glimpse of Zombie apocalypse today.
It wouldn't be fun if you had to kill infected people.

I really can't figure out if it was meant as a joke, or if there is an actual fear of needing to kill hordes infected people?!?
 
DanBo82 said:
Hmmm, feral cat colonies... sounds like I've got some reading to do ;)

I must have been mistaking the canine strain for rabies in general, I actually didn't know there was more than one kind, thanks for setting me straight. I figure I'm about half right, most of the time :)
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My training does not get really deep into it,I had always thought that rabies was rabies but evidently there are different stains of it. All of them will infect any warm blooded animal but tend to be more in a population of one species.
I took my NACA 2 training one year later than my partner. When he took it they were saying that Rabies is very rare in domestic dogs and cats. When I took it they said they used to say it was very rare in dogs and cats but have changed that because of studies on feral cat populations showing as much as 20% of them carrying rabies. IIRC most of those studies came from western states.
If you read up on rabies it will scare you on just how easy it can be spread,does not have to be a bite. One good thing is that there is only a 10 day window that it can be spread via saliva without the animal showing signs of being sick.
 
It's 10:30am here, I was outside smoking a cigarette and noticed a possum sniffing around the neighbors yard. I find it rather unusual for the animal to be up and about in broad daylight. I did have my Ruger LC9 IWB, and Benchmade Contego in my pocket, as I'm fully dressed for the day.

I'll wait and see what he's up to, but as of now I can't find a reason to dispatch the animal.
 
This one time a squirrel tried to car jack me but my shoe scared him off, sucks it won't work on coons.
 
This reminds me of the time where I had to evacuate the neighborhood and defend my life from a spider that was crawling around in my garage. :rolleyes:
 
SpyderPhreak said:
From your story, it sounds like the 'coon was foaming at the mouth? :confused: How do you know it was rabid?
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The first thing that makes me think just from reading what happened is that a raccoon was out in the daytime when they're nocturnal. That alone is cause for concern, but when you add to that that the animal showed no fear of humans is an even worse sign. So even without testing, there was clearly something the matter with the animal.
 
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