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Discussion on Raccoon, Horse, and Rabies
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Member:
jowidner
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 4, 2008 - 1:01 am:
Hi Dr. O,
Tonight I was out at the barn well after dark and much later than my normal routine. As I was picking my gelding's stall a small, rather ratty looking raccoon peered in the outside door. It ran off before I could get a good look at it, only to reappear a few minutes later. My horse noticed it before I did, turned around, lowered his head, stuck out his nose and snorted at it. The raccoon reared up on its hind legs, hissed and swatted at my gelding's nose. I don't think any contact was made. The raccoon ran off again. I examined my horse's nose and it looked fine. I hung out for another 10 minutes or so and the raccoon did not reappear.
Our water trough is right outside my horse's stall so I don't know if the raccoon was trying to get water or perhaps it was after the few crumbs of feed that could be found around his feed tub.
Both my horses were vaccinated this spring for rabies. We vaccinate every year because there are at least one or two reports of rabies (usually skunks or raccoons) in our county every year.
Is this normal raccoon behavior? When I have seen them before they usually disappear as soon as they see me. Should I be doing anything extra to protect our pets and horses? Everyone is current on their rabies vaccinations.
Thanks in advance. Jo Ann
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Member:
canter
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 4, 2008 - 7:31 am:
I'm no expert on raccoons, Jo Ann, but in my experience, they can be quite bold. One time, we had a group of people and 3 dogs on my back deck. A raccoon climbed head first down a tree that's literally 18 inches away from the deck. He stopped and watched the party for 10 minutes, despite the dogs going crazy. Probably looking for a handout from the grill. When he realized he wasn't going to get anything, he climbed the rest of the way down and ambled off into my gardens. I think that they've become so used to people, they often don't exhibit the normal shyness around people that most wildlife does. Given the season, your raccoon was probably being an opportunist, looking for a bit of food, and was annoyed that you were there to interrupt his late night raid.
If everyone is vaccinated, I think my biggest worry would be with your smaller pets... A raccoon can be quite nasty and do a lot of damage to a cat or dog. If this raccoon seems overly aggressive, you may want to call animal control, or use a humane trap to catch him and release him far away from your property.
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Member:
corinne
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 4, 2008 - 8:01 am:
Hope your horse is Okay JoAnn.....And I concur with racoons being able to damage smaller pets. Our family dog surprised a racoon on the back deck (she was 15 at the time and had cancer so was not strong enough to fight back). The racoon jumped on her back and sliced her juglar. My Mom tried to hose it off the dogs back crying the entire time (Mom) well and the dog was crying too Poor thing....luckily we the kids were away at school. The racoon finally relented and My parents got Snowball to the vet while my Stepdad held pressure on her neck, it was horrible for my parents. She had to be euthanized.
They no longer live in the house but the racoons would come on the deck looking for food nightly.
Be careful if you explore!
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 4, 2008 - 8:38 am:
Hello Jo Ann,
Sounds like a young racoon possibly born this year and apparently struggling a bit. A little bolder than normal but if you interrupted the racoon's normal schedule or he was really hungry he might investigate. Besides vaccination you are pretty much left with discouraging the visits by keeping food well covered, large noisy dogs, or getting rid of the racoon altogether.
DrO
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Member:
jowidner
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 4, 2008 - 11:56 am:
Dr. O and Fran, I think you are right. There's no sign of the raccoon this morning, so I bet he's been coming around at night and helping himself to spilled feed. He just didn't expect to see me out in the barn past my normal hours.
I've been adding corn oil to my gelding's pelleted feed so I imagine that probably makes a pretty tempting treat for a hungry young raccoon. I'm going to do an extra cleaning today and remove the feed tub at night to try to discourage any scavenging. We'll see if that helps. If I see any abnormal behavior I will be quick to call animal control.
Corinne, what a tragic story. I will be very careful. I like to keep the dogs in at night but sometimes our Husky insists on sleeping out under the stars. If the raccoon is healthy and just hungry perhaps her presence will discourage him. If its not healthy... Well, that makes me worry. I'm afraid the barn kitties will have to fend for themselves, I can't bring everybody into the house, as much as I'd like to! 
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Member:
ekaufman
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Posted on Friday, Dec 5, 2008 - 10:07 am:
Hi Diane,
At least raccoons (esp. young ones) are easy to live trap if necessary. I relocated several at one time when I got sick of the night-time screeching and the mess. Live-trapping foxes is a lot harder, though I got pretty good at that too.
(One of my older neighbors said, in discussing the wiliness of foxes, "Weeell, they don't call them foxes for nothing." Which, well, I think you can probably see why I found that a bit cross-threaded.)
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Friday, Dec 5, 2008 - 9:24 pm:
I think we all must be drinking this week Wasn't me with the racoon (in the horse barn anyway)
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Saturday, Dec 6, 2008 - 10:23 am:
DrO needs to add some new posting rules:
1. No posting before at least one cup of coffee or tea in the morning.
2. No posting at other times after 2 or more glasses of wine! 
Now, on a more serious note, I swear I haven't been able to get my thoughts out verbally or in written form since before election day! Don't know what that day has to do with anything, maybe just because we had snow by then??
Keeps things interesting on here 'nways, lol!
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Member:
jowidner
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Posted on Saturday, Dec 6, 2008 - 11:59 am:
LOL! You all are too funny!
Raccoon update: No further sightings. I think Gus and I must have scared the poor little guy off. From the raccoons perspective a big, snorting horse could be pretty frightening. Here you are, just trying to scarf some leftovers, only to have this huge 1000 pound animal stick its nose in your face and let out a great big snort. If I were a three pound raccoon I'd hiss, swat and head for the hills too!
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Member:
zarr
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Posted on Sunday, Dec 7, 2008 - 12:57 am:
Jo Ann, between your coon and my skunk in the barn it has been a busy critter time.My dobe treed a coon last year and it stayed up the tree for hours.Dancer stayed with it except they were on opposite sides of the fence! Your huskie should be more than enough! 
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Member:
jowidner
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Posted on Sunday, Dec 7, 2008 - 1:07 pm:
Yes Cindy, I think that development is pushing more critters into our little bit of rural (and I mean little!) area that is left. We have a herd of deer living in a narrow strip of woods that separates us from our neighbors. They look kind of rough too. I hate to see wildlife struggling so early in what is promising to be a cold winter.
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