Yuck!!!
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/county_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2423_4057578,00.html
Distemper rife in racoons
Cats and dogs also can catch the deadly disease
By Brittany Anas, Camera Staff Writer
September 6, 2005
Something was awry with the skinny raccoon with bulging eyes that sat on Denise Danel's Gunbarrel balcony last month, hissing at her and scaring her cat stiff.
"When you live here, you put up with the creatures, and they are fairly harmless," said Danel, a Boulder County resident of 26 years. "This was a whole different experience. It was just frightening. I was the last of this raccoon's worries."
The raccoon probably had distemper, according to wildlife professionals. The fatal disease makes the nocturnal animals act drunken and causes them to stumble around in the daylight.
Danel called authorities after she had the run-in with the raccoon at about 6 p.m. on Aug. 26. An animal control officer came the next day, but the sick raccoon was no longer in Danel's yard, which is near the Boulder Country Club.
Animal control officials and a professional from a wildlife rehabilitation center in Boulder County have noticed a recent rash of the distemper disease in raccoons, which also can spread to cats and dogs.
"It's everywhere," said Terri Snyder, a Boulder County Sheriff's animal control officer. "Right now Superior is the hardest-hit area."
Snyder estimated that animal control officers euthanized about 15 raccoons that had distemper last month.
"Their eyes are matted shut, and they absolutely reek," Snyder said. "A lot of times they are out during the day, acting intoxicated. They are basically deteriorating away from distemper."
Snyder said that if people have a sick raccoon in their yard, they also should water down the area where the raccoon was spotted. Distemper can be spread to cats and dogs through an infected raccoon's saliva, urine and feces.
Last week, a Superior resident reported to animal control officers that a raccoon was in his garage eating Cheerios during the day and the animal seemed indifferent to people, Snyder said.
The animal was taken to Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary in Longmont, where it tested positive for the disease and was euthanized.
Beth Bridges, an animal-care coordinator at the sanctuary, said three of the 157 raccoons taken to the center last year had distemper. This year she is seeing a greater percentage, she said.
"We are noticing it's been much more widespread this year," Bridges said.
There are measures the sanctuary can take to prevent the spread of distemper in baby raccoons who have been exposed to the disease, but otherwise distemper is fatal, Bridges said.
The neurological disease also causes the animals to suffer seizures.
"It's just awful," Bridges said.
Greenwood also takes in raccoons that have been orphaned after their mothers have sometimes been trapped or exterminated, Bridges said. They are usually kept at the sanctuary for three or four months before they are released back into the wild.
The center takes in as many as 3,500 injured and orphaned wild animals, including raccoons, a year. About 70 percent of animals are returned to nature.
Raccoons in the area seem to be like the Oscar the Grouches of small, furry critters. They hang out in trash, and Bridges said people don't seem to have as much patience with them as they do with other small animals.
"People don't realize that in a healthy ecosystem, they do fill a niche," Bridges said.
A typical raccoon should weigh about 20 pounds, but some of the ones that come into Greenwood are pushing 30 or 40 pounds because of their Dumpster-diving habits.
People should make sure their trash is secured, because raccoons are omnivorous and they will eat anything — including leftovers from McDonald's, Bridges said.
Raccoons in Boulder County also have been know to cause a ruckus.
University of Colorado officials recently urged students to take precautions with wildlife and not feed the critters on campus.
Edward von Bleichert, pest-management coordinator at CU, said the university makes careful accommodations for wildlife on campus.
In the past few years, the university installed metal screens to keep raccoons out of campus buildings, he said. Raccoons had gotten into the cupolas of buildings and fallen through ceiling tiles, into the offices of faculty members.
"That caused quite the scene," von Bleichert said.
Offices were turned upside-down and employees reported vandalism to police officers, who discovered that the critters were to blame.