Well about the second or third day of season I was skinning, and a friend of mine stopped and helped me a bit. I was opening some coon and talking with him at the same time, and my knife flicked toward my face while opening one and I remember some water from the wet coon flipping into my face and mouth. I spit and spit for a while, and forgot about it.

Couple days later I came down with terribly weakening flu like symptoms. Was weak as a kitten for several days. Also had a case of the dumps that would possibly make a world record. Was going ten to fifteen times a day.

Got my energy back after a few days, but have had the dumps ever since. Got tested and I caught a bacteria from a coon.

I know darn good and well it was from that water in the face incident, as I wash and disinfect my hands after skinning.

If I had it to do over again, I would take Riverats advice. I extend that advice to you now.

I wish I would have drank a slug of alcohol, or at least used some stout mouthwash to kill any trespassers.

Thanks for the heads up, if someone can catch it it will be me.

Coon also carry a disease off of their fecal matter.

I got some water in my face too. didnt get sick though. thanks for the heads up

The streams we catch the animals on carry diseases in the water they carry also so be care ful if you float protect your food and the drinking container you use. I suffered the same symtoms last year . my bottled water got river water on the outside from the bottom of canoe figured that is where I ingested the bacteria. My lunch and drinks will be in a small ice chest this year.

Do you know the name of the bug?

Thanks for the reminder, it is just too easy to get a mouthful of bacteria while skinning, even when you're being careful...

Guess I better keep a bottle of medicinal Jack Daniels around just in case..

Several years ago I got sick and was in the hospital for 3-4 days, they never did figure out what it was but I always thought it was from skinning somethin, at the time I was too sick and dizzy to even think about it...I always wear gloves now and wash my hands with soap or alcohol if necessary.

another place you can get cross over is if your dog tangles with the coon and then they lick you.

There was a link on here the other day on someones post and it went to talkshoe and was about all the stuff you can get from coons. The thing that got me the most was round worms and their eggs and how easy it is for your kids to get them if they are around you the coon or surface that the coon was in contact with. And these thing can do major damage to a child. Blindness and a whole host of other things and I even think death the little people can't handle them very well.I see alot of picks on here with little ones up close and I hope you guys and gals are like me. I'm always after my 2 girls to go wash their hands after any contact with me or the animals. I will take a look around and see if I can find that post and I will TTT it.

While were on the subject, anyone here of beaver fever?Had a bunch of beef animals awhile back, the young were great as long as they were on mama but when they started drinking from the creek,started getting sick and going downhill till the end, antibiotics didn't do much, had a vet call it beaver fever, can't remember the technical name, can people get it?

giardia

Giradia is what Beaver fever is, get it from the fecal materail in the water, its a protazoa or ameboa that lives in beavers and gets crazy when it's ingested in humans.

Can really make you sick with the rotton trots, and dehydration that comes from it.

People really should study up on what animals can do to humans, would really make them change their cleanliness habits after working with them!!

"Colonblowitis"

Ok I found it took some looking but it's in the archives under general trapping and on the 2nd page and it's the next to last post from the bottom of the page. Podcast Raccoons & Associated Diseases and it has the links to talkshoe were you can listen to what this Lady has to say about all the stuff that comes along with being in contact with Raccoons. Just my two cents I think the Moderator should put these links at the top for safty reasons to inform all of us about the danger that we and are familys could be in from just simply touching a coon. For are Kids cause God knows we don't want them to get sick because we exsposed them something that we love to do. Everbody knows that kids are always sticking their fingers in their mouths,nose,eyes.

Got a coon yester day that had the runs and had a slight odor to it. I wear rubber gloves when skinning, but got to thinking...did not have any gloves on when I picked it up...I usually at least have a pair of brown jersey gloves on when retrieving the critters. Just forgot...guess I better pay better attention. Tom

I couldn't agree more Grit. When I started working on our Wildlife Rabies Control Project, we had to take intensive training on Wildlife Diseases and take a refresher each year since. I used to handle all my furbearers bare handed, I don't touch them without gloves on now. I also keep a couple of bottles of alcohol based hand sanatizer in my fur shed as well as a bottle in my truck. I use it frequently anytime I work with animals.

My wife spent several weeks in the hospital after coming down with Giardiasis (Beaver Fever). Doctors ran test after test and couldn't seem to find out what was wrong. We asked them if they could check for Giardiasis, they did and test came back positive for it. They treated her for it and she got well enough to be released from hospital, although, it still took several months before she fully recovered from it. She hadn't drank any water from lakes or streams but had been helping me from time to time in the fur shed. Doctors fifgured she must have came in contact with one of the beavers that had the organism on the fur.

Friend took a dunking in a lake full of beavers and got Giardia. Maybe Paul could add a new forum for diseases hazzards.

My doc was telling me that coons carry a parasite/disease (can't remember which) in their fecal matter that there is no known cure for at this time. I got bit the other day and had to get rabies shots, but he was more concerned about whether or not I had skin contact with coon doodoo.

Always,always wear gloves when handling furbearers and especially raccoons. How many pictures in the trapping magazines do you see even little kids holding a fresh coon with bare hands? Too many I think.

My wife picked up some giardia while we were swimming. Four kids and me were in the same water and swallowed some as would normally happen when swimming. My wife was the only one that got sick. It took the doctor a month to figure it out. She lost a lot of weight over that month as she did nothing but but poo out everthing she ate. She was pretty weak by the time the doctor figured it out.
I caught viral menengitis once. The doctor said it was more then likely something I picked up from either a coon or more then likely a mink that caused it. That put me down for two months, came close to forever.