I'm still a newbie but I have trapped coons, mink, muskrat, ermine, beaver and bobcat and I haven't always used rubber gloves while skinning. What trapping-related diseases and parasites should I get tested for at my next check-up? Which ones do I not have to worry about if I don't have unmistakable symptoms?

Rabies, Tetanus and Bubonic Plague are risks. You can get a rabies shot to prevent it, or if already tested positive for rabies you need to get many exposure shots. Rabies is transmitted from body fluid and air when an infected animal is shot in the head/spine area. Tetanus is preventable by a shot and Bubonic/black plague can come from skinning a bobcat that had eaten a rat sick with the disease, but luckly the plague is only a 16% death rate today instead of 100# way back in the old days.

Rabbit fever, cat scratch fever. Some people get horny.

I wouldn't worry about getting tested for random things, you would have symptoms by now. Just make sure you are more careful going forward.

Your rabies info is incorrect

Actually it isn't incorrect. While blood and urine do not contain the rabies virus, the saliva does, as well as the brain and spinal fluid. It IS possible to inhale the aerosolized virus. That's one reason that the CDC and state health departments say not to shoot suspect animals in the head.

Further Research suggest your correct. I'll have to check multiple sources in the future.

http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/transmission/exposure.html

While we are on the topic of rabies transmission further research on the tab of my previous link but under ''the path of the virus'' tab instead i found this...

Extensive studies on dogs, cats, and ferrets show that the rabies virus can be excreted in the saliva of infected animals several days before illness is apparent. Such extensive studies have not been done for wildlife species but it is known that wildlife species do excrete rabies virus in their saliva before the onset of signs of illness. The excretion of virus may be intermittent, and the relative amount of excreted virus may vary greatly over time, before and after the onset of clinical signs.

Would that indicate that we should never shoot these animals in the head or neck as their is always that risk or perhaps we just need to get checked after each season.

Its possible im being overly cautious, But the fact that rabies has such a long gestation period and by the time a symptom occurs your good as dead scares the bejessus out of me as i prepare to get my trapping license especially with coons as one of my primary intended targets.

When trapping fox in an area with rabies present,shoot them in the chest and dont get any saliva on yourself.Hang them or let them lay at the trapsite for a few hours until the saliva dries out(the rabies virus in the saliva dies when the saliva dries).Handle with rubber gloves,and dont forget freezing preserves the rabies virus but it is killed with heat,or drying.
Any animal that has obvious signs of sickness should not be pelted.
Raccoons and skunks as well as bats are notorious rabies carriers.

I actually have a blog on my website about diseases you can contract from raccoon scat. Be careful fellow trappers, our industry has many dangers the people are not aware of! Here is a link to my blog: Health Risks Raccoon Removal Chicago http://www.raccoonremovalchicago.com/blo...ngs-and-debris/

You could catch various worms from any mammal, lime disease from ticks, a not well known one is called rat catchers yellows, I can't remember the actually name. Can be caught from rats and has jaundice like symptoms. Unfortunately most people write it off as influenza.

Just a comment on the bold portion of your above post.

The danger with rabies is there is no way to check for exposure and if you start showing clinical symptoms, it is too late. Only one person has ever survived rabies and their quality of like after surviving was not good.

There is a pre-exposure vaccine available for rabies. I have had this vaccine and you may want to consider getting it.

hydatid cysts in humans?

I just started reading about this. the docs thought the lumps in my chest were cysts, the only thing I can think of it might have come from was wolves I had been skinning.

Anyone ever hear of this? I know there has been 300 cases of it in the last 60 years. I've never fully recovered from last year, but I'm no where near as bad as I was. Still no answers.

I hear that you can catch hypochondria if your not really careful.

I'm glad I read this. I have never worn gloves while skinning but I guess I should start. Do you guys even wear gloves when field dressing deer?

Guys seeing this information really makes me think, I haven't done any yotes yet but everything else Ohio has to offer has been skinned and open handen w/no gloves.
So am I the minority on bare handed skinning and wonder are you using the latex throw away type gloves then?

I always use latex gloves. I'm not so much worried about myself but rather what I could bring back in the house. Have kids. Boots come off outside and clothes get tossed in their own pile. I may also be in a small minority that use safety glasses. Getting fluids in your eyes can also transmit diseases or parasites.

I believe you are referring to tularemia which can be deadly.

I've heard other animals scat can cause problems too. I can't imagine it'd be a problem unless you handle scat with bare hands, which I would never do.