Got a skunk today that wasn't acting right, face and eyelids all scabbed up, and footpads too. Had to go under a shed and snare pole him. They must just randomly spray when they are sick like that,he had perfumed the place up pretty good.He never once offered to spray today, too far gone I guess. Is this distemper?

Andy, while I would say "Yes", some of our readers may have more experience and disagree. Every skunk that I have removed, under the same circumstances, exhibited the same traits as you described. Lots of odor but no new odor, no matter what you did to it. ( Outside of shooting, of course ) And the scabbed over eyes are also common with distemper raccoons, cats, and foxes in our area.

andyva, it sounds like it, no way to tell for sure unless you have it tested. I am the Health Officer for the Town i live in and dealt with a large number of sick grey fox, skunk, coon last fall. I amputated heads and sent them to the State Health lab to be tasted for rabies. From there they were sent to Cornell University to be tested for distemper. All the samples that i sent to Cornell came back positive for distemper. I put down and picked up over 60 animals between the Vt State police and the Game Wardens and local Police Department. There was probably many more that we never saw or dealt with that died in the woods. All stemming from over population that people did not want some one to trap them to keep the population under control. That is what happens when mother nature steps in and takes care of it, they all die a horrible death.
Dave

Mr. Sheldon, that may be the very first post I have ever read from you. And it was very well worth it!

Thanks Mr Winkelmann, That means a lot coming from you.
Dave

I agree that was a good post to the point Dave!

I had a lady in Oregon at a state fair booth tell me how many raccoons her and her friends had fed for the last 3-5 years
and she was just loving it. Then she says, but this year I don't understand it, I don't even get one or two, where I used to
get 20-30 at a time!

I was more than happy to explain contact rates and disease transmission and watch her face fall as she realized that yes
feeding them for your enjoyment in the backyard comes at a cost as the population builds and as they mix together.

I could go on a serious rant about feeders but I'll save it for another time, would agree that without confirmation from a lab
though it is only a best guess, but it is one of the most common things that would show up and kill them in our country next
to rabies depending on your region.

Justin

I worked a lot of hours picking up the dispatched animals and the ones that died on there own when some one called them in, and I disposed of them properly to try and brake the cycle. Not leave them out there to pass it on. I did not want this to keep spreading to the point of no trapping for any one for the next few years in this area. It did work, just not as fast as i wanted it to.
Dave