Got called to remove a raccoon already trapped in an attic. When I got there the whole house smelled horrible. There was a mother and 2 kits. She had just a nasty smell to her and she died over night. Could that have been distemper? I've caught distempered raccoons outside just never noticed a smell.

Could have been heat and stress. I have found sow coons with kits have a real strong smell to their droppings and urine.

Did they only trap it Fe night before or was it there longer?

Heat in an attic sure turns a carcass extremely fast.

That's what they told me, one night. I got out there as soon as I was called. She and babies were alive, she however drank a lot once I got her home.

TJP, Sorry I thought you said she was dead when you arrived, but the new post mentions her drinking when you got her home.

Some wildlife in late stages of a disease can get a bad smell but some of that is lack of grooming or exposed wounds being infected
at least in animals I've witnessed that died that were found quickly thanks to radio telemetry study. Mange and a few others come to
mind for some very bad smells but obviously you'd see the other signs of that.

Not sure what you folks have going in KS for drought conditions, but we are getting a whole host of wildlife every day that are on the brink
of succumbing out here from birds to bears pretty much.

So many things that are rarely diagnosed due to funding and lack of surveillance, but the list of diseases, parasites, etc... that any species is capable of carrying or contracting that isn't important to us as a risk is extensive.

Justin

If they used some thing canned cat food for bait there could have been maggots in the cat food and if the coon eats the maggots that could cause the coon to swell up like a ballon , stink and die from bochilism

Parvo has a distinctive stench to it.

Smells like distemper to me. I've netted raccoons in the last stages that smelled so bad that I was glad that I got the job. Puking tecnicians tend to give our company a bad name. God gave me asthma and bad sinuses for a reason. ( But I still ain't sure about the bad hearing part )

Ok thanks for all the info.