https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/zombie-like-raccoon-rabies/2018/04/04/id/852594/




Police say they are investigating more than a dozen reports of "zombie-like" raccoons roaming residential neighborhoods in northeast Ohio.

CBS affiliate WKBN-TV reports that Youngstown police have received numerous calls in the past three weeks about raccoons acting strangely in the daytime.

Robert Coggeshall said he was playing with his dogs outside his home last week when a raccoon approached them.

"He would stand up on his hind legs, which I've never seen a raccoon do before, and he would show his teeth and then he would fall over backward and go into almost a comatose condition," Coggeshall told WKBN-TV.

That raccoon and 14 others that police responded to were euthanized.

Officials with the state's Department of Natural Resources said the animals were likely suffering from distemper, not rabies. The viral disease causes coughing, tremors and seizures and leads raccoons to lose their fear of humans.

Earlier this year, Canadian wildlife experts warned about an emergeing “zombie deer disease,” comparable to mad cow disease. They also suggested it could potentially start to infect humans who eat deer, elk, moose, or other animals that carry it.

That time of year...again.

Isn't the rut over for them? I'm seeing roadkill raccoons about every mile or less here.

Distemper

I have also been seeing a lot

the article said distemper , I wonder how many of the road kills might be distemper or if it is just the raccoons in huge number because trapping is way down being that they are not worth anything.

Hows the fur look on them?
Skin them and stretch them over a bowling ball-hats for the homeless.

But I haven't finished stocking my bunker yet.

I think that momma drives off last years litter when she is ready to have the babies. I suspect that leaves a lot of yearlings who wander aimlessly without her to guide them.

This is what happens when the fur market is down.

We had an outbreak of distember in our 'coons here in the mid '90's and the symptoms sound the same.I was on a riding lawn mower one day and had a small 'coon walk out in front of the deck and,rear up on its hind legs start flailing at it.It didn't seem to see the mower but was doing battle with the sound.We boxed it up and sent it off to the DNR.The biologist said it was distember and at one stage it affects their eyesight.We had a WAY
out of control 'coon population at the time,I caught over 80 in just a few square mile area and a lot of that was poor 'coon habitat.That was in the mid '90's and our coon population still hasn't near recovered.It really does a number on them when it hits.












too

Canine Distemper would be my guess. They lose there senses and just go in circles. Coon are one of the few animals that carry both. Feline distemper seems to kill them faster and its less visible from the road.

i'm only 30 miles from there on the pa side, didn't see a coon track all season...........