Raccoon Problem - new to us

My preference is that coons live in the wild and do their "coon things". There was certainly no joy or satisfaction in dispatching the animal this morning. I felt bad that it had to come to what it did.... but as I said in an earlier post, the safety and health of the other animals on our property (3 indoor/outdoor dogs, 4 outdoor cats and 18 chickens) takes priority. We'll do what we need to ensure the animals in our care stay safe and healthy.

What we did discover is that the raccoon didn't hesitate to get into the trap. The trap was setup on our front porch, about 12 inches from the cat door that leads into the garage. That tells me that if the trap wasn't there, it would have been in the garage again. (where we feed our cats and store some chicken feed and wild bird seed)

One of my friends, who has horses, said to me that if a raccoon "goes" (eliminates) on livestock feed/hay that it can be poisonous to horses... anyone familiar with that?

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Nerds on a nano-farm - since 2005

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

I watched a coon eating the cat food on our deck one night with my three cats setting there. All at once the three cats started creeping toward the coon. One cat got nose to nose with the coon and the other cats were about two feet to each side. The cat that was nose to nose started, unbelievably fast, taking swipes at the coons face and at the same time one cat on the right landed full on the back of the coon. The third cat went at the rear of the coon and it was a hell of a fight for just a short time till the coon decided to take off. It jumped about 15 feet off the side of the deck with all three cats clawing at its rear.

Cats and coons do get into fights.

"O"

Wow, that would have been crazy to see, English Oliver.

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Nerds on a nano-farm - since 2005

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

The horse thing, it's called EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis), and I've always heard it's much more a problem with possums, not coons.

"The disease is not transmitted from horse to horse. Rather, the protozoa are spread by the definitive host, opossums, which acquires the organism from infected birds. The infective stage of the organism, the sporocysts, are passed in the opossum's feces. Tne horse comes into contact with the infective sporacysts while grazing or eating contaminated feed or drinking water. "

http://www.dclahdvm.com/articles/epm.htm

Cathy

Didn't say they wouldn't, just said I'D never had it happen.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

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