I have a question maybe HeDog will know the answer
I shot a rabid racoon this summer. It was in bad shape and I didn't want my dogs to get it. After I shot it I went back to the house to get a shovel to bury it.
I buried it about 2 ft deep.
Something dug it up last week and its all bone and a little hair.
Question is: Can an animal get rabies from old bones that were from a rabid animal?
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Not he dog but I’d bet that’s one major way the disease is transferred.
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Good question this link to a USDA site indicates rabies is viable until putrification so perhaps not after just bones
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Are you sure it was rabies?
Distemper affects and kills a lot of raccoons. They'll look and smell like death. Hair matted, eyes swollen shut. Mottled paws
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Wife unit just reminded me, my 12 yr old daughter killed 6 raccoons here last summer. She who shall be obeyed took 1 to our cow doc.
He said it was a wrath of distemper going through.
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Rabies is a virus and the virus can survive for an extended time inside saliva and bodily fluids of a dead animal. Rabies will die quickly outside the body. If the head of the dead animal is intact, it can be sent to a lab to be tested. Some states will test free.
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Many years ago we had racoon infected with encephalitis in this area (southern WI.), We were dispatching at least one a day for weeks here in the city.
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Likely it is distemper. Rabies is certainly around, but is frequently misdiagnosed by laymen. ( And I am certainly no expert on this, I was a herpetologist/entomologist) We have been seeing a hemorrhagic virus in rabbits in the SW, that has spread to porcupines that we know of, and may spread to other species, beyond the lagomorph group.
dealing with a sick raccoon as if it was rabid is probably not a bad idea.
It takes a somewhat deeper than 24 inch grave for scavengers to not detect it. That is why humans are buried down 6 feet.
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Thanks for the replys ya'll.
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