Cute raccoon = Delta ER Department
It’s the time of year you may encounter a raccoon family ordering take-out in your garbage or compost recycling bins. As usual, avoid, retreat and secure your garbage next time. But here is where the advice changes, if one of those raccoons is playing cute; acting like it’s your cat or puppy dog then run like you just saw that gutter clown from Stephen King’s book “It”. It’s likely that the animal has contracted canine distemper, a disease that can spread to dogs that aren’t vaccinated. The virus is prevalent in the autumn. In the case of our happy coon, that may translate into slower movement and/or stumbling. The virus can affect the animal’s respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. The coon might also appear blind and confused and even become aggressive in a situation where they feel cornered. The disease causes a mucus discharge around the eyes and nose as well as coughing, diarrhea, vomiting, tremors, seizures or fits of chewing.
Canine distemper (sometimes termed hardpad disease in canine) is a viral disease that affects a wide variety of animal families, including domestic and wild species of dogs, coyotes, foxes, pandas, wolves, ferrets, skunks, coons, and large cats, as well as pinnipeds, some primates, and a variety of other species.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cute-raccoon-delta-emergency-department-randy-bilesky?published=t
http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/deltabc-1.983313/blog-watch-out-for-raccoons-playing-cute-1.2095626
