Is there future dog danger from a dead raccoon?

June 18, 2017 12:30 AM

I found a healthy-looking (well, aside from being dead) raccoon in my yard today. I don't currently have a dog, but friends occasionally drop by with their doggos and I don't want any dog friends to get something like distemper (which I understand is the leading cause of death among raccoons). If a dog visits, say two weeks from now, is there any likely danger to the pup from the spot where the racoon died?

This is the dead racoon (picture shows an animal which looks like it's sleeping, if raccoons slept in the open under a rosebush). It looks relatively healthy (for a dead animal) and had no wounds, nor did there seem to be any discharge of fluids from either end. I did not touch it, but it was still in rigor mortis when lifted on a spade...which means it probably died last night? (I found it at about 8pm.)

I have no idea how likely it might be that it left anything viral behind, and if it did, how hardy said virus might be.

posted by maxwelton to Pets & Animals (5 answers total)

As a dog owner and someone who worries a lot about things like this: I would not worry about this. Dogs get into everything. They especially love to help you prepare for the arrival of important dinner guests by getting out and jumping into a really stinky stagnant petri dish of a puddle. Your friend's dogs have probably sampled deer droppings. And yes --they love to freshen up a bit by rolling ecstatically in dead animal smells. So... viruses are absolutely everywhere. You can't worry about ones that might stick around for weeks in your grass. If your friends let their dogs out in yards, they've been in grass that had a dead animal on it at some point. This is why pet dogs tend to be vaccinated against diseases, including, where I live at least, distemper. (If you're really worried ask your friends if their dogs are vaccinated against distemper though.)
posted by flourpot at 3:02 AM on June 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think it's awesome that you're concerned about this!

The good news is that the distemper virus usually only survives for a few hours outside of a living host. If this raccoon died of distemper, it is likely no longer a contagion risk. Additionally, the canine distemper vaccine is excellent at protecting dogs.

So, I think any future doggie visitors should be fine. :)
posted by schroedingersgirl at 4:56 AM on June 18, 2017 [4 favorites]

As long as the carcass is removed, natural UV rays and dehydration will disinfect most pathogens pretty quickly. If there's leaf or mulch there, you might stir it with a rake after a day or two just to let the light and air hit the undersides of it (as much to get rid of any compelling smells as pathogens), but I wouldn't worry much. Dogs cross paths with all kinds of stuff all the time.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:17 AM on June 18, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks, you guys. Having witnessed healthy dogs happily covered in the stinking remains of other animals, I thought not, but it doesn't hurt to double-check, as "distemper" is stuck in my mind as a particularly bad thing for dogs.

(Of course, now I'm concerned that one of my lovely neighbors is putting out poison bait or something which might get my resident feral kitty. Sigh.)
posted by maxwelton at 2:30 PM on June 18, 2017

As you mention discharge, I'll note that at least in my area our vets have warned us about leptospirosis spread via racoons. Perhaps lookup how long that survives outside of the host, and/or question dog owners if they get a lepto vaccine - that's not super common.
posted by nobeagle at 6:07 AM on June 19, 2017