Dog Community

Cause of death?

Posted : 7/10/2006 3:09:46 PM

Okay, some of you may have seen my post about the rabid raccoon that was found in my yard. Well it was never caught, who knows where it is now ( if it hasn't died yet)
So heres the story. . . .
So yesterday, I'm bringing Bailey ouot in the field to run around as I usualy do. Not long after I let him off the leash, he comes running tword me with something in his mouth. He drops it at my feet, and whatever it was, it was still alive, but not by much, barley beathing. It was one of those ground hogs,( gofer, wood chuck, what ever you want to call them.) Bailey didn't hurt it at all though, no teeth marks, actully he carried it pretty gently across the field to get to me. I thought maybe a Fox, or fisher cat may have gotten it, but if they did, they would have carried it off ito the woods probably. Then I thought it was most likely a hawk. It probably got carried up in the air and dropped, but survived the fall. It was the only thing I could think of for a reason for it being in this condition. The only thing I could think of was to kill it somehow, better than letting it sufer, right? But I didn't have to, only maybe 30 seconds after Bailey had brought it over, it died. It was horrible, but I didn't think much of it, not until today. I was out in the field again today, with my friend, watching Bailey run around, and suddenly he stops and just stares at something thats on the ground. So I call him back over to me, because who knows what it was, and tied him up, and me & my friend went over to see what it was. Another ground hog, was lying on the ground. This one was already dead, and it had been dead for a while, by the looks of it. Once again, this one didn't have any bite marks either. I hadn't seen a hawk around all morning, and didn't the day before either, but didn't really think about that yesterday. They're both burried in the field, and I haven't seen any hawks, fisher cats, foxes, any predator at all around at all. I don't know a lot about rabies, so I'm not sure if they had it or not. Is it possible that they had rabies and thats why they died? If not, then what could it be? It deffinetly wasn't old age, the first didn't seem to be full grown, and the second was only a little bigger. Could it maybe be just regular sickness? Im just kind of worried, with Bailey, since he had it in his mouth. I washed him off with the hose, (which he hated of course) And he will NOT being going in the field, at ALL for a long time, even if its not rabies, something has to have killed them.

janobonano

Posted : 7/10/2006 4:34:20 PM

I think you should call your local Dept of Natural Resources asap. I think they'd want to know about it, if it's some sort of disease that's spreading. You might have to show them where the dead ones are, so they can test them. Who knows, there might be more by now.

calliecritturs

Posted : 7/10/2006 6:01:54 PM

DEFINITELY call them and often they have an emergency line. You've got a few choices, none of them stellar --

1. Someone's putting out poison -- and please don't think it can happen. People can decide things are a pest -- maybe one kind of animal nesting in their home or something - they put out poison in something yummy and other animals get into it. And the animal that eats the animal who died can die.

2. Some particular disease -- and if I'm correct most any mammal can get rabies.

3. Could be something in WATER even -- poison or waste leeching into a stream (which could happen with woodchucks). A predator wouldn't have left it around and even carrion-eaters wouldn't leave something like that unless they could smell it was VERY sick.

Call them and report this -- one iffy animal is one thing, two is BAD and you've already had an animl acting 'weird' around.

whatsh0uldmyl0ginbe?

Posted : 7/11/2006 12:12:20 AM

scary--i'd listen to the two posts before me

jeano

Posted : 7/11/2006 1:41:43 AM

Call Dept. of Fish and Game AND Animal Control ASAP!!

Bailey has his rabies vaccination, right? ::worried::

huskymom

Posted : 7/11/2006 8:48:22 AM

Yes definately report it and I would also be watching Bailey for any signs that something may be wrong with him. Not saying anything will but you know him best and are the best judge of how he normally acts.

Julitza

Posted : 7/11/2006 9:17:43 AM

OMG this gives me the chills. I agree with the posters above something needs to be done. If its rabies it needs to be taken care of ASAP, if that rabid raccoon died already you dont know how many he could have infected before dying and if hes still alive the problem could be 10 tines worse.

On the other hand if there is some sort of contamination going around this could affect you and your pets so it also needs to be dealt with.

Good luck with this situation and please be careful!

Spazzy

Posted : 7/11/2006 12:31:09 PM

Yeah, I'll see if i can get my dad to call or something, since it's not really my choice. Theres a lot of things going on right now, so I don't know if he will, espescialy because Bailey is REALLY sick, and needs to go to the vet. But I'll see what I can do, and if I find anything else I'll post about it, but I'm not really hoping to find any other dead animals anytime soon, and I plan on staying away from the field for now too.

jeano

Posted : 7/11/2006 7:42:44 PM

ORIGINAL: Spazzy

Yeah, I'll see if i can get my dad to call or something, since it's not really my choice. Theres a lot of things going on right now, so I don't know if he will, espescialy because Bailey is REALLY sick, and needs to go to the vet. But I'll see what I can do, and if I find anything else I'll post about it, but I'm not really hoping to find any other dead animals anytime soon, and I plan on staying away from the field for now too.

Bailey is sick? What's going on? Oh no!

YOU can call those people, Fish and Game and Animal Control. It doesn't have to be an adult! Go for it!

boneyjean

Posted : 7/11/2006 8:55:33 PM

Oh no, I have had really limited idog time this week and I am just now seeing this. Please update us on Bailey's condition? What's going on? What did the vet say? Be sure the vet knows about these animals.

Please contact the proper authorities to check this all out with the other animals...

tashakota

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:53:10 AM

I second the you calling about the woodchucks. How do you know the raccoon was rabid if it was never caught and tested? Was it foaming at the mouth? Did it run away when it saw people? Act disoriented?

Just cause you saw it in daylight, doesn't mean it was rabid. They do move around during the day some, but usually stay away from people.

But if Bailey got sick after picking up the goundhog, definitely tell the vet and call the Dept of Natural Resources.

Edited: Just found the post about the raccoon, yeah, doesn't sound good. I hope you call and they can test the animals soon enough to find out if that's what it was.

Spazzy

Posted : 7/12/2006 8:16:36 AM

It's okay, well it's not okay becuase he is sick, but he started getting sick the day before he found the animal. Hes been waking me up at least 3 times a night becuase he has to go, which he never does. He has diaherea and since yesterday it had blood in it and hes like crying the whole time, last night he didn't eat either. Hes going to the vet today, hopfuly they can find whats wrong with him, and hes getting updates on his shots also.

tashakota

Posted : 7/12/2006 8:22:13 AM

Sounds like he might have worms or something. Diarrhea and blood in stool is a pretty common indicator of that. Going forward, after 1 night of diarrhea and 1 day, go to the vet!! Bad cases of diarrhea that last more than 24 hours, are a sign of something wrong. One or two loose stools, then nothing while the system catches up, then normal, are occasional occurences.

My dog Tasha, when she was a pup, came to me with hookworms. Bad Bad Bad diarrhea for 2 days. Off to the vet she went! The foster mom even said she'd been wormed.. Apparently not very well.

Is Bailey on any kind of prevention for worms? Interceptor does the common worms as well as heart worms.

Spazzy

Posted : 7/12/2006 8:30:46 AM

This is about the 3rd or 4th day now[

] Yeah okay, ima bad dogg mom. But money is really tight right now, and it was hard enough getting my dad to agree to bring him in at all, but he knows he'll never hear the end of it if he doesn't, so finally he called them and got a payment plan thing.
Hes on that HeartGuard medicine for worms. Maybe it didn't work? Or could it be something else causing this besides worms?

huskymom

Posted : 7/12/2006 11:02:45 AM

I don't have any suggestions for you but I want you to know that you and Bailey are in my thoughts and prayers. Hope everything goes well and Baileys sickness and the animal deaths are unrelated. Do mention that to the vet though. Even if you think he got it before he found the animals. There may have been some contact elsewhere that you are unaware of.