So my mom got bit by a raccoon last night. The old coon has been hanging around about two weeks stealing bird seed, cat food and scraps. Mom came out on the deck and I think she surprised him and had him blocked from his escape route so he decided to take a bite of her leg. So she had 14 shots last night and a regime of additional shots over the next two weeks.
The thing we're running into is getting the coon tested. Basically the DNR and Agriculture Department agree it should be caught and tested but they don't have the "manpower to do it". Only guy that has been somewhat helpful is someone from the USDA but he basically said we have to trap it and then hopefully he is somewhere in the area to pick it up. DNR suggested we hire a pest control company to do it. The big issue is all of them say they need to know if there is rabies in the area but yet none of them will send anyone out to trap the daggone thing.
The USDA guy said by the time the test results are done my mom will have already finished her shots. So it's really not so much an issue for her as it is to determine if there is a "public threat".
The thing we're running into is getting the coon tested. Basically the DNR and Agriculture Department agree it should be caught and tested but they don't have the "manpower to do it". Only guy that has been somewhat helpful is someone from the USDA but he basically said we have to trap it and then hopefully he is somewhere in the area to pick it up. DNR suggested we hire a pest control company to do it. The big issue is all of them say they need to know if there is rabies in the area but yet none of them will send anyone out to trap the daggone thing.
The USDA guy said by the time the test results are done my mom will have already finished her shots. So it's really not so much an issue for her as it is to determine if there is a "public threat".
