EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Traded a catahoula gyp this evenin, guy drove 100 miles to come pick her up. We made our trade, and he headed home with her chained in the bed of the pickup, dog allways rode well in vehicles, never had her come out, but seems she decided to tonight. She hit the ground without a scratch, hopped up and headed for the hills, ran and has yet to stop. Got in touch with the landowners, heading back tomorrow to check it in the day light agin.

Then I stepped outside before i got in bed earlier, and all my dogs including the yard dogs had a solid bark, even the pups were raising cane. I threw my shoes on grabbed the gun and made it half way out to the pens and realized this was sure not right. Flipped the light switch on at the pens and met a skunk in my lead gyps pen with on of cuatros 4 week old pups in its mouth! Crazyest thing iv seen, this skunk made his way in to a 4x4 hog panel pen, walked right around my roughest bay dog, and started kicking a**. The skunk had whipped up on my puppys, and cut cuatros udder. Cuatro had the skunk in her mouth thrashing it, and the pup was in the skunks mouth. It was not a pleasent sight.
Shot the skunk, shoveled him up, and put him in a feed sack. Im assuming he's rabbid. My cuatro dog was not born here, and im not sure if shes ever had her rabies shot. Her pups i know havent. And all but one had blood.

So where do we go from here?  Is there a test to check to see if they are positive? Do we wait it out? Im reading theres no way to kill the virus, its transferable to humans, transfered thru saliva primarily, so there sick im sure. What the heck would you do? What do we do in the pens? Is it in the pen now?

Have the skunk checked seems drastic to automatically assume he's rabid. It doesn't shock me that a skunk would try to eat a small pup

Slow down a little, It's my understanding that a rabid animal will act confused and disoriented. They tend to stagger when they walk. Most
nocturnal animals that have rabies will be seen staggering and stumbling around in broad daylight. The fact that this one was out doing what a skunk does is a good sign he didn't have rabies.  Just clean all wounds with a disinfectant and maybe give some
amoxicillian  to the gyp for any bacteria from the bites.

About 5 years ago a coon I had for about 6 months bit me through a roll cage. I poured a lil bleach and peroxide on the cut and figured no
big deal. The next morning my thumb was pretty swollen. I went to the doctor and he give me some amoxicillian for bacterial infection.
I told him I was worried about rabies. He said if the coon wasn't staggering and stumbling and acting strange are drunk like that he didn't
have rabies.  Whewwww, what a relief. My mind was in overdrive. The night before I read some bad chit on rabies. After seeing the doc
and learning I wasn't going to die,lol  I felt a lot better.    Well guess what the very next morning I go out back to feed my coon and he
is dead as a door nail. Chit, that started my mind racing again. Went back to the doctor. On the way I was thinking the worst. I was figuring out where I wanted to be buried,lol. It's funny now but I was chittin then. The same doc came in and said man you look like you
seen a ghost. I told him my coon died a day after he bit me.  He said the fact that I had the coon for 6 months and witnessed his behavior
every day and he never looked sickly or disoriented and wasn't staggering or stumbling was a real good indicator he didn't have rabies.
So I asked him if I was gonna live. He laughed and said yes.  I'm glad he found humor in it cause I was chittin.

I would take the skunk to a vet and let them send it off for test.

X2.
The initial onset of rabies wont be staggering or wabbling. They will act normal, after bout a wk or so, they'll go to staggering and acting different from there natural state and be more aggressive to anything in their path, especialyy if the animal has an aggressive attitude to begin with, but with rabies, it'll b much worse. Rabid animals are kinda like ptsd vets that had a temper to start with, it gets worse the further along they go

I would do exactly this, sounds like a skunk doing what skunks do to me. just clean the pups up real good and if you want to know for sure bring the skunk in to have it checked but I don't think you've got much to worry about.

  definatly have the skunk sent off to be tested . and jimco that is what the doctor should have told you to do .  and about the kennels and dogs involved make sure they are in a good pen they can't get out of and bleach the pen out good .  it is all ways a good thing to be safe and sure .  on another note I have had skunks get in a pen before at night and my crazy cur dogs ate it  . but I was real nervous for 2 weeks as you should be too . the state pays to test the presumed animals , so no cost to you .  but if you shot it in the head it cannot be tested .just call your animal control officer and they handle everything .

Take that skunk to the vet...have them send the head off to rule out rabies right away. Keep the bitch and her pups isolated from the rest of the crew for 10 days (that's the typical quarantine period.) If there's no visible symptoms by then she should be fine.

That was one NUTTY skunk!

jimco , after reading that story i have to wonder what YOU gave to that coon to kill him that quick ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Did you shoot that skunk in the head? We've had a few officers get bit by dogs and we were told if you shoot them in the head they cant test for rabies. I don't know what the back story behind that is though.

Rabies affects the brain and the virus is stored in it too. Splatering its melon n mash mashed taters outa its grey matter, renders the test inconclusive

Hey guys, got the skunk in to the department of health, they charged me 25 bucks and are sending the head to Austin today. Will have results as early as tomorrow. Sure not a good thing either way! Hope everything turns out. Thank y'all for the advise, dogs are locked up and in confinement for the time being.

Man Ethan it was just not our day!!

I just vaccinate my dogs for rabies myself costs me 18.00 for 10 doses. 1ml/dog

A lot less headache and worry that way if they get into a coon or something.

Like I said it is funny now but I was skeered $hitless when it happened. The only reason they didn't send him off for testing is because I had him in a pen for 6 months and his behavior was normal. I kept waiting on my brain to swell up and all kind of chit. For months every time I felt a head ache coming on I figured "Well, This is It".  
          And halfbreed you dam strait the doctor should have told me to send it off for testing. I couldn't eat or sleep wondering when it
was gonna "kick in".

I'd get that gyp a rabies  shot  just to be safe for the future once all is said and done

Sorry to hear that it was rabid Ethan.

you must not be from texas redline   . that was the dumbest thing the state ever did was to take the vaccine out of the hands of the public  . so now folks that would do their dogs every year don't , just to keep from paying the vet .  my dogs are all do now and I am gonna have a couple done at the vet for the paper work I need to show or compete with them  . the rest I guess i'll have to make a trip to Louisiana or Oklahoma to buy enough for the rest of them  . the state doesn't recognize any given outside a vet's office , and I don't really care as long as  I  know they've been done ..  they have a 3 year shot and the state doesn't recognize it after a year either ..  but according to all my research the regular [ what they call ] a 0ne year shot has an effective residual of 3 to 5 years  . just another way to make a buck off the pet industry  .

I musta missed somethin. He got the results back and it was positive for rabies?!

Hell they just recently pulled rabies vax from the shelves here in Louisiana too! We found another way though....PM me if you're interested.

Hey, just an update guys. Just as matt said, The folks at the health department called me and it was indeed rabid. My vet called me as well, and somewhat recommended I cautiously loaded the bitch and her pups up and brought them in to be put down. I made plans to get her to town, when i got the call from the rabies lab in Austin. And they had a different take on it, he recommended I let the pups go, and work on getting cuatro cured. Apperently the protocol on this without a pre-vaccination is Immediate vaccination, hit them agin at 3 weeks, and agin at 8 weeks. 100% confinement for 90 days, more or less put the dog in the closet, and feed it under the door, if she beats it she will be alive in 90 days, if she starts showing the least bit of sign, we put her down at that point. He very much advised it and said the odds of it not being beat are very slim. So that's the route we took, I had all the pups euthanized and we plywooded up her pen. Who knows if she is even Infected, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. He assured me there was a risk, but it can be controlled. Chance I'm willing to take for my favorite Yella dog! I sure appreciate everybody's response's! Too bad the pups didnt have a chance to hunt, but there hopefully will be more.

Dang, that's sum bad luck. Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the gyp.

For some reason, like a lot of people, I have never done my homework on rabies. I mean how many peopl do you know honestly saying, my dog got rabies? I mean it's a lot less common than parvovirus distemper etc, I am having the vet come out Monday to hit every one of my dogs. Rabies is nothing to play with, it will kill humans just as fast as animals, if not controlled properly. When you keep an animal that has been in contact with another rabid animal, it's a pretty intense undertaking. I have talked to the county sheriff, county animal control, state health, and numerouse other animal control officers, and have the approval of everyone, but am expecting the animal health officers to come out and inspect the facility's and make sure she is kept under confinement. VACCINATE YOUR DOGS! I garentee you your lead dog is worth more than the fee for the vaccination. That's just the cost of doing buisness.

Hate to hear it same thing happened to me 10 years ago it was a male dog and the skunk climbed into the kennel with him and he killed it. The skunk tested positive and I put him down I had two young daughters and decided not to try the 90 day deal.

With that being said AW, I very much feel the same way. No dog is worth a human life. So, what would YALL do??? Everybodys opinions appreciated. Kill the dog? or let her hunt on? Im honestly pleased with the way this gyp is coming along, she has filled the spot of my last decent dog, with flying colors. None of her bad habits are not easily corrected by stern voice, and shes a blondie lol. What are YOU thinking? Take the chance? Let her go? Any one ever had on get bit and pull thru?

I'd risk it

Damn we had high hopes for those quarto bones pups i was already cleaning outa spot. I gotta get done outta old bones before he goes. He has sure earned his spot with me. I say give her a shot...not just for selfish reasons >:D

Well Ethan that's one way to get her weaned and dried up quicker so you can hunt her. I'm on to you now haha. But for real if she pulls through we gotta gave some more "ugly" pups. Even if i have to sneak old bones in there haha

I'm glad you took the skunk to get tested knowing me I'd have thought nothing of it and would have caused an epidemic. Now I'll know to take it serious if somethin ever happens

If she's your best I'd risk it. Just be cautious and make sure your liking her doesn't keep you from picking up on any signs and also make sure you can handle the full 90days without letting her out cause u feel bad for her being cooped up its probably gonna be difficult on the both of you

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  X2   Is this an isolated or should I say rare incident around your neck of the woods or is rabies pretty common? just curious.

   it's that time of year . I just saw on the news this morning of one being found in the dfw metroplex area . around Arlington I think I don't pay a lot of attention to the news anymore outside of the weather  .

I just weighed the risk against the reward and made my decision.

What'd u decide?

I had something similar happen with a rabid skunk, put down 4 grown dogs believe it was, one was wife's pomeranian house dog,  was to risky for us to quarantine them, and had to get rabies shots my self along with my sons and my 3 nephews and a brother in law, needless to say every dog here has a current rabies vaccination now and if you bring a dog here for training it has to come with one also.