“Why vaccinate wildlife?” This is a question we hear a lot, and it’s fair enough. After all, animals don’t get vaccines in the wild. We like to put it this way: imagine a pandemic that is nearly 100% fatal and is as contagious as the common cold. Imagine it is contagious for about a weekContinue reading “Why Vaccinate Wildlife?”
Tag Archives: disease
Raccoons and Brain Worms
Wild animals are beautiful, majestic, important, sentient, and, sometimes, really freaking gross. So let’s talk about one of the most horrifying examples of what can happen when you don’t give wild animals the space and respect they deserve: brain worms! 70-90% of raccoons carry a roundworm in their guts called Baylisascaris procyonis, but that’s aContinue reading “Raccoons and Brain Worms”
Relocating Wildlife Spreads Disease
Please, please stop relocating wildlife. Arya’s mother’s story is one of many that we hope will convince people to stop moving wild animals around. Arya came to us a couple of weeks ago after her mother had been “humanely relocated” after ending up in someone’s attic. Within two days of admission, she began to developContinue reading “Relocating Wildlife Spreads Disease”
Opossum Bites: Not So Scary!
Opossums get killed frequently for looking “scary” or “fierce,” but they’re actually much weaker and less intimidating than they look! An opossum has fifty pointy teeth— more than any other land mammal— and will use those chompers to try to scare people away when they’re frightened. While we don’t recommend getting bitten by any animals,Continue reading “Opossum Bites: Not So Scary!”
Songbird Fever in Cats: A Warning
Have you seen the warnings we’ve posted about the salmonella epidemic affecting songbirds? There’s another side of it too, and it’s one I have firsthand experience with. I hope that this warning might save both birds and cats. This is my daughter, and this is her best friend, Happy. As an advocate for both wildlifeContinue reading “Songbird Fever in Cats: A Warning”
Prevent Pandemics: Don’t Feed Wildlife
For years, raccoons have been suffering through a catastrophic pandemic introduced to them by domestic dogs. Canine distemper is a highly contagious, horrifically painful, and invariably fatal disease that infects large numbers of raccoons, skunks, foxes, and coyotes in Tennessee. As many as half of the calls we receive are related to cases of canineContinue reading “Prevent Pandemics: Don’t Feed Wildlife”
Canine Distemper in Raccoons: What You Need to Know
Yikes, the zombie apocalypse is upon us! Humans aren’t the only animals who experience pandemics. In recent decades, racccoons and many other wild animals have been massively afflicted with canine distemper, an extremely contagious virus that passed to wildlife through unvaccinated dogs. We saw lower-than-average rates of canine distemper in wild raccoons this year, butContinue reading “Canine Distemper in Raccoons: What You Need to Know”
Treating a Wild Animal With Mange Yourself? Not So Fast!
We get tons of messages from people asking us for advice on treating wild animals with mange. It’s wonderful that so many people care! Mange is extremely common in wildlife, particularly foxes and coyotes, and rates have skyrocketed in recent years due to human causes. When left untreated, mange causes infections, starvation, hypothermia, and eventuallyContinue reading “Treating a Wild Animal With Mange Yourself? Not So Fast!”
Babies, Not Rabies: Why Raccoons are Awake in Daytime
It’s that time of year! We’ve started getting our annual influx of calls about raccoons seen during daylight hours. Many callers are concerned that these animals have rabies. Don’t worry: unless you see other worrisome symptoms, being awake in the daytime isn’t cause for alarm. From April through August, most of the female raccoons inContinue reading “Babies, Not Rabies: Why Raccoons are Awake in Daytime”
Vultures are Related to Storks
Our native wild animals are so amazing! Vultures may seem, at first glance, to be the cousins of buzzards, hawks, eagles, owls and falcons. In the very least, you’d expect our vultures to be related to vultures from Africa, Europe, and Asia…. but they’re not! Believe it or not, native vultures in the Americas areContinue reading “Vultures are Related to Storks”
For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue 