I was trout fishing up at Guadalupe River State Park this morning when I saw this half grown masked bandit sleeping under a tree. Didn't seem quite right that he wasn't scared. Went back by the tree an hour later and he was on his back, legs in the air. So I went and found a Park Ranger and showed it to him. He told me that they have found several dead in the past week or so. They think that it is Distemper that is going around in the area . Highly contagious to other animals.

Nasty animals. Disease ridden.

Not a fan of Racoons

Did you catch any trout?

Limited out in about an hour.

Sounds like a great day

Crappy way to die

Any pictures of the Trout?

Midges? Nymphs? Dries?

Hands off.

No, but I am going again tomorrow and will take some. Been there several times lately and limited out each time. Using spinners and Berkley Powerbait.

Note . Probably just jinxed myself by saying that.

Distemper and Rabies both would be concerning...

As well as destructive and just a huge PITA!

They get a one way trip to hell on my place when seen or caught in traps!

Raccoons are very frequently a carrier of distemper. Do you remember the big cat sanctuary in Wylie it had to put all of their animals down because they caught distemper from a raccoon?

A client of mine had a Pitbull tangle with a raccoon and it in the process got a minor bite. That bite lead to paralysis that lasted for the better part of four months. Had they not found an old country veterinarian that was familiar with that disease they would have put the dog down instead of letting him recuperate.

Here ya go Stub. Took me just a bit over an hour. One on a spinner and four on Berkley trout worms.

Heck yes

covid

The largest raccoon, and the luckiest raccoon because I could not shoot him, I have ever seen ran across the road in front of my vehicle today at a stoplight just South of...DFW AIRPORT!

Looked like he had eaten a watermelon whole. A true Trash Panda...they find a dumpster behind a restaurant and it is Trash Panda All You Can Eat Buffet. This guy had to have been sick, it was 0747 in the morning.

That Trash Panda should be buying lottery tickets right now.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Just a few weeks ago we had one walk up to our camp looking like he was drunk and didn't seem to notice us at all. We watched him roll around and drop to his back like he was dead and then get up after a few mins and do the same thing. We ended up shooting him and hauling him to the bone yard. We weren't sure if he got into some rat poison or had some other illness. Maybe it was distemper as well.

Crazy find!