On January 20th, an adult male raccoon was admitted.  He was found in Minnetrista along the side of a road, walking very slowly and acting uncoordinated. It was suspected that he had been hit by a car.

When he arrived at WRC, he was very depressed and weak. He had some abrasions on his front paws, and a bloody nose, which supported our suspicion of head trauma, likely from a vehicle. Raccoons can show similar signs of weakness and uncoordination when they have a virus called Distemper, so that is always on our “rule-out” list as well.

The raccoon’s prognosis was poor at the time of admission, due to his mental state and weakness. The raccoon also had pulmonary contusions (bruising of the lungs) and fluid in his chest, and was wheezing and having difficulty breathing. Subcutaneous fluids were administered, as well as pain medications, antibiotics, and medications to assist with his breathing.

After spending several days in our Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the raccoon surprised us all by showing signs of recovery! His wheezing stopped, he began eating and drinking on his own, and he was showing more signs of aggression toward the medical staff, a definite sign that he was feeling better!

After about 2 weeks of treatment, the raccoon was on the road to a full recovery! After the course of his medications were complete and he passed our pre-release exam, he was ready to go back into the wild. The release on February 13th was a success: he found a tree and climbed right up!

These are the cases that bring so much happiness and satisfaction to the staff and volunteers at WRC…the ones that present to you on death’s door, and end up making a full recovery!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Medical News, Vet Leslie's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.