Interesting. In the last 12 years there have only been 2 non-bat animals testing positive for rabies in Illinois. A cat and a cow. Not sure how many non-bat animals were tested though.
I’ve also had rabies scares that make me laugh (ok, one does; the other still makes me mad).
Funny one: my barn cat caught a field mouse that was screaming in fear. I went to make the cat drop the mouse (what was I thinking?) and it latched onto my finger and Would Not Let Go. After I managed to get it loose I called the Fish and Game office who laughed at me and said rodents rarely contract rabies. (I may be the only person ever attacked by a mouse! 
Non-funny one: There was a fox in my barn aisle that looked terrible, wouldn’t be shooed away and was acting very oddly. Another call to Fish and Game, who told me they don’t help with “vermin” species. When I told them I suspected rabies, their reply was for me to shoot it if it was upsetting me. Really? I finally called my neighbor who did come over and shoot the poor thing.
Oh no, I have found tomato juice to be useless for this :no: Dawn, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and vinegar are so much better.
But not, this was the horse’s head, and since he didn’t seem to care, I just let it fade away. Because the hair is thin, and he was out and rolling and whatnot, it didn’t take all that long thankfully!
This had me silently crying laughing because I am at my desk and can’t laugh out loud.
I kind of wish my horses would kill a raccoon under enhanced interrogation methods, they are freeloading in our hayloft again.
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Similar story! This summer I went out to feed breakfast, walked into a stall and found a dead baby deer. I was convinced my horse had accidentally trampled it while impatiently waiting for breakfast.
The poor thing had died right under the feed bucket, so I didn’t want to feed my horse in there! Pony was very confused and annoyed to wait even longer for his breakfast so he reached down and started playing with the poor dead baby.
Eventually I got him out and picked up the deer with a shovel, at which point my horses were no longer suspects, because something had eaten the entire back half of the baby deer.
Anyways, OP I definitely wasn’t laughing at the time but it’s pretty funny looking back.
At a barn I used to board at we found a fawn baled into the hay once!
Not totally uncommon. They do not move and mowing over the top of them happens.
Good news, raccoon was negative for rabies. So I guess we can all just laugh now.
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My mini schnauzer had one of those plush, flat squeaky squirrel toys. I was getting ready to mow the outer part of my back yard, and opened the gate. I opened the human gate to take the mower out of the garage and my dog was playing with his squeaky squirrel, but it wasn’t squeaking, and he looked confused.
Yes, my dog had gone in the back of the yard, found a dead and flat squirrel, and thought it should squeak too. At least he dropped it when I told him too. Animals live to drive us crazy, don’t they?
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I’ll see you a raccoon and raise you a porcupine. Seriously. Had to have the vet out to remove the spines from not one but two horses muzzles.
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porcupine quills come out pretty easily with a pair of pliers, but the horse has to be pretty compliant to let you do it, I’ll agree. Every new horse I get up here encounters a porcupine at least once–it’s like an intelligence test. Once, fair enough, more than twice and you are obviously a dumbass horse…
I was on vacation a couple of years ago when my poor farm sitter discovered a dead stag in my old horse’s stall. He was a regular visitor and obviously quite elderly himself, so we think he’s just gone in there to die quietly. Bit inconvenient, though…
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I feel you. My old man got sprayed in the face by a skunk, right as it’s gotten too cold to bathe, for the SECOND year in a row. He didn’t learn :sigh:
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Once I was riding my gelding on a dirt road when we came across a road killed possum. I let him sniff it, and he proceded to rear up and come down on that dead possum a few times to re-kill it . He was so proud of himself…
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Dugnrulla, I totally feel your pain. Couple years ago, I go out one morning in the dark to feed the dogs and see a white lifeless body, blood and insides everywhere on the patio. Thought it was the neighbor’s cat that must have gotten into the dog pen. Run inside screaching at BF to come get up and look. Without thinking, he flips it over bare handed only to discover it’s a skunk. Didn’t think much about it until later when my friend asked if I was concerned about rabies. Well I and all the dogs are vaccinated so no. Well, BF has GIANT cut right on hand that he used to pick it up.
Call health department, skunk tests positive. BF gets post exposure shots, dogs and I get booster shots and everyone goes on 45 day home quarantine to monitor for neuro signs, etc. Which was interesting because all the dogs were UTD on vaccines at the time.
It’s starting to become funny now a couple years later as I’m FINALLY finishing paying off all the shots. But let me tell you, now when I see a dead animal, RABIES and DON"T TOUCH immediately comes to mind. Never even crossed my mind before that. Ah, the joys of farm ownership. I’ve learned a lot over the last couple years.
I’m also starting to realize the to do list of owning my own house/farm will never end. Cross one thing off the list and 2 more get added immediately.
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