Weasls 2, Us, 2. Rabies question perhaps?possibly GRAPHIC description

[ticks]

My grandma has been having skunk problems in her for garage for a little over a year now. She finally got around to getting a hav-a-hart trap on tuesday. by wednesday morning she found she had caught the striped pillager of her garage. So she called the cheapest exterminator she could find, it so happened to be my brother and I. She wanted a quick .22 shot because it has just been getting in to everything and stinking up her garage. She said we could get close to the skunk and it would not lift it's tail. We listened to her and quickly found out it could lift its tail... After getting rid of the skunk we showered, bathed, showered, bathed, anything to get rid of that smell. Today we stayed home because we smelled like, well, a skunks spraying-anus-gland-thing. So the scoreboard was Skunks 2, Us 1. Today when we got home from the store. We heard our black lab barking and a high-pitched squealing sound. We went out there because we thought she had pinned a a killdeer. It was actually a weasel an ermine to be scientific... That thing was nasty, it was biting my dog and hissing at her and clearly giving my dog a challenge... So we got out the 12 gauge, the dog wouldn't get off that thing and that ermine was still biting her. So my brother went out to call off the dog, shotgun in hand. Turns out ermines don't care how big something is because it turned on my brother. He evaded it, it ran by and the oppurtunity came and he shot it. We recovered it and looked it over, nice coat. We are wondering if an animal that small can get rabies, and if it was indeed rabid. Either that it was tempermental and someone "pis.sed in his cheerios" this morning.

 

[sylvie]

:/

 

[big brown horse]

Hey stinky, I mean Ticks,

Is your dog ok?

 

[ticks]

Hey stinky, I mean Ticks,

Is your dog ok?

Dogs fine for the most part. Maybe a couple of weasel induced holes in her legs though.

 

[SKR8PN]

This past summer we had trouble with raccoons getting into our friends cornfield(we planted and split an acre of corn) So I took him a couple hav-a-hart traps. Everything went ok for awhile. HE trapped 4 or 5 'coons in the first week, then the skunk made an appearance. Stan called me that morning and told me to come down and empty MY trap. I kinda figured there was something up so I told him " he who baits and sets the trap has to empty the trap".
I never knew one little skunk could stink so bad or for sooooo long after you shoot it.

 

[MorelCabin]

I wouldn't worry too much about the temperment of that weasel, just be glad your dog survived the attack...weasels are extremely nasty in a fight.

 

[ticks]

SKR- I should have told that to my grandma. but the thought of her getting sprayed by a skunk because I didnt want to made me feel bad.

and Morel, the weasel wasn't huge and my lab is pretty big. THat thing just was territorial

 

[patandchickens]

First let me say that what you describe sounds like 100% perfectly normal outcome of a dog happening to corner a weasel, and if the dog has been vaccinated for rabies, there is really nothing to worry about IMO.

That said:

sorry, but weasels are NOT "immune to rabies". The ferret site uses very weebly logic to suggest that statistics may "suggest the possibility that there is a natural resistance to the disease in the weasel family". The evidence is poor and illogical IMHO, and even THEY do not claim that weasels and their kin don't get rabies. There have been a number of documented cases. It is just real rare, is all.

But ticks, I would not worry at all in your situation

Good luck, have fun,

Pat, a great admirer of weasels btw

 

[dacjohns]

Ticks,

Great retelling of your experience in skunk extermination.

As far as I know all mammals can contract rabies. Opposums are not likely to contract rabies but they can. As far as being small, bats are common carriers of rabies and bats are smaller than an ermine.

As Pat and Morel said, it sounds like a natural reaction to be cornered by a big nasty animal. You can send the head to a lab and have it checked for rabies.

 

[Occamstazer]

Sounds like an evil weevil, I mean weasel.

Hope your doggins is ok!