Skunk in the Barn

Last summer I spent an inordinate amount of time de-skunking my dogs.  This summer we have so far avoided any aromatic episodes, but yesterday we did have a skunk make it's way into the tack room.  Jasi found it when she went out to feed the horses.  The dogs were very interested in whatever was behind a tack trunk, and when Jasi peeked to see what they were so excited about she saw the telltale black body and white stripe.

Jasi hustled back to the house, and immediately told us there was a skunk in the tack room.  I thought about it for a bit, and remembered that we had a neighbor who found a skunk on her property that ended up being rabid.  I decided we weren't going to mess with our little stowaway, and I called animal control instead.

They were very prompt, and despite all their officers being in either Fort Collins or Loveland at the time, they sent out a woman who got here in short order.  She pulled up in her van, extracted a small cage, and we snuck into the tack room so she could capture the furry visitor.  It was very mellow, and was napping when she first went in to see it.

I was super impressed with her skunk-wrangling skills.  She talked calmly to the animal, never did anything fast or sudden, and the skunk stayed relatively calm.  She set up the cage and then carefully rearranged the feed barrels and tack trunks so that the only good place the skunk had to go was into the cage covered by a towel.  Some urging with a long pole sent the skunk in the right direction, and it actually went in and out of the cage three times before she was able to get the door shut with him inside.

Once the skunk was in the towel covered cage, she added one more towel just in case.  She said that skunks usually don't spray in confined areas because they don't want to get their spray on themselves.  We were fortunate that this skunk adhered to the body odor protocol and didn't spray, so all the tack, blankets, and equipment in the tack room was spared.  She then loaded the skunk in it's cage into a container in the van, and headed to the health department with him.

The following day I got an email from the health department asking for some more details about our skunk adventure.  I told the woman on the phone the full story, including details about who my veterinarians are for both horses (Equine Medical Services) and small animals (Paws N Claws Vet Clinic), and explaining that all my animals have been vaccinated for rabies by the veterinarians.

I purposely make sure that everyone is covered for precisely this type of situation.  If my animals were unvaccinated and had been in contact with a skunk (or bat, or raccoon, or any other animal) that was rabid, it would make the situation much more complicated.  Think quarantine, euthanasia, testing, and general frustration all around.  Legally a domestic animal is not considered protected from rabies unless the veterinarian has  performed the vaccination, which is why I don't administer the vaccines myself.  Because everyone here is legally protected, we were safe when a potentially rabid skunk arrived.  To our knowledge none of my animals touched the skunk, but it's good to know that we should be safe.  The health department was very thorough in asking about my animals' protection, and when she had ascertained that I indeed had taken all the necessary precautions, she congratulated me on my foresight.  It made her job much simpler as well.

There are very few dull moments living out here in the country, but I'm glad we're doing it right!