Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am a vet tech with experience raising various orphans but just took in my first raccoon. He is only about 3 or 4 days old and was found on a trail by himself. He was fat and strong, and I've had him for 24 hours now and feeding is going well, although I'm having to tube feed him; he won't take a bottle just yet. But I am getting concerned he may have a head injury. There is no obvious trauma on the outside but he is exhibiting strange behavior; having never raised a raccoon before I didn't know if this is normal or not. I keep him in a box on top of a heating pad with a towel between to make sure it doesn't get too hot; the box is heated on a gradient so the baby can move off if it gets too warm; this has worked with all my other baby critters but isn't going well with the raccoon. He moves completely off the warm area and gets "stuck" in the corner of the box, usually upside down, and cries until I put him back. He'll usually then curl up and sleep, but not 10-15 minutes later he's stuck and crying again. I put him in with two kittens the same age hoping they could share body heat and he could have the comfort of "littermates" but I'm thinking about taking him out and putting a lamp on him instead. Could anyone tell me if this behavior is normal or might he have a head injury? He's pretty active otherwise, normal urine/bms, and is very vocal. The vets I work with don't have any experience with raccoons, especially one this young. Thanks in advance.

Hi Tasha,

I've been rehabbing for quite a few years with the highest percentage of my rehabs being baby coons. I hope I can help you.

First of all, are you aware of possible bloat situations in young coons? If not, we need to discuss this. It may be that he is extremely uncomfortable and can't settle down due to the pain. When you feed him, his little belly will fill up, but if they have bloat, then their stomach remains hard all the time......so even when you pick him up to feed him, he will still feel 'fat'.

This is a huge problem and can kill him. It happens most often in the really young babies. First off, see if you can get Bene-bac from the vets and start giving him that as soon as possible. Also, we should talk about what formula you are giving him. I'm going to assume you're giving him one of the prepared formulas (like dog or cat milk replacers). I'm not too picky with that....everyone has their favorites and I actually prefer to mix up my own anyway. But you absolutely cannot use cow's milk from the container in your fridge.

If I am totally off in left field and his belly gets flat between feedings, let me know and we can go back and forth to try to figure out what his problem is. He does have a problem, but I doubt it's a head injury.

I just stumbled across this site and only signed up just to help with your question. I saw there is a huge list of rules. If it's permissible for you to give me your email address, we can converse quicker emailing directly. I'm even OK with a phone call, but I wouldn't want to exchange numbers in a public forum like this....so we can see how fast we can get his problem figured out.

MAC

Hi Mac, thanks for responding. I'm using KMR formula and he seems to be thriving. The day after I posted the message the coon actually stopped the odd behavior. He settles down and sleeps soundly now. I did not know of raccoons could bloat like that; his belly has always been soft between feedings but I can watch for that now. Since you mentioned that, something dawned on me--he was brought in by someone who was rehabbing squirrels, and she had fed him some type of milk; I don't know what it was; it's possible that had upset his stomach and once it was out of his system he got better. He's gaining weight like he should, so hopefully he'll do well. Thanks again for the info; my email address is JpMinis@aol.com if you think of anything else.
--Tasha

Welcome Mac and Tasha!
Mac, like you, most of my experience has been with baby raccoons, though typically from the eyes open stage on, very seldom do we see them still closed.

Tasha, sounds like the little one is doing well. You will soon find out hopefully, how rewarding rehabilitating raccoons can be, I prefer them over most other species, the only possible exception would be flying squirrels. Hopefully more "coonlets" will come in of like size, so that he will have some friends to get to know. Be careful about adding other coons, or even the kittens though, raccoons are literally riddled with zoonoses, and there can be a variety from one litter to another as to what they have, and what sort of immunity levels. We do deworm them with Strongid before they go out with foster humans, and also treat for fleas/ticks. We do not vaccinate, though I know many rescues do.

Glad to have you both on the boards! We have a great little community here, but it grows a bit more each spring, as folks find us here. I look forward to learning more from everyone, and hope that I can help others as well.

Joker
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