Skunk Diseases

Skunks are wild animals, and their interaction with other animals exposes them to various diseases and pathogens in the wild. This would not have been a problem if skunks only stayed in the wild their whole lives. However, due to man’s activities, they have lost most of their homes to deforestation and now coexist with humans in a bid to survive.

Their presence in man’s environment predisposes man to the diseases and organisms they carry, making skunks a public health hazard. They do not only infect man or contaminate his food in the process of foraging, but they also infect domestic and pet animals, contaminate water sources with eggs from their feces, and infect food sources, this leads to a widespread health problem.

In this article, we will discuss five diseases commonly carried and spread by skunks.

RABIES

Skunks are prone to the rabies virus, and they are one species with a high transmission rate of the disease. The rabies virus can easily infect you when the saliva of a rabid skunk touches an open wound or a broken area on your skin. A rabid skunk will either scratch or bite and transmits the virus via these two routes. Rabies is a grave disease because once it gets into the nervous system of any individual, their chances of survival are usually bleak as they often die if they do not treat the infection immediately.

CANINE DISTEMPER

This disease mostly affects dogs, and most people know it as hard pad disease because it causes hardening of the footpad and nose of the dog. The skunk is a carrier of this disease, and this is bad news for pet owners with skunk infestations because dogs are very curious animals that love to explore and play. This attribute makes them very susceptible to distemper infection.

WORMS INFECTION

If you have a case of a skunk infestation in your yard or garden, you should get ready for intestinal worm infections. The feces and urine of skunks contain the eggs of these worms, and sometimes, they even contain the gravid parts of the worms and litter them around your yard. They can get into the swimming pool, food items that you did not package properly, and fruits from your garden. Your pets and little ones are at risk because if the sand in your yard contains urine or poop from skunks, anything your pets or kids pick can serve as an infection source.

LEPTOSPIROSIS

Skunks are also highly susceptible to this disease and transmit it through their urine. The disease is very dangerous because it can pass through your skin and causes lysing of the red blood cells, and so it eventually leads to death if you do not detect and treat it promptly. It also compromises the body’s immunity, and secondary bacteria can cause further damage to the human or dog with the disease.

TULAREMIA

This is another disease that skunks carry, which has a zoonotic effect. The symptoms appear 3-4 days after a scratch, and they include fever, nausea, severe headaches, and myalgia and can cause kidney and liver damage, and meningitis if the doctors do not diagnose it on time.

When you are dealing with a skunk problem, you should involve a vet and not try to treat the skunk yourself. You should also hire a professional to get rid of the skunks in your yard or garden.