Suburban Raccoons

The last thing that you ever want to have happened to anyone including yourself is to be in contact with roundworms from raccoons. If you ingest these worms accidentally by breathing them into your lungs you can get quite sick. Also if you accidentally ingest them when they come in contact with a food source. They can cause really serious Raccoon Roundworm Symptoms leading to organ failure and even death. In case you are wondering these are microscopic worms. They cannot easily be seen by the naked eye.

They are extremely hardy. These worms can exist for a long time in harsh conditions, such as attics where it is hot and dry. If you have to deal with the situation shown in the picture, make sure that you take the necessary steps to protect yourself and your family. This man has a full protective gear on including a breathing filter to ensure that nothing is ingested into his lungs. Proper removal of the protective clothing and disposal is also required once you are finished with cleaning and making repairs.

Roundworm Symptoms

In humans the infection from raccoon roundworms is rare, however, they sometimes do occur. They sometimes will invade the eye, the brain, and other organs with quite drastic impacts such as blindness, organ failure, and death. If you are around raccoons or where they have been, take special care to protect yourself from accidental infections.

Symptoms in dogs include unsteady walking, difficulty eating, lethargy, circling, seizure, and confusion. Dogs and other animals will contract the disease from being around raccoons, their feces, and eating animals that have been infected with the roundworm. Often an animal that is infected will become easy prey for other animals. When they are caught and killed and then eaten the animal that has eaten the infected animal will often become infected repeating the cycle.

Adult dogs can often be cured if the disease or infection is caught earlier enough, it is almost always fatal in puppies. If you have raccoons in the area or see raccoon feces, take extra precautions when removing them. Protect your pets and children from coming in contact with these feces.

Raccoon Roundworm Symptoms in Cats

The symptoms and effects of the roundworm is pretty much the same for cats as it is for dogs. In the case of cats, they tend to get the disease from sharing areas. Or being in areas that are frequented by raccoons. In one way or another, they ingest the worms and become infected.

If you suspect the presence of infected raccoons, cats, or dogs, seek treatment for your pets right away. Also, protect yourself by frequent hand washing and staying away from feces. Use protection when cleaning up any feces that you find. They could be carrying the roundworm within the feces.

This post focused on symptoms. There are additional posts on this site that discuss clean up as well as the removal of raccoons if they are in your attic.

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