We have a crippled, excuse me, "physically challenged" skunk living under our deck. I'm not sure what to do. It's rear end is totally disabled and it just drags it's rear legs as it crawls along. It comes out from under our deck every night and crawls into the woods where I see it scrounging about. We will be sitting and talking on the deck and it pays us no mind--just goes about it's buisness. I don't know if we should be concerned and have it removed or just let it be. I suspect it's sprayer may also be out of commission.
Physically Challenged Skunk
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Wal
Silver Member
I don't shoot anything but paper targets, but Hillbilly may be right. It doesn't sound like its going to live long on its own, and may just die a long, lingering death. Is there some "animal rescue" group in your area that would come and get it? That would be my first choice.
bgott
Veteran Member
My sister has a cat that broke it's back falling out of a tree. They took it to a vet, nothing could be done for it. The cat didn't seem to really be in any discomfort so they took it home and it gets along just fine dragging itself around. I stayed there a couple of years ago and I never could really get used to it. I'd get up in the middle of the night for a smoke and this black cat would zip down the hall and startle the he11 out of me. It durn sure doesn't look like a cat in the dark! I thought it would get sores and infection from dragging in the dirt but it just wore the hair off and the area that drags caloused over. It manages to eliminate without making a mess out itself. If that skunk is otherwise healthy and isn't stinking the place up you just might have a new pet. Otherwise, .22 time.
rocky2
Silver Member
I agree with the others, for a wild animal, it may be more humane to put him down.
MossRoad
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It seems that it is going out and foraging every night and then returning. Other than the leg drag, does it look like a happy skunk? As long as its fat and getting along, why kill it? Now if it had visible sores, seemed to be in pain, was getting skinny or looked disoriented, I'd put it down.
chim
Elite Member
Don't tell PETA, but a number of years ago I had to deal with a skunk at a construction site. We were installing miles of underground concrete-encased conduits and HV cable. There were numerous manholes in the runs, and our MO was to have one of the excavators dig the holes to plant the manholes late in the day, while we poured concrete around the conduits in the trenches. That way the next morning, we could receive and set the manholes and continue.
On one hole, it looked like we were getting into some unstable soil, so I had the operator stop digging at about 6' depth. Figured he could finish the excavation first thing in the AM while other manholes were being set.
Bright and early, I got a call on the radio to come "look at sumpthin". There in the hole we needed to finish was a skunk. Apparently the safety fence we had around the excavation wasn't skunk-proof. He was moving around slowly, and appeared to be sick or disoriented. Covering the hole with a sheet of plastic and running a truck exhaust had little effect. We had to do something, so I fashioned a piece of reinforcing wire into a prong and duct-taped it to the end of a 20' stick of pipe. It took a couple of tries, but I managed to spear the critter and escorted it to the adjacent woods on the end of the pipe. Of course the operator complained about the smell for a while, but he got over it...................chim
On one hole, it looked like we were getting into some unstable soil, so I had the operator stop digging at about 6' depth. Figured he could finish the excavation first thing in the AM while other manholes were being set.
Bright and early, I got a call on the radio to come "look at sumpthin". There in the hole we needed to finish was a skunk. Apparently the safety fence we had around the excavation wasn't skunk-proof. He was moving around slowly, and appeared to be sick or disoriented. Covering the hole with a sheet of plastic and running a truck exhaust had little effect. We had to do something, so I fashioned a piece of reinforcing wire into a prong and duct-taped it to the end of a 20' stick of pipe. It took a couple of tries, but I managed to spear the critter and escorted it to the adjacent woods on the end of the pipe. Of course the operator complained about the smell for a while, but he got over it...................chim
Tractor_Barn
Silver Member
We had a skunk around the farm this past speing that just wasn't right. It came out to feed in the day and was limping. It had lost hair around its neck and was moving slow. It eventually died from high-speed lead poisoning.
Vince
Vince
wroughtn_harv
Super Member
I'd have to go along with the watch and wait thing with the skunk. If it's making it then let it continue to do so in my book.
Of course the downside of skunks is they play in neighborhoods doing things that make them more susceptible to rabies. For that reason alone it's not foolish to err on the side of caution and call animal control.
We just put a skunk out of it's misery a couple of weeks ago. Bud's Walmart dog broke it's back. Of course the skunk got off a dead on shot to the face of the dog prior to contact between the two.
So dog came to us on a dead run wanting a little relief from what I suspect was severe skin irritation besides the obvious nasal attack. The Oh Dear was so strong that it burned the back of the throat.
As bud was doing dog scrubbing one oh one I went over to the skunk to pick it up with a shovel to get rid of the body. As I approached it showed be a whole truck load of teeth and cussed me and all my ancestors quite eloguently. It was obvious it's back had been broken.
Now I don't know about you but I do suspect the business end of that skunk might not be attached to the thinking end. But that don't mean the business end isn't still plenty dangerous. So instead of doing the shovel removing the head trick I did the tucked tail between legs one. And let bud know it was his problem. So he shot it with his twenty two and then I disposed of the body.
The shop had sinus clearing stuff in the air for about a week afterwards I guess.
Something to remember about skunks. If they have the opportunity to warn you they will. What they do is they tap their front feet. So if you're in a place they might have residence it's good to not only sniff but listen too. And if you hear a tap tap tap tap like tiny hands trying to do a drum roll on dirt, freeze! Back out making soft sounds, real soft sounds.
Of course the downside of skunks is they play in neighborhoods doing things that make them more susceptible to rabies. For that reason alone it's not foolish to err on the side of caution and call animal control.
We just put a skunk out of it's misery a couple of weeks ago. Bud's Walmart dog broke it's back. Of course the skunk got off a dead on shot to the face of the dog prior to contact between the two.
So dog came to us on a dead run wanting a little relief from what I suspect was severe skin irritation besides the obvious nasal attack. The Oh Dear was so strong that it burned the back of the throat.
As bud was doing dog scrubbing one oh one I went over to the skunk to pick it up with a shovel to get rid of the body. As I approached it showed be a whole truck load of teeth and cussed me and all my ancestors quite eloguently. It was obvious it's back had been broken.
Now I don't know about you but I do suspect the business end of that skunk might not be attached to the thinking end. But that don't mean the business end isn't still plenty dangerous. So instead of doing the shovel removing the head trick I did the tucked tail between legs one. And let bud know it was his problem. So he shot it with his twenty two and then I disposed of the body.
The shop had sinus clearing stuff in the air for about a week afterwards I guess.
Something to remember about skunks. If they have the opportunity to warn you they will. What they do is they tap their front feet. So if you're in a place they might have residence it's good to not only sniff but listen too. And if you hear a tap tap tap tap like tiny hands trying to do a drum roll on dirt, freeze! Back out making soft sounds, real soft sounds.
looch
Veteran Member
Paralytic rabies in animals affects mainly the spinal cord. With this type of rabies, you don't get the aggression and excitability symptoms. I'd whack it and wouldn't feel guilty.