Isaiah is enamored with dried fruit.  Raisins, cranberries, prunes, blueberries, you name it, he eats it.  That should have been my first warning.  We also started composting our carbon leftovers-yes, we did NOT bury our roughage, that would have helped.  With that came a family of raccoons.  That should have been my second warning.  Raccoon droppings started appearing in visible and easy to access areas.  That should have been my final and most alarming warning.

The following events proceeded on July 3rd, right before the holiday weekend.  Isaiah and I were going about our usual routine consisting of many hours outside exploring, swimming, and throwing rocks into the Long Island Sound.  This particular day we ventured to a new area of the lawn.  To my delight, we were finally in the shade enjoying the cool summer breezes.  The two of us sat under a tree and investigated nature.  Of course, Isaiah got bored with this within a few minutes, stood up walked about 5 feet away from me, bent down and picked up what looked like a stick.  He started walking towards me in his usual manner when he hands over his newest find, however, this time around he put it into his mouth.  Immediately, I said “NO”, he dropped it, and I scooped his empty mouth with my finger. I investigated the item that was dropped to the ground-Raccoon scat. I could see why he picked it up, it looked somewhat liked dried fruit.

I had heard that raccoon scat was harmful so I proceeded to look it up online.  I started to panic when I read that raccoons are a common carrier of a parasite called Baylisascaris Procyonis which can cause serious damage to the central nervous system!  I immediately called the pediatrician’s office.  I was told to call Poison control.  Poison control didn’t know what to do about my case so they forwarded me to yet another agency at which point I was redirected to my doctor.  I called the pediatrician’s office yet again and was told that they would look into it and call me back.  We were called back an hour or so later with an appointment to come in for 5:45pm that day.  When we met with Isaiah’s doctor, he gave us the good news, the chances of him actually having an issue with B.Procyonis was probably pretty small since he didn’t actually swallow any of the feces.  However, if he did get infected, the damage could be really severe.  We were given two options.

1. Don’t treat with a minute risk of complications from the the B.Procyonis

2. Treat with a drug called Albendazole that had it’s own list of bad side effects and complications.

We brought the raccoon scat to the doctor’s office to get it tested for the B.Procyonis larvae or parasites.  We wondered if we could wait for the results before putting him on Albendazole.  Unfortunately, the only way Albendazole works is if you start taking it immediately.  The longer you wait the less likely it will help your outcome.  We had been told that the infection rate of B.Procyonis in local raccoons could be as high as 50%-60%.  We put Isaiah on Albendazole, otherwise known as, Albenza.

Today is Isaiah’s first day Albenza free-last night we heard from our pediatrician, the scat was negative for both larvae and parasite.  We were very lucky…

Below are links to a colored image of the feces/scat/poop/poo, as well as various links we found helpful during our research.  Reading these links can be somewhat overwhelming!  Keep in mind that since 1980 there have been less than 25 reported cases of an infection either causing fatality or severe central nervous system damage.

Color Picture of Raccoon Feces on Log

CDC Links:

Baylisascaris: Fact Sheet

Full Recovery from Baylisascaris Procyonis Eosinophilic Meningitis

Baylisascaris procyonis: An Emerging Helminthic Zoonosis

Baylisascaris procyonis in the Metropolitan Atlanta Area

Drug Information:

Albenza tablet prescription information

Albendazole information

Other Sites/Documents:

Raccoon Roundworm

A Pediatrics Article