Raccoon in the Engine Early one morning, a gentleman intent on getting to work on time, raced to his car and started the engine. He was horrified as intense screams of pain erupted at such a volume as to be clearly heard over the sound of the engine. He immediately turned off the car and opened the hood. There was blood everywhere. He searched inside the engine and found a young raccoon. As he reached for the raccoon, he saw that it was terrified and in pain, it bolted. As the man ran to catch the little raccoon, it disappeared into some bushes and vanished. He searched for hours but no raccoon was to be found. He finally gave up and went to work, being considerably late. The following morning, his wife found the raccoon curled up on top of one of the tires of her car. The animal was immediately picked up by UWR. We examined him thoroughly, and miraculously we found only one superficial cut. It certainly didn't justify the amount of blood that the gentleman described to us. The fan blade must have cut a capillary that bled profusely. We cleaned the wound and applied a topical antibiotic. We treated for shock by administering fluids and placed the young animal on a heating pad. Once he was stabilized and comfortable, we placed him on oral antibiotics to prevent an infection from developing. He was fine and remarkably lucky that his injury wasn't more severe and that humans, who cared a great deal about his welfare, helped him. We are curious about his attraction to engines and tires though, and we certainly hope that he gets over it. Back to Rescues of Note