Rabbid raccoons are very easy to notice if you know and understand the signs. A rabid raccoon is unlikely to come to your property for food or water as they are likely suffering from something called hydrophobia. This is a psychological condition caused by the disease influencing your brain making it impossible to swallow water. This means they can actually drown in a glass of water and will run away from especially deep water sources. This is only one of the symptoms and the others are far worse. The animal will seem to wander around in circles or zigzags, often falling over and rolling around like it’s itchy. The raccoon will babble and screech incoherently and will seem to not notice humans but will get very aggressive with dogs and cats often passing rabies on to them and endangering you and your family with an animal that has rabies but is not showing symptoms yet. Rabies is incurable. Once you have it you will slowly go insane and suffer hydrophobia, lockjaw and other painful and upsetting symptoms. The final result is a comma and brain death. So if you see a rabid raccoon on your property take your pets inside and stay there.
If you have a rabid raccoon on your property the removal is easy and free. Professional companies do not deal with rabid wildlife. The only people who do are the humane society. They can catch and take it to a special medical center like a veterinarian clinic to have the animal humanely put down. Do not try to do this yourself. Do not shoot the raccoon or try to kill it in any way. Raccoons have protected wildlife and if it turns out it did not have rabies then you could be in a lot of trouble. Leave it alone, it may simply die on your property or wander away and bother someone else. The important thing to do is keep everyone inside and call the humane society to come and remove it. Do not try to go outside. Do not try to feed or pet it and do not try to hurt it. If you do have a lot of raccoons wandering your property there is a lot you can do to keep them from staying. Keeping your garbage in locked and sealed containers and storing them in a shed or garage will do a lot. Getting rid of food and water sources on your property will be even more effective.