Raccoon Feces In Pool

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J

Jpoww

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Aug 25, 2019
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Katy, Texas
Hi, I have been a salt water pool owner for about 11yrs now and this is the first time I have experience a raccoon using my pool as its latrine. My husband was able to remove the fecal matter from the pool but we did not get the fecal matter tested. We did have our pool guy shock the pool and it ran for 48hrs and he change out the filter cartridges. The CDC recommends draining the entire pool but my pool guy said he has never seen anyone do that before and he has been in this business for 25yrs. My main concern is the roundworms these raccoons carry in their fecal matter. I read chlorine doesn't kill those roundworms. I'm scared to get back into my pool now?
Has anyone raccoon fecal matter in their pool? did you drain the water out of your pool to clean it or did you just shock it and change out the filters? Advice please?

Thank You
 
This is the second thread on Raccoon Roundworm (Baylisascaris).

Raccoon Poop.... Really Scared!

Hello everyone, Several years ago I found what I assumed to be a raccoon poop in the pool. I skimmed it out and shocked the pool and didn’t really worry about it. Just now I got in the pool and was walking around vacuuming with a pool blaster (battery operated vacuum with its own filter bag)...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Not sure what to say. It’s fairly rare to get the infection and yes, chlorine is not effective. The last pool owner on here posting about it called all of their local and state agencies and no one knew what they were talking about. They eventually found a lab that could test fecal samples for it but I don’t think they had enough material for the testing to be reliable. They were going to try the two-part clarifier system (PRS Stage 1 & 2) from SeaKlear to help remove fine particles but I don't know if they tried it or not. You can certainly drain your pool if it makes you feel better but I agree that it's a bit extreme.
 
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Thank you for your reply. I really don't want to drain the pool. I guess its rare if this is only the second post on raccoon feces. Certainly it does happen but it might not be that big of a deal. I don't know much about the two part clarifier system from SeaKlear but I will look into that. Thank you all for your replies :)
 
Racoons are super dirty little creatures. Had a family coming in the dog door last year (old house) and they'd eat up all the cat food and then wash themselves in the water bowl. It left a lot of actual dirt in the bowl and little black hand/foot prints all over the floor around it. I dunno how much bacteria is on their dirty little hands and faces but there's plenty of actual dirt. Raising FC can't hurt if they're washing themselves in your pool. I wonder if they're swimming in it and just happened to have to poop while recreating rather than using it as a latrine.

It doesn't appear to be a regular thing for the other poster or really anyone else so far so it might also be a one time thing for you as well. If you still have enough of the poo sample, you could send it off for testing.
 
I personally can't imagine a land animal taking a dump in water. Now Canada geese, on the other hand... That I can imagine. They leave feces that looks like a medium sized dog came through.

Another consideration -- is your pool above ground or in ground? In ground, and I can see raccoons getting to the water. Above ground, not so much. Add in pooping in the pool, and it spells some flying visitor like a large duck or Canada goose.

Don't assume a coon befouled your pool unless you saw him cop a squat with your own eyes. That means you don't have to worry about the ooooh boogey bear roundworms.

Just clean up the solid matter, being the pool up to SLAM levels, and don't swim for 24 hrs. That should take care of your ? problems.
 
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Yeah, I thought that raccoons aren’t “stealth poopers” but prefer to have a communal latrine that the group uses. So I would agree that a one-off fecal incident doesn’t really say raccoon to me ....
 
In general, predatory land animals won't foul their water. I have never heard of coons pooping in the water they use for washing. Predators just don't do that. Herbivores, on the other hand... They're prone to going in their water and dirtying it up. Cows are really disgusting.

Birds will go in the water with great alacrity. We used to have a lake, which drew Canada geese and all kinds of ducks. My husband used to ask why I didn't swim in the lake and not use the pool. I gave him the stink eye over that. All those birds and the fish, constantly fertilizing the lake? No thank you. I'll stick with my nice clean pool.

And don't forget snapping turtles! They can lay pipe that looks just like dog or goose poop! I'm talking about the little baby ones, too! If you live in snapper territory, near a lake or stream, there's another culprit you want to consider, if you have an inground pool and find dog size ? in there.

It ain't always the furry bandits, y'all.
 
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Thank you all for your comments. I have an in ground pool and a fence along my property. We did not see the Raccoon pooping but we know we have had this raccoon frequent our property. We have not seen any turtles or birds like geese around, so that is why we assumed it was a raccoon. I read that they do like to hide their poo and that is my they could go in the pool. It makes sense that they would not want to drink and wash in the same water but it could happen. I don't have the feces to get test anymore but I was going to try to get the pool water test for that specific roundworm. I've had no luck finding a lab that would test that specific roundworm yet.
 

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Jpoww said:
Thank you all for your comments. I have an in ground pool and a fence along my property. We did not see the Raccoon pooping but we know we have had this raccoon frequent our property. We have not seen any turtles or birds like geese around, so that is why we assumed it was a raccoon. I read that they do like to hide their poo and that is my they could go in the pool. It makes sense that they would not want to drink and wash in the same water but it could happen. I don't have the feces to get test anymore but I was going to try to get the pool water test for that specific roundworm. I've had no luck finding a lab that would test that specific roundworm yet.
Click to expand...

It would be impossible to get the water tested. Even if the feces contained millions of eggs, the volume of water is enormous and the chances of capturing enough eggs in a reasonable size water sample would be next to impossible. There are also few labs capable of detecting that type of pathogen and the standard protocol is to use a fecal sample. Any lab testing for it would have no protocol available for testing a water sample.
 
This CDC site says to filter water for 24 hours.

Raccoons and Pools | Healthy Swimming | Healthy Water | CDC

pools, spas, design and operation guidelines, disinfection and remediation guidelines, general pool disinfection, fecal contamination, surface contamination, Model Aquatic Health Code, MAHC, Pool Operator training, Certified Pool-Spa Inspector Training, CPI, prevention materials, promotion...
www.cdc.gov www.cdc.gov

"Because Baylisascaris eggs are particularly tough, adding chlorine to the water will not kill them. If a lab test has confirmed that the raccoon was infected with Baylisascaris or you don’t know if the raccoon was infected because the raccoon’s feces were not tested, there are two options for cleaning your pool.
*Remember to close the pool to swimmers until you have finished cleaning the pool.

Option 1:
  • Filter the pool for a minimum of 24 hours and then backwash the pool filter.
  • Put on disposable gloves to replace the material doing the filtering (if possible). Double bag the discarded material in plastic garbage bags. Remove gloves and place them in the garbage bags. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterwards."
 
I thought I had the same problem with my pool and went to extreme measures to catch the raccoon, set traps, electric wire around the pool, tarp over steps, steam cleaned filter cartridges only to eventually discover the culprit was a very large toad! You may have the same type of culprit.
 
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Cypress3 said:
I thought I had the same problem with my pool and went to extreme measures to catch the raccoon, set traps, electric wire around the pool, tarp over steps, steam cleaned filter cartridges only to eventually discover the culprit was a very large toad! You may have the same type of culprit.
Click to expand...
I live in a rather open house for most of the year. This summer we acquired a new pup, a small chi-doxy mix. She had a couple accidents eary on, but is doing pretty good. The other day I was moving some extraneous junk out of a corner and found a single "sample" hidden under the area. I was ready to give her a little nose in it scolding when I realized it was a big old toad dropping. I think they are a little harder to house break. ?
 
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Wobblerlorri said:
In general, predatory land animals won't foul their water. I have never heard of coons pooping in the water they use for washing. Predators just don't do that.
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Actually, raccoons pooping in pools is very common. Raccoons love water and choose to live near water bodies. They wash their hands and food in water, and they are like cats in that they want to hide their feces; instead of burying their feces, they poop in water. In-ground pool owners who share their property with raccoons (like me) are very familiar with raccoon poop in the pool. It’s usually in the shallow area, on the first step.

I tried a motion-activated sprinkler that was billed as the be-all and end-all to raccoons pooping in the pool. It worked for a short time, until they got used to it and went right back to pooping in the pool. My next-door neighbor bought a wood lattice fence section and drilled screws through each intersection and put it with the screws pointing up over the pool steps; they tip-toed around the screws and pooped through the holes.

In short, the only way to fix the problem is to trap and relocate the raccoons. In my case, that’s a sisyphean task, because raccoons are endemic in my area. If I removed one, there would be plenty of others who would continue to torture me. And poop in my pool.

I make sure my pump doesn’t turn on until late morning so I have time to check for poop before the pump action disperses the feces. I use a shop vac to quickly suck up the poop (and a fair amount of water) from the step, then dump a 2.5 gal container of liquid chlorine at the location of the poop. I let it sit for a bit, then run the filter for 24 hours. I then clean the cartridge and, assuming the chlorine is down to safe levels, enjoy the pool.

Jim
 
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