Dead Armadillo in the pool.

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DuaeGuttae

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Gold Supporter
May 21, 2018
107
Texas Hill Country (near San Antonio)
I'm a fairly new member of the forum, and I expected my first post to be asking for help getting the details of my signature correct, but it's this one instead. (I'm quite a new pool owner; this is my first spring with one, and this forum has been a great resource. I'm very grateful.)

I've had all sorts of bugs, spiders, a scorpion, even a snake in the pool, but this afternoon I found a dead armadillo floating in our pool. I assume he had squeezed through the net to get a drink and fell in. He couldn't have been in long, but it was long enough for him to drown and lose control of his bowels. My husband removed the body. I manually vacuumed the pool, and I've poured in the one gallon of 12.5 % chlorinating liquid that was sitting in the laundry room. My husband is buying more now.

My chlorine level was good prior to this event. We have just been getting a new SWCG up and running, but I had turned it off this morning and brought the pool from 6.5 to about 10. I'm sure some has burned off during our hot sunshine this afternoon, but we should have been well above the minimum of 5. (I'm not sticking my whole arm in the pool to get a new test just yet.)

My last complete test was Saturday morning, but I check chlorine twice or three times a day at this point because I'm new and the SWCG is newer.

FC 4.5 (we brought this up manually with Dichlor granules because we're babystepping our CYA up to reach recommended SWCG levels)
CC <.5
pH - 7.6
TA - 100
CH - 425 (we live on a limestone cliff; the water from the aquifer is pretty hard)
CYA - 60 (my husband's eyes say 50, but we agreed to go with mine and continue testing as we bump it up little by little)

Anyway, perhaps it's overkill to bring the chlorine up to shock level, but that's what I plan to do and then run an OCLT to see how things look in the morning. If there's all sorts of bacteria in there, am I correct in assuming that there will be a loss of chlorine overnight as it disinfects it? I have one child who is particularly sensitive health-wise (he's the reason we bought a house with a pool as it's good for him), and I know that armadillos are the one other mammal that can harbor the mycobacteria that cause leprosy. I'm on Mommy high-alert mode, and my kids are being super about the fact that our planned evening swim has been cancelled. I'm just wondering if anyone has any reassurance, warnings, advice, or other information that would help me.

Thanks.
 
Hi Dua,
Welcome to TFP. Great job on your reading and comprehension of how to use TFP to take care of your pool. It's very refreshing to see someone new has done it.

As for the Armadillo, ewwwwww ! Ack! Yuck!

Your approach to raise the FC to slam level and do a OCLT is spot on. That is exactly what you should do and your reasoning is perfect.
 
Get yourself a 2' chunk of 3/4" PVC, cover the end with your thumb, and then put it down into your pool. Let go with your thumb, after it's down in the water, and let it fill with water. That'll get you a water sample from 2' under the surface. Replace thumb over end, pull it out of the water, and then let it dump into whatever you collect your sample with. You might get a few drops on your fingers. Or wear some cheap, throwaway vinyl gloves if you're especially worried.

If you want to take the trouble, you can make a slightly better version like this here:

Thanks to TFP and my Brother who is an avid TFP'er, I can cancel the Bulldozer - Page 2

Either way will get you through your current issue, then you can save it and use it in the winter, when the water is too cold to stick your arm in...

Good luck with the de-dillo-ing!
 
Thanks for the encouraging words and helpful suggestions. Eww is very much my reaction, but thankfully I saw it quickly, and we got the big stuff out of the pool.

I did add acid earlier to bring the pH closer to 7.2 and brought the chlorine up to 30 ppm. My shock level is 28, but I poured the last bit just a bit heavy-handedly as I was recalling what had been in the pool. My husband had a convenient PVC pipe, so he got the water sample for me. He would have been willing to stick his arm in, I think, but he humors me. He does agree that no children will be swimming till we know more.

I’ll test in the morning but won’t be able to post immediately because of appointments. I just hope no other critter goes swimming in the pool in the meantime. It’s been what I consider brutally hot the last couple of days here in Texas. I bet that sparkling water looks really nice to them.
 
Some here recommend and use devices that allow critters to get out of a pool. I don't, so can't offer any links, but others can, if you're interested in a solution like that...
 
The FC was still 30 this morning. The combined was .5 if I’m being generous. The pink was so light as to be practically nonexistent. My water is clear and sparkly. I didn’t put anymore chlorine in because I suppose I passed the SLAM guidelines, but I’m still feeling like I don’t want kids in the water, especially the one with a pre-existing skin condition. So far no one has asked to go swimming, and we plan to go to the library later, so it may be no big deal today.

Is this what TFPC is really all about, though? You keep your pool chemistry balanced, and your pool just breezes through dead armadillos and their waste in one night? I’m feeling nervous because it seems too easy.

I think I’m going to go test now and see how far down the sun has brought it this afternoon. Any one think I should take it back up, or is everything good to go?
 
I wouldn't gamble my kids' health on my knowledge base, but I don't even blink at the gophers and moles that sometimes make it into my pool. I check everyday, so nothing would be lying in the water for more than 24 hrs max. If any of my visitors have "let go" I wouldn't know about it. If they did, the pool took care of it before I ever found them. I would expect chlorine would take care of any fecal matter or urine, no problem, plus whatever might decompose in that short of time (virtually nothing, I would guess). The only thing that would make me nervous is some sort of pathogen that could survive chlorine. I don't know if there is such a thing, or how one would determine if such a thing existed, or how to test for it.

If it were me, I'd call the CDC and see if someone there could answer your concerns about "mycobacteria that cause leprosy" and pools and chlorine. Better safe than sorry.
 
So, here’s the reassuring information on M. leprae. It is slow growing and can’t be cultured outside of living hosts. That’s one reason armadillos are so valuable for research apparently. There are no known cases of leprosy transmission through water.

I’m new to Texas and therefore new to armadillos. All I knew was that three separate people had emphasized to me in the months that I’ve been here that I should never let my kids handle one of those cute little armadillos because of this bacterium. I feel much better knowing that it’s not going to be growing in my swimming pool.

The CDC does have guidelines on disinfecting swimming pools after removing dead animals. My TFPC protocol way exceeded their standards unless I’m misunderstanding something. Thanks for helping me keep my water healthy in a way I can understand and in which I can be confident.
 
DuaeGuttae said:
So, here’s the reassuring information on M. leprae. It is slow growing and can’t be cultured outside of living hosts. That’s one reason armadillos are so valuable for research apparently. There are no known cases of leprosy transmission through water.

I’m new to Texas and therefore new to armadillos. All I knew was that three separate people had emphasized to me in the months that I’ve been here that I should never let my kids handle one of those cute little armadillos because of this bacterium. I feel much better knowing that it’s not going to be growing in my swimming pool.

The CDC does have guidelines on disinfecting swimming pools after removing dead animals. My TFPC protocol way exceeded their standards unless I’m misunderstanding something. Thanks for helping me keep my water healthy in a way I can understand and in which I can be confident.
Click to expand...

Finding a Dead Animal in the Pool | Healthy Swimming | Healthy Water | CDC
 

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DuaeGuttae said:
So, here’s the reassuring information on M. leprae. It is slow growing and can’t be cultured outside of living hosts. That’s one reason armadillos are so valuable for research apparently. There are no known cases of leprosy transmission through water.

I’m new to Texas and therefore new to armadillos. All I knew was that three separate people had emphasized to me in the months that I’ve been here that I should never let my kids handle one of those cute little armadillos because of this bacterium. I feel much better knowing that it’s not going to be growing in my swimming pool.

The CDC does have guidelines on disinfecting swimming pools after removing dead animals. My TFPC protocol way exceeded their standards unless I’m misunderstanding something. Thanks for helping me keep my water healthy in a way I can understand and in which I can be confident.
Click to expand...

Can you do one or both, if you care to:

Supply the resource from which you learned: "There are no known cases of leprosy transmission through water." Just looking to make that statement something others can read and trust 100%, for their families.

Share the CDC guidelines, or a link where they can be found, or both. Again, to lend some authority to your statements.

There are several here that offer and share the scientific basis for methods and claims of TFPC. It's comforting when there is reputable science and reference to back up the words on a page, and these contributors often site their sources to back up their posts...

Personally, I'd like to confirm that my MO for dead gophers is adequate. I don't dose the pool afterwards, I just fish them out and dispose of them. I should do a little due diligence...
 
Okay, so maybe I spend too long writing and get logged out. In brief:

The statement about drinking water came from an article on chlorine disinfection of mycoplasm from EPA. I can’t find it now, and perhaps it is safer to say that there is no known transmission through treated water in America. (NIH does have articles about reservoirs of infected water in Brazil and Asia, but we’re dealing with low-level contamination in a properly chlorinated pool, so that’s what I was trying to address.)

The CDC representative on the phone could only give me the same information that was on the website. PoolguyinCT linked it above, though I also consulted their leprosy page as well. The pool page does address gophers in the general category.

I did also talk to a pool inspector and an epidemiologist through the local health department. Both were reassuring that the bacteria should easily have been overhwhelmed by my chlorine levels. It’s very slow growing and lacks the ability to reproduce except in specialized circumstances. The epidemiologist was only concerned about whether we had handled the animal with bare skin, which we did not.

My chlorine held from 22.5 after sun yesterday to the same level this morning with minimal if any CCs. I’m letting it drift down again today, but I have the SWCG on 25% to have that superoxidation available since that is one effective disinfection protocol for the bacteria.

Let’s see if I can get this to post.

- - - Updated - - -

I can’t imagine I used any inappropriate words unless autocorrect played some awful trick on me. I think I was too slow and got logged out. This time I was smart enough to copy first, but it seems to have made it through.
 
OK, thanks. Good info. Seems like you're clear to swim.

If you have trouble with a post and it gets dorked somehow, you can often come back to the thread, start a new post and then click the Restore button to get back what you lost. In my interface its at the lower left corner of the text field.
 
Just following up for my own situation (gophers, moles, frogs): this from the CDC:

Finding a Dead Animal in the Pool | Healthy Swimming | Healthy Water | CDC

Follow these steps to remove the animal and disinfect the water:
  • Close the pool to swimmers.
  • Put on disposable gloves.
  • Use a net or bucket to remove the dead animal from the pool.
  • Double bag the animal in plastic garbage bags.
  • Clean off any debris or dirt from the item used to remove the dead animal.
  • Remove gloves and place them in the garbage bags.
  • Close the garbage bags and place them in a sealed trash can to help keep wild animals away from the dead animal.
  • Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately.
  • Raise the free chlorine concentration to, or maintain it at, 2 parts per million (ppm); maintain the pH levels at 7.5 or less; keep the temperature at 77°F (25°C) or higher. The free chlorine and pH should remain at these levels for 30 minutes.
  • Confirm that the filtration system is operating properly during this time.
  • Disinfect the item used to remove the dead animal by immersing it in the pool during the 30 minute disinfection time.
Click to expand...

Based on that, and my FC of 5 or 6, I'd say I don't have a thing to worry about...

Racoons, on the other hand, are a different matter (but I haven't seen one yet).
 
I'm pretty sure as far as fecal matter goes, as long as the CC is 1.0 or less, it has been dealt with
and back to normal.

Higher than 1.0 CC would indicate the chlorine is fighting something.

Side note: glad I have not found any big critters drowned in my pool. Just a little mouse once.
 
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