Any reason that a raccoon would be stiff IMMEDIATELY after death by dog but no broken skin?

It was in my fenced back yard. Alive at first but by the time I got to them it was stiff like rigor mortis had set in already. Poison or rabies maybe?Any reason that a raccoon would be stiff IMMEDIATELY after death by dog but no broken skin?
or it went into shock, the fright of your dog heading for it could have been enough to send the raccoon into shockAny reason that a raccoon would be stiff IMMEDIATELY after death by dog but no broken skin?
i know this sounds weird lol but are you sure its dead?


when animals go into shock their muscles tense up and they also faint coz the emotional response causes blood pressure to drop so less oxygen goes to the brain,so brain automatically says drop now! make the body level so we get some blood up here! (also with humans too)


and also when in shock animals/humans get cold


thats why you see them in blankets at crash scenes etc
I grew up on a farm. And my dogs were always killing raccoons and possums (and squirrels, and ... oh, you get the picture). I can only think of two explanations. Either the raccoon was dead before your dog started messing with it (rigor had already set-in and you dog decided to mess with the corpse), OR, the raccoon wasn't dead and was faking it. Opossums are most noted for ';playing dead'; but other animals do it as well. They can be rigid when they are ';playing dead.';