Found a Possum?

If you happen upon an injured adult possum that needs help, please make sure to protect yourself. I have handled many wild possums with my bare hands when nothing was available to use and have never gotten bitten, but I know those who have and they can inflict a nasty bite with those 50 teeth.

The safest way (in my opinion) to pick up a possum, is to place a blanket or coat or something similar over it and then scoop the animal up, and place him in a box or some kind of carrier until you can transport him to where he needs to go. Leather gloves are nice to have on hand to.

Opossums are not generally mean or aggressive by nature....but they are wild animals. And though your intent may be to help them, they are only going to perceive you as a threat to their well being, and as such they will naturally do what they can to defend themselves with the only weapon they have, and that is their mouth.

DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, pick up a possum by the tail or the scruff of its neck! You can cause permanent damage to the spine by lifting a possum up by its tail. An opossums neck is very thick-muscled...there is not a whole lot of extra skin there and it is extremely painful to the animal to be picked up in that manner.

Place the possum in a quiet, warm, dark place away from people and household pets until you can locate a rehabber to help. DO NOT offer food or water until you have spoken to an experienced rehabber or wildlife center.

If you find a dead possum, please check to see if its a female and if she has babies in her pouch. It is not uncommon to find live babies in the pouch of a deceased mama possum. VERY carefully remove the babies from her nipples if they are still attached...you can cause damage to the babies if you pull too hard. Its imperative that you warm those babies up asap.....DO NOT offer any food or water.

Please refer to my page here on babies for further instructions.

Go to my "Locate a Rehabber" page to find someone in your area that can help you!

Found an injured pregnant possum?

Written (and used with permission) By: Louise Tinz

ASSESSING THE FEMALE OPOSSUM WITH POUCHED NEONATES:

An important part of the assessment of a female opossum on intake for rehabilitation is a brief visual assessment of her pouch to determine if infants are present. This is not always easy to do, particularly in a feisty opossum with minor injuries or illness. A normal mother opossum is very protective of her young and will resist having her pouch checked. This reaction can be an indicator that the opossum is fit to care for her infants. A listless, sick, or severely injured opossum is likely to show little or no resistance to having her pouch checked and this can be an indicator that she is unable to properly care for her young.

General Assessment of the Pouch:

If the pouch contains babies, note their general condition. Healthy babies are:

Pink, pink with gray, or furred (depending on stage of development).
Clean in appearance (free of debris, urine and feces stains).
Attached to and nursing from a teat.
Moving or wiggling slightly.
Warm and somewhat moist.

If these indicators are confirmed, it is safe to assume the mother is able to care for her babies despite the reason she is in rehab.

During the assessment, you should refrain from taking too long to count the infants. Doing so has no bearing on medical treatment of the mother and can cause unnecessary stress to her. The purpose of checking the pouch is simply to verify whether or not there are live infants and to quickly assess their overall, general condition.

Monitoring the Infants:

I urge you to keep detailed notes on the assessment findings. This will prove helpful in determining if the condition of the infants changes to the point where they need to be pulled from the pouch and hand raised, or if it is safe to leave them with their mother. Keep in mind: the injured or sick mother possum may initially be able to adequately care for her young, but her ability may decline at any pointing during the course of her rehabilitation. This is why it is imperative to check the infants once a day until it is evident they are thriving.

Daily checks of the pouch should be performed until:

The mother recovers from her injury/illness.
It is determined that mother and infants are thriving.
The infants have been taken from the pouch to be hand raised.
The infants have expired.

When to Remove Infants from the Pouch:

While it is best for the mother to raise her infants without human intervention, it is advisable to remove them from the mother if it is determined that the condition of the babies is inadequate, or shows signs of decline. By visually checking daily, you will be able to determine if the babies are actively nursing and if they are clean. Babies with urine and feces on their delicate skin can develop dermatitis. If babies have stopped nursing, their condition will deteriorate quickly. If either of these situations are noted, the infants should be removed from the pouch and hand raised by a wildlife rehabilitator experienced in neonate opossum care.

Some pouched litters are too small or underdeveloped to be hand raised and if the mother is not well enough to care for them, they will not survive. In this situation, the most humane decision may be to leave the "too smalls" inside the pouch and focus care efforts solely on the mother. Deceased infants will usually drop out of the pouch and found lying on the floor of the enclosure. With a mother who is not ambulating, deceased infants may need to be removed from the pouch.

How to Remove Live Infants from the Pouch: (Should it be determined that the infants need to be hand raised, they should be carefully removed from the pouch in the following manner):

Gently hold an infant in one hand, supporting the head with your thumb and forefinger.
Slowly pull the infant away from the teat until the teat is stretched out.
Hold the teat with your other thumb and forefinger and gently pull in the opposite direction of the infant.
Continue to apply gentle, opposing tension until the infant comes off the teat.
Place the infant in a pre-warmed container with a soft blanket.
Repeat steps 1-5 until all infants have been removed from the pouch.

***Please note: This process can take some time to complete as each infant can be firmly attached to a teat and must be gently pulled off in a manner that does not cause injury.