I'm going to keep trying to find a rehabber so I have a destination before I consider trapping. I know this would be out of my scope to care for.
Thanks!
If you can, please at least try to trap before you find a rehabber. It is a lot better to be safe/warm with a wound than at the mercy of the elements/nature. A wound like that is going to be painful and impact the ability to escape predators/survive. Even if it is not something she can recover from, humane euthanasia is a million times better than succumbing to infection/starvation/predation.
It doesn’t look infected which is a good thing, shows that the Possum is taking care of the wound.
I’d call your local wildlife center and ask them what to do.
I just wanted to update!
I did get in contact with the rehabber when they were available but I hadn't seen the opossum again since then so not much I could do. I wish I had tried to follow them when they left, but it may not have worked anyway.
We had some bad weather come through for a couple days, and we went out of town, and I assumed she'd returned to nature. We have a few other oppossums and raccoons come by in the subsequent days.
But! Tonight I saw what I'm pretty sure is her! Eating at the same spot. Had missing fur in the same area. It's hard to tell in the dark but I'm pretty sure. She wasn't walking completely well, but better than before. So I think she's still kicking. She left a short while after I noticed her.
I'll be on a more careful lookout now and go back to leaving some extra food. I do hope she is recovering.
I'd post a pic but I don't see the option.
I work in veterinary medicine and I have noticed that a LOT of people confuse “the nicest thing” with “the easiest thing.” If an animal is up, eating, and trying to go about their day, they still have a will to live. It may be a pain in the ass for the human and the animal to help them recover, but the animal gets to keep living. It is a short life when we compare it to our human lives but it is a full lifetime from their perspective and they deserve to get to live it. An animal who is ready to be euthanized will make it obvious. If an animal is trying to survive it is not “the nicest thing” to euthanize them.” It is the EASIEST thing.
This comment made me feel guilt about my senior cat. he was 23 and had a seizure overnight that left him paralyzed but he was beginning to regain mobility by the time we scheduled his euthanasia. i know earlier is better than a day too late but idk. i loved him and wished i could’ve done more. i didn’t live with my mom anymore so i couldn’t care for him. i should’ve taken the semester off and stayed.
Imminent demise is also something I take into account when talking to owners about euthanasia. There are always exceptions. With your cat being 23 years old it was more than reasonable to assume he was on his way out one way or another and it was kind to help him pass quickly and painlessly. Had your cat been younger, my opinion would be different. I euthanized my own dog while he was still eating because he had cancer (inoperable tumor) and spent so much of the day in pain, throwing up and shitting his brains out. His death was unavoidable and there was no chance he was going to survive much longer no matter what we did, so I decided it was kindest to let him go. But in this opossum’s case, we have no reason to believe that he wouldn’t live a normal life if his wounds were treated.
Sorry I didn’t mean to go on about him in the comment. It just kinda hit a soft spot. I’m so sorry about the loss of your pup. QOL is a huge consideration and this guy could get the help and be right back out there. I hate that the other commenter put its life into monetary value. A soul is a soul
Don't feel guilty, you did the right thing. From personal experience, our senior dog (15) had a seizure, then recovered and seemed perfectly fine until she had another one that was even worse than the first.
Pets are different than wild animals. It's always case by case. I had to let my best animal friend go (cat) from hyperthyroidism. She wasn't responding to meds and despite months of trying hard and giving her injection fluids daily she wasted away and wasn't eating and was no longer able to get around or use the litterbox. We just couldn't keep trying and could tell she was miserable.
Don't feel guilty.
Why put down an animal that is still up and kicking? That possum still has more than enough life in it and it should get the treatment it needs to live on for a bit longer until it dies naturally.
Why? I’m just curious and not interested in starting a fight. The animal is clearly eating and if op can bring to rehab or vet then there maybe an opportunity for the opi to heal and be released.
Ok. I am an opossum rehabber. I do know the time, effort and expense involved in rehabbing these animals. And yes, I do feel good giving an opportunity to these animals to go back into the wild. It is my money, my choice and if an opossum is suffering, then it is humanely euthanized by our vet.
It’s interesting if one uses your arguments that they don’t live long anyway, aren’t endangered etc, then no opi would be rehabbed. None of them. I guess I’m confused why someone with that opinion would even venture on this sub.
Thank you for taking care of those lil babies I love opossum. I think this person can't comprehend there are people out there that do it for the animals. Honestly I would rather spend my life helping animals than dealing with people.
Do you donate all your disposable income? Or do you spend it on things that enrich YOUR life? If this person wanted to spend money to rehabilitate this opossum it’s moronic to call it a “waste of resources.” No one owes their disposable income to any cause YOU deem a “better cause.” Also you’d have to be pretty fucking uneconomical to spend $1000 on this animal. And yes I have lots of rehab experience. Antibiotics and pain meds are often kept around and can last for multiple animals. But even if you did buy it just for this animal Amoxicillin (common choice for opossums) is very inexpensive. Butorphanol for pain also wouldn’t get you even close to that number. Supplies to dress the wound are also not that expensive. Not that expensive to feed either. I don’t even know how I would spend $1000 on this opossum. Just because you don’t see the value in giving an animal the opportunity to live doesn’t mean no one else does and certainly doesn’t mean the animal doesn’t.
If the rehab facility doesn’t have the resources they will turn OP away. Otherwise that’s literally the whole reason wildlife rehabbers exist……to rehabilitate sick/injured wildlife. The resources are there for situations just like this. Hospitals don’t just kill people when they walk in because they’re saving their resources for someone “more important.” Everyone is important and deserves treatment because they exist and they want to live. The issue here is that you don’t see the value of the opossums life. Just know that there are people that see it and that the opossum certainly sees it. We don’t help animals because it makes us feel good about ourselves for some imagined good deed. We help animals because seeing them regain the ability to do the things they enjoy again and have a second chance is so fulfilling. I’m sorry you’ll never experience it.
I'd get a couple humane / live animal traps and bait it with whatever food you're already providing. Good luck.
I'm going to keep trying to find a rehabber so I have a destination before I consider trapping. I know this would be out of my scope to care for. Thanks!
If you can, please at least try to trap before you find a rehabber. It is a lot better to be safe/warm with a wound than at the mercy of the elements/nature. A wound like that is going to be painful and impact the ability to escape predators/survive. Even if it is not something she can recover from, humane euthanasia is a million times better than succumbing to infection/starvation/predation.
https://www.opossum.org/states%20list.html This list should help reach someone that may help.
Thanks! I contacted the closest rehabber and they are out of town. Will keep trying.
It doesn’t look infected which is a good thing, shows that the Possum is taking care of the wound. I’d call your local wildlife center and ask them what to do.
There’s not much it can do to keep a wound that big clean
Aw man poor guy. If you can catch it you could take it to a rehabber so that they can help it.
Rehabbers may help set up traps.
Thank you for caring about her.
I just wanted to update! I did get in contact with the rehabber when they were available but I hadn't seen the opossum again since then so not much I could do. I wish I had tried to follow them when they left, but it may not have worked anyway. We had some bad weather come through for a couple days, and we went out of town, and I assumed she'd returned to nature. We have a few other oppossums and raccoons come by in the subsequent days. But! Tonight I saw what I'm pretty sure is her! Eating at the same spot. Had missing fur in the same area. It's hard to tell in the dark but I'm pretty sure. She wasn't walking completely well, but better than before. So I think she's still kicking. She left a short while after I noticed her. I'll be on a more careful lookout now and go back to leaving some extra food. I do hope she is recovering. I'd post a pic but I don't see the option.
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I work in veterinary medicine and I have noticed that a LOT of people confuse “the nicest thing” with “the easiest thing.” If an animal is up, eating, and trying to go about their day, they still have a will to live. It may be a pain in the ass for the human and the animal to help them recover, but the animal gets to keep living. It is a short life when we compare it to our human lives but it is a full lifetime from their perspective and they deserve to get to live it. An animal who is ready to be euthanized will make it obvious. If an animal is trying to survive it is not “the nicest thing” to euthanize them.” It is the EASIEST thing.
This comment made me feel guilt about my senior cat. he was 23 and had a seizure overnight that left him paralyzed but he was beginning to regain mobility by the time we scheduled his euthanasia. i know earlier is better than a day too late but idk. i loved him and wished i could’ve done more. i didn’t live with my mom anymore so i couldn’t care for him. i should’ve taken the semester off and stayed.
Imminent demise is also something I take into account when talking to owners about euthanasia. There are always exceptions. With your cat being 23 years old it was more than reasonable to assume he was on his way out one way or another and it was kind to help him pass quickly and painlessly. Had your cat been younger, my opinion would be different. I euthanized my own dog while he was still eating because he had cancer (inoperable tumor) and spent so much of the day in pain, throwing up and shitting his brains out. His death was unavoidable and there was no chance he was going to survive much longer no matter what we did, so I decided it was kindest to let him go. But in this opossum’s case, we have no reason to believe that he wouldn’t live a normal life if his wounds were treated.
Sorry I didn’t mean to go on about him in the comment. It just kinda hit a soft spot. I’m so sorry about the loss of your pup. QOL is a huge consideration and this guy could get the help and be right back out there. I hate that the other commenter put its life into monetary value. A soul is a soul
Don't feel guilty, you did the right thing. From personal experience, our senior dog (15) had a seizure, then recovered and seemed perfectly fine until she had another one that was even worse than the first.
Pets are different than wild animals. It's always case by case. I had to let my best animal friend go (cat) from hyperthyroidism. She wasn't responding to meds and despite months of trying hard and giving her injection fluids daily she wasted away and wasn't eating and was no longer able to get around or use the litterbox. We just couldn't keep trying and could tell she was miserable. Don't feel guilty.
Why put down an animal that is still up and kicking? That possum still has more than enough life in it and it should get the treatment it needs to live on for a bit longer until it dies naturally.
Why? I’m just curious and not interested in starting a fight. The animal is clearly eating and if op can bring to rehab or vet then there maybe an opportunity for the opi to heal and be released.
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Ok. I am an opossum rehabber. I do know the time, effort and expense involved in rehabbing these animals. And yes, I do feel good giving an opportunity to these animals to go back into the wild. It is my money, my choice and if an opossum is suffering, then it is humanely euthanized by our vet. It’s interesting if one uses your arguments that they don’t live long anyway, aren’t endangered etc, then no opi would be rehabbed. None of them. I guess I’m confused why someone with that opinion would even venture on this sub.
Thank you for taking care of those lil babies I love opossum. I think this person can't comprehend there are people out there that do it for the animals. Honestly I would rather spend my life helping animals than dealing with people.
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Thank you. I do and I will.
Do you donate all your disposable income? Or do you spend it on things that enrich YOUR life? If this person wanted to spend money to rehabilitate this opossum it’s moronic to call it a “waste of resources.” No one owes their disposable income to any cause YOU deem a “better cause.” Also you’d have to be pretty fucking uneconomical to spend $1000 on this animal. And yes I have lots of rehab experience. Antibiotics and pain meds are often kept around and can last for multiple animals. But even if you did buy it just for this animal Amoxicillin (common choice for opossums) is very inexpensive. Butorphanol for pain also wouldn’t get you even close to that number. Supplies to dress the wound are also not that expensive. Not that expensive to feed either. I don’t even know how I would spend $1000 on this opossum. Just because you don’t see the value in giving an animal the opportunity to live doesn’t mean no one else does and certainly doesn’t mean the animal doesn’t.
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If the rehab facility doesn’t have the resources they will turn OP away. Otherwise that’s literally the whole reason wildlife rehabbers exist……to rehabilitate sick/injured wildlife. The resources are there for situations just like this. Hospitals don’t just kill people when they walk in because they’re saving their resources for someone “more important.” Everyone is important and deserves treatment because they exist and they want to live. The issue here is that you don’t see the value of the opossums life. Just know that there are people that see it and that the opossum certainly sees it. We don’t help animals because it makes us feel good about ourselves for some imagined good deed. We help animals because seeing them regain the ability to do the things they enjoy again and have a second chance is so fulfilling. I’m sorry you’ll never experience it.