# Urgent Virginia Opossum help.



## applemobile (Oct 4, 2012)

Firstly hello, this is my first post, although i have lurked on this forum for ages for the good info and pictures.

I acquired a Virginia Opossum 2 days ago and he does not seem to be in a good way. 
When we first got him a few days ago we noticed a couple of fleas on him, and a bad smell. As soon as we could we gave him a quick wash off in the bath to get l the flea poo off him, and realised that he was covered in them. 
The next day we washed him off again and the bath was full of dead (?) fleas. We kept changing the water untill it was pretty much clean afterwards. He didnt seem to mid being in the bath at all!
Then as i have been advised he was treated with ''bephar anti-parsite spot on'' for rabbits. This would not have been my first choice, but i know it has been tested on VO's in the past. I have also completely flea treated the whole house. 
Over 24 hours later, there are still some very active fleas on his back. But more worrying, he has a very bad odour. He smells like a badger which is clearly because of some underlying illness. 

He is registered with our vet, although they do not have experiences with VO's ,they told us before that there is one vet that is confident to look at one if we got one. 
He will be booked in for a visit to the vet, but i don't really want to be taking him there if he is infested with fleas. 

The other flea treatment to want to use is Advantage flea treatment for Kittens, which i know they have has success with in the states. But with it being only 24 hours since we treated him with the last treatment, what is the earliest i could do this?

Please help! Thank you.


----------



## Tarron (May 30, 2010)

Hi,

First off, I'm not an expert on VOs, so please do take my advice with a pinch of salt. Hopefully someone experienced will be along shortly.

For now, don't treat him with anything else. The beaphar stuff is active for 4 weeks, so I wouldn't want to treat him with anything else right now.
Don't worry about going to the vets with fleas, they will be used to it anyway. Phone up for an appointment asap and maybe mention the flea issue over the phone. Take the treatment you have used with you, so the vet knows exactly what has been used.

I don't want to advise on the smell as I don't know enough, however could it be a natural smell for opposums? Bathing him that much, his body could be responding to release his natural protective odours. I'm sure the vet can advise better for that.

Just get to the vets as soon as possible for a check up anyway. Might be worth getting him wormed and asking about any required vaccinations (checking with the previous owner as to what he has already had).

Tarron


----------



## applemobile (Oct 4, 2012)

Thank you Tarron, i wont go treating him with anything for at least 4 weeks, or as per what the vet says. I will be calling the Vets first thing in the morning to get an appointment asap. 
About the smell, eveything i have ever read about VO's says that they do not smell unless they are ill. And this one must be seriously ill! He absolutely stinks, and everything he comes in contact with smells afterwards.


----------



## paulajo (Oct 13, 2010)

Hello
The only person/persons i can think of is Kodakira on here or EKF and Ken, who has a VO but im not sure of his forum name. Either way Neil (Kodakira) knows him so they may be able to get their heads together to give you some help.

Sorry thats all i can offer, hope all goes, well

Paula


----------



## bloodpython22 (Feb 19, 2010)

Drop me a pm we keep and sell virginia opossums


----------



## applemobile (Oct 4, 2012)

*Opossum*

Thanks I will pm you


----------



## sam gamgee (Apr 8, 2009)

Hope you get sorted ; I attempted to get on here earlier but struggled, wonder what the outcome might be?


----------



## applemobile (Oct 4, 2012)

Thank you. He is booked into the vets for Wednesday, and the people I got it from are being very helpfull. So I will let you know how the still unnamed opossun gets on.


----------



## sam gamgee (Apr 8, 2009)

Good......have rather a love for `possums, miss our fella so much. Anything you want to know etc, feel free, if I can help, then I will.......good that the breeder is helping.

Dave.


----------



## 5plusmany (Sep 29, 2011)

I had a similar problem (with fleas) with my dogs, nothing seemed to be working.. so I bought a 'nittygritty' metal nit comb from Boots (at the time they were ten quid!) and went through them every day for about three weeks - much the same as with kids and nits :lol2: It did work, but obviously it's not ideal.


----------



## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Not the same species, but a couple of years ago I took on 4 very young baby squirrels whose drey had blown out of their tree in the aftermath of Hurricane katie and broken. They were cold, wet and there was no sign of their mother, so the owners of the garden brought them to the wildlife sanctuary where I volunteer and I brought them home as they needed 3 hourly feeding.

Anyway although they weren't VO they were absolutely crawling with fleas. I put them into my spare bedroom while I got organised. I went straight to PaH and bought a tin of Acclaim and I sprayed every room in the house where they would ever go and left it to settle. Then I put them all into my bath and picked up each squirrel and picked off all the fleas I could find - there were easily 20+ on each squirrel. Then once they were de-flead I put them on fresh bedding in a new box in my bedroom and sprayed the spare room where they'd been. 

After that I found the occasional flea on them for about 5 days, which would have been the tiny young ones I'd missed and I picked them off.

Then there was no more. If you spray your house with a good quality house spray, then there is no need to treat the animal at all.

So my advice would be, as you've already treated the Opossum, to spray your house, as adult fleas mate on the animal, but then jump off to lay their eggs, so any pregnant fleas that were on it when you got it, will now be laying eggs in your carpet.


----------



## 5plusmany (Sep 29, 2011)

feorag said:


> After that I found the occasional flea on them for about 5 days, which would have been the tiny young ones I'd missed and I picked them off.
> 
> *Then there was no more. If you spray your house with a good quality house spray, then there is no need to treat the animal at all.*
> 
> So my advice would be, as you've already treated the Opossum, to spray your house, as adult fleas mate on the animal, but then jump off to lay their eggs, so any pregnant fleas that were on it when you got it, will now be laying eggs in your carpet.


Very true, I think that was half my problem as originally I just boil-washed all the bedding as it had not been that long since the house was sprayed. My mum said "you know all that does is gives you clean fleas?" :lol2:
I don't know if that's true but in any case, I used Indorex in the end (in conjunction with the nit-combing) and it seemed to do the trick.


----------



## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I went to a cat seminar many years ago and one of the vet talks was on parasites and that was the advice the vet gave. Hoover your house thoroughly, spray it with a growth inhibiting spray and leave it for a week. After a week hoover and spray again and your house is protected for 12 months.

I'd rather do that than put chemicals into my dogs and cats to be honest.


----------



## carlycharlie (Jan 16, 2008)

How old is the VO?

When they get stressed they can give off an odour which smells of sick or dead animals...........maybe this is the result of stress from all the fleas & being treated. They can also play dead & give off this odour to deter predators.


----------



## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I remember the little baby stoat I handreared. She had the most gorgeous sweet smell, but if something frightened her, she absolustely stunk!


----------



## applemobile (Oct 4, 2012)

Thanks for the support. The vet checked him out and all his vitals were ok. His smell and lack of interest in food has been put down to stress and fleas, and he got a lovely B12 injection! He is noticibly improving everyday, he is still not that interested in anything that isn't grape, but I'm working on it! Thanks.


----------



## carlycharlie (Jan 16, 2008)

Calcium is quite important in VOs - if its low they get the shakes, something that one of mine went through just after I had bought her. 

Good luck with yours, amazing creatures, just so sad they live such short lives. mY VOs are no longer alive but my White Eared are still going although they are out on breeding loan in the hope we might get lucky :whistling2:


----------



## AledJones (May 3, 2013)

I know this is off topic but where did you get your v.oppossom from?


----------

