I need some advice about an injured Possum

[drivesafe]

Hi folks, I just found this inured possum on my back veranda and as you can see this poor animal might be in a bad way.

Any suggestions as to what I should do, or should I leave it alone?????

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/09/211.jpg

[superquag]

... she still has sharp claws...:o

[dullbird]

I would say contact the RSPCA.... as im not sure of what native rescues you have up that way...

I did check WIRES website but they are NSW based but they do have this number listed for an organisation called Wildcare (07) 5527 2444

its possible its been attacked by a dog or judging byt the head hit by a car....considering it looks like it has bit of blood on its back I would contact someone at least to come and assess it.

[CraigE]

Contact wildlife rescue first if possible. How approachable is it? If you can get it some betadine may help stopping any infection. If you do keep it and its young in a dark warm bag or pillow case until you can get help. They love a warm combination of bread, milk and honey and or weetbix. They also generally like fruits, the sweeter the better. You will need to be very gentle, quiet with no sudden moves.
If need be your local council should have possum cages to catch for treatment.
The most difficult thing is to gain their trust, we have one that sometimes sleeps in our roof and has dug a hole from the chicken yard into my 3 x 3 shed and steals food from the chooks and takes in and sit on the seat in our buggy and eats.
I love possums they are beautiful animals.
Watch out their claws and teeth are sharp and until being used to being handled should wear gloves.
The alternative is to start leaving some food out for it to regain its strength. You may also be able to get some antibiotics from a vet or wildlife rescue to put in the food.
Possibly attacked by dogs??

[alien]

You could also try your local shire/council ranger.
They usually have an after hours number for lost dogs etc..
They will have connections with any wildlife rescue services in the area.

[Tank]

Do not contact Wires, their first option is to put down, contact your local Vet there will probably be someone who cares for Possums.
But, they are tough buggers and he looks like a male with a missus to protect, the males rip into one another quite regularly, one of ours lost his tail in a blue with another male. Keep an eye on him and if he gets infected or sluggish call the vet, don't try and grab him they fight like hell, good luck, Regards Frank.

[drivesafe]

Thanks folks and I have been doing a bit of online research and bread is an absolute No-No for possums.

I have just given it some and when it moves away, I intend to remove the bread.

I have cut up some pear for it and it seems happy with that.

I will keep an eye on it over the next couple of days and see what happens.

Thanks for all the help and I will contact my local vet on Monday.

[CraigE]

Thanks folks and I have been doing a bit of online research and bread is an absolute No-No for possums.

I have just given it some and when it moves away, I intend to remove the bread.

I have cut up some pear for it and it seems happy with that.

I will keep an eye on it over the next couple of days and see what happens.

Thanks for all the help and I will contact my local vet on Monday.

The bread depends on who you talk too and what you have on hand. White bread is generally not good for animals and humans alike.
In small quantities does no harm. You can always substitute or use weetbix. I should have mentioned we did not generally use cows milk but baby formula or powdered milk, we only used normal milk when completely out.
Possums will steal bread. No different to ducks, birds etc you are not supposed to give them bread but everyone does as it is cheap and effective. Most animals dont like a lot of gluten or lactose as a rule.
We reared two possums using the milk/honey/bread method with a lot of fruit. Generally the bread mix is a short term use as juveniles to build their immune systems up and used to be recommended by Parks & Wildlife.
You can get a special mix from wildlife supplies but it is expensive.
There is a disease possums get that can cause similar effects, but that does look more like impact. This disease usually causes ulcers / lesions quite similar and start on the face or backside.
The below link gives some good info.
http://www.faunarescue.org.au/possums.htm

Also just remembered we used to use baby cereal such as Farex as well, but was a long time ago.

[dullbird]

Do not contact Wires, their first option is to put down, contact your local Vet there will probably be someone who cares for Possums.
But, they are tough buggers and he looks like a male with a missus to protect, the males rip into one another quite regularly, one of ours lost his tail in a blue with another male. Keep an eye on him and if he gets infected or sluggish call the vet, don't try and grab him they fight like hell, good luck, Regards Frank.

Tank as stated above WIRES is in NSW.

I also think that it is unfair to state don't contact wires their first option is to put things down because that is not my experience with them, therefor that is not the case across the board.

You may have called them and that may have been what they said to you, it does not mean it happens to ever injured animal they come across.

[CraigE]

Tank as stated above WIRES is in NSW.

I also think that it is unfair to state don't contact wires their first option is to put things down because that is not my experience with them, therefor that is not the case across the board.

You may have called them and that may have been what they said to you, it does not mean it happens to ever injured animal they come across.

You would hope Wires would be more compassionate, but I know where Tank is coming from as a lot of Wildlife Rescue groups do the same and only want high profile or unique animals and dont care about possums with their answer being to put down, Not All but some, same with councils, rangers and some vets. Have seen it down our way a bit. My daughter spent some time at a couple of vets and the one she was at last was very good at taking wild animals.
As I have said I love possums, while they can stink and be a little aggressive they are beautiful animals.
Too many people regard them as pests.
Hope Tim has luck with these two.
Having said that you cannot actually catch and care unless you have a carers licence, we used to have this in South Australia.

[Mick_Marsh]

I rescued an injured possum. I picked it up from the road. This one was very docile which gives you an idea how serious it's injuries were. The local vet said it would more than likely die overnight, which it did.
In your case, the fact it is eating is a good sign. If it was me I'd leave it well alone. By all means, keep feeding it but let it recover by itself.

[drivesafe]

Hi again folks and I had a long working night and I kept an eye on the two possums until I hit the sack at about 2 am and they were having a good sleep when I last check-up on them.

So I hope the injured one will be all right but only time will tell.

I will keep you all informed on what happens from now.

Thanks for all the help, it is very much appreciated.

One more point, as this is NOT an electrical thread, so no arguing is allowed. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Cheers, Tim.

[dullbird]

and the other thing with possums you cant takeaway and release in other places..because they are extremely territorial....

[Mick_Marsh]

Thanks for the update Tim.
Are you going to name them?

[drivesafe]

Are you going to name them?

No but the misses has been away and will be back this afternoon and I imagine she will take your suggestion to heart.

[disco man]

G'day mate,
If your around the Brisbane/Logan area try the Daisy Hill Koala center.

[Firefish]

Looks like a moist dermatitis which seems to afflict stressed possums. Treatment is antibiotics. However, this is usually secondary to some other problem, acute (such as physical injury, hit by car, etc) or chronic.

Not sure if the same applied to possums, but generally cats which are hit by a car have their claws ripped up. Your possum's claws looks ok from the photo.

[Eevo]

Your possum's claws looks ok from the photo.

i think the OP should go find out to make sure :angel:

[Tank]

Tank as stated above WIRES is in NSW.

I also think that it is unfair to state don't contact wires their first option is to put things down because that is not my experience with them, therefor that is not the case across the board.

You may have called them and that may have been what they said to you, it does not mean it happens to ever injured animal they come across.
We took 8 king parrots and Rosellas to the local wires office down here after taking them first to the local vet who checked them out, none had broken wings or bones, BTW they were hit by a truck, they were eating seed in the middle of the road, a few were killed but the ones we took to the Vet were only stunned.
The Vet suggested we take them to the local Wires, he said they would be right to release in a day or so and he didn't have the facilities to care for them.
So we took them to Wires and told them what the vet advised, they accepted the birds who were all up and about.
We rang them the next day to ask when they would be released and they told us that they had put them all down just after we left.
So I went and paid a visit to Wires and the excuse was they are territorial and they would not survive, this is after we told Wires that they were injured only 150 metres away when we bought them in, Bastards. Recently we had a female King Parrot mauled by next doors (now deceased) cat and I couldn't catch it(the bird that is), too old and slow, called the local council rangers who transferred me to wires, told them the problem and gave my address and phone number, said they would call back, they didn't called again and I spoke to 3 different people from Wires who assured me they would be out ASAP, that was 6 months ago, still no Wires, the cat got his way and killed the bird (one of many) happy to say it was his last supper.
Wires has equivalent in most states if the mugs down here are an example then the local Vet. is my only port of call, Regards Frank.

[hodgo]

G'day mate,
If your around the Brisbane/Logan area try the Daisy Hill Koala center.
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There is a lady at Daisy Hill that is a reg wild life carer that specialises in possums

[disco man]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


There is a lady at Daisy Hill that is a reg wild life carer that specialises in possums

G'day Hodgo, That's probably a better bet, good call mate:)

[drivesafe]

Just a followup.

I didn’t see the injured possum for about a week and thought the worst, but it turned up again.

Tonight ( this morning ) I got a good look at it and while it is missing a lot of fur around it’s head, the injuries seem to be healing well and it was feeding with another adult and the young one.

So hopefully, it will continue to do well.

Thanks for all the info.

Cheers, Tim.

[Modelsp]

Driveafe,Sorry but that last line in your last comment was a bit Short.
Thanks for caring about our wildlife.
cheers
Paul

[windsock]

...it is missing a lot of fur around it’s head, the injuries seem to be healing well and it was feeding with another adult and the young one.


My experience with these things is that it takes approx. 100 days for a full fur to regrow from being fully lost. It'll be a lighter colour until the molt happens if it does in your parts.


Restraint was shown in the posting of this message... :D

[drivesafe]

Hi Windsock and thanks for that info.

I was unaware that the fur would grow back, so thats good news and the possum has all summer to recover it’s covering.

[drivesafe]

Sad news, we managed to care for the possum and it was doing really well but it appeared to be almost blind.

It was still doing well as it recovered and got quite friendly, allowing us to hand feed it almost every night.

But we found it huddled in a corner of our back veranda this morning and it was so badly scratched up and so exhausted, we had no problem gathering it up and putting it in a box.

We took it to our local vet but the best thing they could do for it was to put it down.

Shame.

[Sue]

Sad news, we managed to care for the possum and it was doing really well but it appeared to be almost blind.

It was still doing well as it recovered and got quite friendly, allowing us to hand feed it almost every night.

But we found it huddled in a corner of our back veranda this morning and it was so badly scratched up and so exhausted, we had no problem gathering it up and putting it in a box.

We took it to our local vet but the best thing they could do for it was to put it down.

Shame.

That's very sad... but you did the right thing by that poor animal. I'm also really sorry that I didn't see this post when you first posted it as I spent about 13 years rehabilitating wildlife and I read some of the advice and 'knowledge' you were given in absolute horror. Good on you for taking the time to care about her, we need more people like you in this world.

[drivesafe]

Hi Sue and thanks.

It may have been a god send in one respect in that if we had not found the possum till tomorrow, because of the storm coming, we would most likely not be able to get out to get to the vet.

One bit of good news is that it's young one turned up for a feed late last night.

[superquag]

You big Softy... :)

- There's been some magpies around here who've tamed the humans in our house...and their offspring are continuing the training...:angel:

[Sue]

Hi Sue and thanks.

It may have been a god send in one respect in that if we had not found the possum till tomorrow, because of the storm coming, we would most likely not be able to get out to get to the vet.

One bit of good news is that it's young one turned up for a feed late last night.

That's good.. if it is still small (although I suspect by the original pic it's probably weaned now anyway) you can buy devetelact from the vet - its a milk re-placer for wildlife (don't give it normal milk).. I'm thinking just a bit of fruit, (non citrus) some native flowers (although they do have a liking for roses lol) and some cooked chicken and that's a good helping hand for a young one without any parental help. :)

[dullbird]

Hey Drivesafe

I'm sorry to hear your new pal didnt make it..but would like to thank you for taking the time to help the little guy but more importantly for taking to the vet so it didnt suffer at the end.

Im pleased to hear the young one is still around.

[drivesafe]

Hi folks and thanks for the support.

I must admit, my wife and I are missing the possum, but it is better off.

This was a picture I took just a day or two before we found it.

Something had attacked it again and some of the new fur had been scratched again but it seemed OK and was happy to be hand feed.

When we found it on the veranda a day or so after this picture was taken, it had heaps of skin missing from it's nose and ears.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/02/340.jpg

[drivesafe]

Just an update on our visiting possums.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/09/856.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/09/857.jpg

[DiscoMick]

Sorry to hear it. I assume cats attacked it?

[drivesafe]

Hi folks, I need some help.

The small possum in the above post is now on it's own.

We have not seen the mother for some time and now, as you can see, the young one is being attacked by something.

My question is, what should I do or do we just let nature take it's course?

This is the third night in a row that the young one has turned up with injuries and this time they look pretty bad.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/10/351.jpg

[Eevo]

i would be trying to work out whats attacking it as a first step

[digger]

neighbour have a cat or dog ?

May be attacking the possums when they are vulnerable?

[austastar]

Hi,
I have seen similar injuries on cats that have been bowled over by a car - lots of skin missing in places, and fur pulled out.
Do you think the injuries would fit a vehicular encounter?

cheers

[drivesafe]

I don't think it's car inflicted injuries because there have been more scars each night for the last three nights.

I suspected it may be another possum, as the young one from the original photos, with the badly injured possum, has been coming regularly, for a feed but nearly always at a different time to the small one.

But just a few minutes ago, the the older one showed up while the small one was still here.

They were a good distance from each other so I fed the older one.

To my pleasant surprise, the small one walked over to the other one and they sat there, both chewing on the same piece of corn cob.

Both would normally come over to the screen door and make a noise to get our attention, but they are both staying up on the roof.

Something has got them spooked?

[superquag]

Sounds like you're one, small step closer to being adopted by the Possums... they see you as a food-provider and, I suspect, a Safe Haven...:D