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Originally Posted by JadeD  Opossums are typically not an aggressive animal. It would have played dead if Cody attacked it so you could have grabbed him. Opossums rarely attack and they really do play dead as a first defense and hope the other animal thinks they are not worth their time. Raccoon's are much more dangerous to a dog because they will immediately fight back.
My mom gets opossums in her house sometimes as they come in through the doggie door and they just play dead behind the couch while the s**tz Tzu and Boxer bark at it and then my step dad has to removed it from the house.
Opossums have such a bad rap when they really aren't nearly as bad as what people think. Raccoon's are much more likely to give your dog rabies and to also attack your dog. Opossums are ugly, but they are not very aggressive and mostly just curious animals. If you see an aggressive opossum then I would be concerned about it having parvo or rabies. Parvo presents with a lot of the same symptoms as rabies does in wild animals.
From a scientific point of view, it is extremely rare for an opossum to carry rabies where a raccoon has a much higher risk of having the disease. Opossum's body temperature is much lower than a lot of the other wildlife and the rabies virus can't survive at that temp, also, they rarely fight with other carriers of the disease to pick it up as well. Squirrels are the same way, there are no documented cases in the US of a squirrel giving rabies to a person or pet. Just wanted to throw that out there so if your dog does have an encounter with a opossum and it barks at a "playing dead" one I would not be overly concerned about rabies, just make sure your dog is up to date on it's vaccination. |
lol, play dead, pick up Cody lol, not a chance, Cody would have been on him like a fly on poop. When I saw that head I thought ohhh how cute it was, a couple of nights later I went out to throw out trash at the front of my house, it was dark, I have motion lights, sitting on top of my trash can was Mr. opossum, this was his reaction, look at those teeth, they can shred an animal if the are attacked. i no longer think they are cute after seeing this on my trash can, and it didn't scurry off, I did lol. I am more concerned about the teeth then rabies, but thanks for the info, on rabie carriers, helpful knowledge that I was aware of, others may not be.