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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. |
Most our Opossum play dead. I have run into two in our trash cans that hissed and barred their teeth at me with no indication of backing down any time soon. Not sure if they were rabid, or just hungry, but also not willing to find out
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