What are Some of the Symptoms of a Sick Opossum?

Introduction
As wild animals, a sick opossum will often not show visible signs of illness like a pet dog or cat will and therefore you must be hyper vigilant in trying to catch symptoms. For the most common diseases that can be found between Pennsylvania mammals here are some of the signs to look out for:

Rabies
We all know that rabies is highly contagious and infectious and very common among Harrisburg mammals. It can easily be transferred from one Pennsylvania mammal to another such as from the opossum to your pet dog or cat or even to yourself in specifically two ways:
-Flea bites
-Direct contact with fluids



The symptoms of rabies are:
-Anxiety
-Aggression
-Aquaphobia (fear of water)
-Confusion
-Excessive amounts of salivation
-Fever
-Hallucination
-Insomnia
-Inflammation around the bite area
-Muscle atrophy
-Tingling sensation
If you were to encounter a Harrisburg opossum (or any other mammal infected with rabies for that matter) who you think has any of these symptoms, stay away and give the animal a large berth! The best thing to do is to call the proper Pennsylvania authorities who are more well-equipped and experienced to handle a situation like this.

Tularemia
On the other end of the spectrum, tularemia is not as common as rabies and is in fact rare disease. However, like rabies it is highly infectious and if caught can often cause severe damage to a person’s body including:
-Eyes
-Lungs
-Lymph nodes
-Skin

The most common type of tularemia, uleroglandular tularemia which targets the skin, has these following symptoms:
-Chills
-Exhaustion or lethargy
-Fever
-Headaches
-Skin ulcerations
-Swollen and painful lymph glands
As with Harrisburg animals infected with rabies, it is best not to approach an animal that appears to have any of these symptoms above as if you were to come into direct contact with such an animal, you are likely to get the disease as well. In some extreme cases, there have been fatalities in humans and so, proceed with extreme caution.

Take Caution
If you are in a position where you must handle an sick Pennsylvania opossum, you must take the following precautions first:
-Wear protective gloves and footwear in order to minimize direct contact with the animal
-Wash your hands thoroughly after you have handle the animal
However, in most circumstances, it is better to just call the proper Harrisburg authorities and let them handle the situation. They have the proper equipment and training to handle a sick opossum without injuring the creature or themselves so just leave it to the experts whenever possible!

To learn more about our services, visit the Harrisburg wildlife removal home page.