The Barrington Hills Observer

Posted to Facebook by Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation

“This young opossum, like so many opossums during winter, was admitted emaciated and critically dehydrated almost 48 hours ago. She was rescued by a homeowner who found the opossum in her horse barn. Fearing that perhaps the opossum had rabies (don’t worry – not even be on our list of differentials), she called her equine vet and the equine vet told her that the opossum should be euthanized and sent in for rabies testing.

Just to be clear, the opossum was not and is not exhibiting symptoms consistent with rabies. Additionally, there has never been an opossum in Illinois that has tested positive for rabies in over 20 years of reporting as provided by IDPH and it is extremely unlikely for an opossum to contract rabies due to their low body temperature. Regardless, the vet recommended euthanasia and rabies testing even though there was no bite and no known shared food or water bowls with the horses. This recommendation was made without seeing the opossum simply because it was in the barn that housed horses. While the recommendation was ostensibly made out of an abundance of caution, it is our strong view that it would have unnecessarily sacrificed the life of the opossum.

Fortunately, the homeowner also contacted us and one of the wildlife biologists for the Department of Natural Resources. Both of us reassured the homeowner. I told the homeowner that the behavior she described was consistent with an opossum in low condition, which we frequently see during winter. I also told her that if the opossum lived, we would definitely have it longer than a standard rabies hold and that we would have it tested if it did not survive. While rabies testing would not be standard procedure in a case like this, we wanted her to bring us the opossum instead of having it killed.

We were thrilled that the homeowner opted for the less radical approach that would allow us to attempt to save the opossum’s life.

So, as mentioned earlier, the opossum was admitted critically emaciated and dehydrated. She also has an older injury to one of her front legs. She is in one of our ICU units staying nice and warm while we correct her fluid and nutritional deficiencies as well as her other medical needs. She is not out of the woods yet, but we sure hope to pull her through.

Thanks to the homeowner for listening to us and trusting us”.