Amber Morgan Webboard User Reg: 10-18-2006
Posts: 1849
Loc: St. Louis, MO
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Quote: Nancy Jocoy
I think rabies is really really rare in opossums. Small comfort but may be some. Definite checking with the vet.
I didn't know that, I always assumed they were big carriers because when I was a kid in STL, we saw two that had rabies. Those were the only times I've actually ever seen a live animal presenting with rabies. Pretty disturbing, actually.
Up on the Cape, though, it's stricly a raccoon disease. In fact, I haven't even seen a possum in the 15 years I've been here and in STL they were everywhere! It's odd, but our high coyote population seems to never get hit with rabies, either.
I don't know how rabies is measured. Some of the sites I found said in experiments (which we all know is different than the wild) it took 50,000 to 70,000 thousand more rabies virus to infect a opossum than a dog or fox.
I think rabies is really really rare in opossums. Small comfort but may be some. Definite checking with the vet.
I didn't know that, I always assumed they were big carriers because when I was a kid in STL, we saw two that had rabies. Those were the only times I've actually ever seen a live animal presenting with rabies. Pretty disturbing, actually.
Up on the Cape, though, it's stricly a raccoon disease. In fact, I haven't even seen a possum in the 15 years I've been here and in STL they were everywhere! It's odd, but our high coyote population seems to never get hit with rabies, either.
Are you sure it was Rabies? Were they tested?
Distemper can cause animals to wander around during the daytime looking stupid.
Amber Morgan Webboard User Reg: 10-18-2006
Posts: 1849
Loc: St. Louis, MO
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Quote: Debbie Bruce
Are you sure it was Rabies? Were they tested?
Distemper can cause animals to wander around during the daytime looking stupid.
The first one was tested as my dad had called animal control and got some report out of them. I don't remember the details of it because I was just a kid. The second one was during the same summer as the first, and also in the same area (our backyard). It left before animal control could find it, but it was acting the exact same way as the first. They both left a pretty strong impression on me. I suppose the second one could have been distemper. Either that or perhaps it was rabies and the two animals had similar flaws in their immune system that allowed them to be more sensitive than normal. Since they were in the same location during the same approximate time period?
I don't know...maybe it was a weird fluke. Or maybe my memory is just really screwed up. I'll have to ask my dad...
It's just really interesting to know that possums are not that likely to get rabies. That's good information to have, and I had never heard that!
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Re: O.K. Maybe not so URGENT!
[Re: Nancy Jocoy ]
#173397 - 01/06/2008 08:34 AM 
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