# Epm risks, remove new opossum?



## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

If it can't get into your feed or their water then it shouldn't be a problem.


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## ferricyanide (Jan 14, 2020)

It could technically get into the round bale they have in the pasture, just not the barn hay. And there are standing water puddles in some parts, i am not sure how likely horses will drink from a puddle?


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## ksbowman (Oct 30, 2018)

I wouldn't take a chance. Remove the problem before it can be a problem. It obviously has you concerned and you recognize a potential problem or you wouldn't have bought the trap.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

A horse that has a fresh water supply isn't going to be drinking from puddles. The puddles should drain rather quickly. Now if they don't drain you may have mosquito borne illness to worry about.

Do you have a place to relocate once you trap it it? If it isn't far enough away you may find it comes back.


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## ferricyanide (Jan 14, 2020)

Currently my house and horses are 30+ miles apart. My house is backed up to a 1000+ acre nature/wildlife park with trails for people. They have a rehab center for animals attached too, i guess i could ask. I end up with armadillos and opossums in my yard regularly. I wouldn't mind the opossums except for the epm risk to horses. 

We don't really get mosquitoes this time of year, but we do get them pretty bad. The neighbors yard is comically bad for mosquitoes, abandoned construction materials over like 5 acres 😅 I'm not sure if anything i do on my side puts a dent in it. I did try putting mosquito dunks in our pond the horses currently aren't using and may have launched a box worth into the neighbors pond too, last year. No real difference. I am already looking to order shots for everyone this year as soon as i figure out if i am buying for 2 or 3 horses.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

I think you are not allowed to relocate nuisance animals. You would have to trap it and call animal control to relocate it for you. Many people shoot them. I have some at my place and they make me really angry but I just keep my food locked so they can't get into it and they don't bother the horses water so I ignore them. I have some peksy racoons as well.


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## ferricyanide (Jan 14, 2020)

If that is the case then animal control it is.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

A couple of years ago we were trying to trap our feral barn cat to take to the vets for shots and general treatment - we caught lots of possums, every morning there was a possum fast asleep in the trap.
Animal control weren't remotely interested in collecting them because they didn't appear to be rabid or sick or injured. They just told us to release them or we could kill them ourselves. 
We took them right away from our property into wooded areas and let them go. They do eat a lot of ticks and play a part in the general eco system so I wouldn't want to kill a healthy one if I could relocate it away from horse properties.

As for contaminating food and water - they will do that, horses could eat grass where contaminated water has been and horses will drink from rainwater puddles that could be contaminated as well as eating hay that's been contaminated.


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## ferricyanide (Jan 14, 2020)

I'm thinking fruit for bait so that i hopefully don't catch the 2 gray foxes that are on the property and the occasional cat that passes through. We thankfully have never had tick problems. But i will call around to see what i need to do officially before setting the trap.


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

I would relocate it, around here the ticks are terrible. We need every tick eater we can get.


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## Part-Boarder (Aug 17, 2019)

ferricyanide said:


> Currently my house and horses are 30+ miles apart. My house is backed up to a 1000+ acre nature/wildlife park with trails for people. They have a rehab center for animals attached too, i guess i could ask. I end up with armadillos and opossums in my yard regularly. I wouldn't mind the opossums except for the epm risk to horses.
> 
> We don't really get mosquitoes this time of year, but we do get them pretty bad. The neighbors yard is comically bad for mosquitoes, abandoned construction materials over like 5 acres 😅 I'm not sure if anything i do on my side puts a dent in it. I did try putting mosquito dunks in our pond the horses currently aren't using and may have launched a box worth into the neighbors pond too, last year. No real difference. I am already looking to order shots for everyone this year as soon as i figure out if i am buying for 2 or 3 horses.


You can get anti- mosquito shots for horses? I hadn’t heard about that ...


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## AragoASB (Jul 12, 2020)

You have to take racoons, possums and chicken snakes at least 5 miles away or they will come back.


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## ferricyanide (Jan 14, 2020)

Not anti mosquito shots, shots for diseases that mosquitoes carry. Sorry not trying to be confusing.


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## puff (Jan 18, 2021)

If you know how to handle a .22 shoot them. My vet's have told me that where they poop in pasture can be problem for grazing horses. I shoot every one of them I see.


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## AragoASB (Jul 12, 2020)

Me too.


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## ferricyanide (Jan 14, 2020)

I dont have anything to shoot it with.... hes not skittish I could probably scoop him up by hand if I wasnt worried about bites or diseases. I'll trap him. Ugh soooo my emergency back up hay is safe from opossums but I didnt realize rats liked hay? The rain has prevented me from getting a round bale in a timely manner and I havent checked my emergency hay in a month. It looks like they have burrowed through it for nest  They cant get in the feed. So anyways now I have several ruined square bales of alfalfa. And I guess I will be on a varmint murdering spree.

Hay is on a tarp on a concrete slab, surrounded by four 4ft wood walls, then covered in a tarp. In the barn. They seem to have chewed a few holes in my tarps. Surprised and Annoyed.


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## All About Hope (Nov 10, 2020)

I say get someone to shoot it.

Or call animal control.

For rats, see if you can get a barn cat or barn snakes (preferably barn cat). They seem to do pretty good getting rid of rodents.


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## AragoASB (Jul 12, 2020)

Loose barn cats do a number on the wild song bird population too. Cats kill up to 3.7B birds annually.








Cats kill up to 3.7B birds annually


New study shows that roaming cats kill as many as 3.7 billion birds in the continental U.S. each year.



www.usatoday.com


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## All About Hope (Nov 10, 2020)

@AragoASB Depends on the cat. My neighbors have two barn cats. One is super friendly and doesn't eat our birds (as far as I know), the other we've caught trying to get into our bird house.


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## puff (Jan 18, 2021)

DO NOT try to touch the possum - they bite and have nasty teeth. Trap it and have someone else shoot the thing.
I vote for cats as far as the mice but they won't deal with a possum. Have several barn cats that I feed a low protein food too so they stay around. If you have cats you don't have mice/rats and if you don't have mice/rats you don't have snakes


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

I wouldn't say that. I have all three as well as a few chickens that are excellent mousers. It's all about balance.


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## All About Hope (Nov 10, 2020)

I'm waiting for my murderer chickens to get a mouse. We have more of a problem with our chickens killing birds than with cats. Fortunately, we don't have too much of a mouse problem, but they ran off to the barn behind us and I bet they got a few mice.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

I'll be different.... opossum... Hated and despised by many.
We have many of this animal in my area and see them as roadkill daily.
Yes, they pose a "risk" to your animal IF you leave feed exposed and open to them, if you allow them to nest in your hay supply, if you are not prudent in your cleanliness of your barn area and stalls as they will come searching for feces and feed particles undigested in poop...
However, cover the feed and keep it in steel cans.
Cover the hay and don't leave mounds of it for them to burrow into for warmth...
Chances are they have come to the barn to seek warmth & protection from the weather from the hay you have possibly under your pallets or lying loosely around...
They are nocturnal, a night animal, and if you are seeing them during broad daylight hours then the animal needs trapped and potentially destroyed as they are carrying potential other issue you really don't want either. Seeing at dawn or dusk is their time of travel too...then disappear during the day commonly...
Seeing during the day is when you need to alert animal control to that seen...

I feed rounds and can tell you no opossum is living in my round bale nor around it...nor are they in my feed room.
I am far from a OCD but am neat and do not leave anything feed wise sitting on my floor in packages or spilled.

Not only are the animals tick magnets, they also catch, eat mice & rats, snakes including venomous and take on many bites that could otherwise be aimed at your horses from many "critters"...
Yes, they can be a carrier/transporter of EPM...but don't be a willing host to that happening also is your responsibility.
No cat or dog food left down in dishes, your chicken and other barnyard animals need to be cleaned up after...
If your "yard" is not a attractive place for them to come find a meal or living space then they often pass through but not stay..
I can only say, you are_ not _going to eradicate them from your property, but you _*can*_ reduce the reason for them to come or want to stay...
Sometimes, you need to pick the battle you want to have... 
🐴...

_I edited me as possum and opossum are not the same animal and I misquoted a animal care workers comment made to me...
sorry, my mistake now corrected._


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## ksbowman (Oct 30, 2018)

puff said:


> DO NOT try to touch the possum - they bite and have nasty teeth. Trap it and have someone else shoot the thing.
> I vote for cats as far as the mice but they won't deal with a possum. Have several barn cats that I feed a low protein food too so they stay around. If you have cats you don't have mice/rats and if you don't have mice/rats you don't have snakes


 The possums will also eat kittens. I had some (3) kittens I was feeding in the barn and had leaned a wood pallet up against the wall to keep the dogs from getting to the food and water I had for them. I went out one evening after dark and was going to feed them. I reach my hand behind the pallet and bam! I got hit and bitten. Pulled my hand out and the blood was streaming off my fingers. Looked in with the flashlight on my phone and saw a possum hissing at me. Went back to the shop and got my 22 pistol and that is one possum that won't bite again. Never saw the kittens again. All I found was a little fur. I won't allow possums in my barn.


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## puff (Jan 18, 2021)

Only good possum is a dead possum. They have also gotten a couple of my barn kittens.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Yuck...had no idea they would trap, kill and eat _a full-grown cat....  _
That cat is about the same or larger than the opossums I see by me...
Any "small" or baby-sized animal whether 2 legs or 4 is fair game.
The opossums sure seem to have a varied diet and adaptable to most any critter alive or dead can be made into a meal...distasteful as that is to us animal lovers...
*Yuck....*
🐴...


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## ferricyanide (Jan 14, 2020)

No opossums in the feed or hay.... He is in the pasture, usually under an evergreen.

I somehow got rats in the emergency hay not opossums. I do keep the hay covered. No rats in the feed either. 

So rat traps and opossum traps it is. Im not sure i could get a cat to stay.... This area is a mix of residential with a few old farm properties still left. So if it roamed, a house might be nicer than a barn where someone comes by occasionally.


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## puff (Jan 18, 2021)

Get females and spay them. The girls seem to stay closer to what they call "home". Also, feed them a low protein dry cat food so they will still hunt.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

Possums don't eat cats. 

They are opportunistic omnivores that eat fruit, nuts, plants, insects, snails, snakes, frogs, birds as well as their eggs, and small mammals such as moles, shrews, mice, and rats. They will eat fresh meat if you supply it. They will also eat road kill. But they will not attack your cat unless cornered. Tiny kittens, maybe, but I am thinking something else got the kittens and perhaps the opossum was cleaning up as that is what they do.


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## puff (Jan 18, 2021)

Got two of my tiny kittens


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## AragoASB (Jul 12, 2020)

I have an obsession getting rid of possums.

Years s ago in Texas I formed a 'Possum Powdering" hunt. I and the neighbors and all our horses and dogs would go out riding moonlit nights. There were 2 icons of the hunt, an battered old trumpet and a can of cat flea powder. The dogs would eventually find a possum and of course it it would play dead, lying there grinning. The Master of the Hunt (whoever had the trumpet) would sound a horrible blat on the horn and dismount so they could sprinkle the possum with flea powder. As they lay there you could see they are crawling with fleas. Then everybody would ride off and the dogs would find another possum. One time I asked my cowboy neighbor friend, now my husband, if he would go possum powdering and he said he would if I didn't tell anybody. This was before we knew about EPM. Now, I do not put out anything such as organic garbage that would attract possums. No feed or hay is available to possums. I realy do not like possums. They resemble old barefoot hippys or giant rats.

I used to be a licenced bird rehaber. Game wardens would bring me hawks, vultures and owl that some idiot had wing shot. Whenever possible I would collect fresh road kill to fed these birds. One day we were going to have a party that night so I drove to go to the store. Around a curve on a country road there was a tragic scene but good news for me. There was a dead mother possum and dead little naked pouch baby possums all over the road. Happily I collected all the bodies to and took them home to feed the birds. I fed them all they could eat but had left over fetal possums so I put them in a tupperware container in the refrigerator. That night the party was in full swing and I saw one of my girlfriends helping out and going into to the kitchen to get some more hor dourves. A blood curdling scream and a crash was heard. Everyone ran into the kitchen and saw dead fetal possums all over the floor.


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