Injured Female Opossum Determined To Be A Mom

The following story about an opossum was shared with us by Elizabeth’s Wildlife Center in British Columbia.

We received an adult, female opossum that was displaying neurological signs. It was presumed she was hit by car. She was extremely thin and was not eating on her own. There were no babies in her pouch, and she had not been recently lactating.

She was placed in a hospital crib and monitored. We started tubing her electrolytes. Once she was hydrated, we started her on EmerAid, which she tolerated well.

One morning when checking a group of babies across the room that had come in days before, I noticed one missing. After a frantic search of the entire clinic the baby still couldn’t be found. Much to my surprise I found the missing baby in the pouch of this adult opossum!

I put the baby back in the cage with its siblings. Next morning the baby was missing again.

Not about to fall for this two days in a row, I checked the adult opossum’s pouch. There was the baby. I decided to leave the baby with this opossum (baby was able to eat on its own).

The opossum gained strength every day with the help of EmerAid. She groomed and cared for the baby as though it was her own and ate from a dish.

Eventually babies and “Mom” were released.