The outstanding features of opossums tend to attract many domestic animals day and night. This can bring risks or benefits to them.
“Do opossums carry diseases for dogs?” is one of the most common questions when people raise dogs to restrict disease transmission and have timely solutions for their infected animals.
Do Opossums Carry Diseases For Dogs?

There’s no clear answer to “What diseases can my dog get from a possum?”. It depends on external and internal environments and the health situation of the dog.
The risks that dogs threatening opossums are greater than opossums. Almost urgent incidents of opossums attacking dogs or other wild animals are bacterial diseases.
Adult opossums and baby opossums can bring a wide range of protozoal diseases and other sources of infection to dogs, but they do not transmit the dreaded rabies virus.
This hardly leads to the dead animal phenomenon and the disease outbreaks over time.
Many people start to take care of their dogs more by using ajax dish soap and following strict suggestions from animal control agencies to restrict the cases of catching bacterial diseases.
How To Reduce The Risks Of Opossums For Dogs
When people get different opinions about “Do opossums carry diseases for dogs?”, they normally want to know how to reduce the diseases to pets from opossums.
The habitat norms of opossums are special, preferring the traveling activities around their living environment, and there is no way to stop them from this norm.
One useful solution for this phenomenon is that people should prepare pet food on their own and restrict their dogs from getting food outside.
This is because natural food can contain dead opossums or other released products from opossums, such as saliva and feces.
People should also take all food for their dogs in suitable stored places, which confront necessary standards relating to temperatures, moisture, and storage types of equipment (including food dish or other food scraps).
All these actions from humans can ensure the safety of their dogs at the maximum level and restrict the risks of catching an incredible range of diseases.
Possible Accidents Among Oposums And Dogs

Many pet owners consider ” Are opossums dangerous to dogs?” or “Do dogs bring more risks for opossums?”.
Up to now, many possible accidents have occurred among opossums and dogs in the natural environment. Below are some reasons and problems regarding these phenomenons:
Opossums Attacking Dogs
There will be incidents between opossums and dogs, particularly when they fight. The small size of opossums hardly threatens the dogs in normal situations.
Nevertheless, the opossums are willing to attack opponents, including dogs, to defend themselves from unexpected diurnal and nocturnal animals.
When opossums do not have enough ability to attack dogs, they tend to put themselves in fake situations, namely the dead possum method.
This phenomenon usually lasts nearly four hours, and the opossums can get the normal status when not feeling the potential danger from the dogs.
It is difficult for the opossums’ opponents to detect fake behaviors from them.
This is because their body will become limp, and green mucus is released from the anal glands, which brings a strong feeling of a rotten smell and puts the prey away.
Dogs Killing Opossums
When dogs accidentally or intendedly kill opossums, people should get the carcass to restrict the risks of expanding infectious diseases and even zoonotic diseases if exposed to humans too close.
People must leave their dogs in animal shelters away from the habitat areas or let them in secure containers, then store them under the cold temperature.
Regarding urban environments, people can easily find animal control centers to treat this phenomenon safely.
The professional team will examine the dogs for scratches, cuts, and bites from the opossums to release the risks relating to health problems for the dogs.
Treating the wounds timely to protect the dogs’ status is one of the most common solutions for this phenomenon. Remember to wear gloves to restrict infectious disease from the opossums and dogs.
How To React When Dogs And Opssums Attack Each Other

There are three main solutions that people should adopt when opossums and dogs attack each other, including:
Let Dogs And Opossums Far Away
People should glance at dogs and opossums everytime and everywhere if they can. This can limit the problems happening between them more effectively.
Both dogs and opossums are not frightened animals, and they are willing to fight to protect themselves, indicating that letting dogs and opossums far away requires a lot of effort.
Check Oposums Bite Marks On Dogs
People should sometimes check dogs’ faces, legs, ears, or body parts to detect opossum bite marks as soon as possible.
Please contact the vet or animal control agencies and give them the blood samples to examine the infectious diseases.
Contact A Veterinarian For Treatment
Everyone must save any good veterinarian’s phone number or address to ensure they take the dogs to them for timely treatment.
This increases the life longevity of the dogs and removes other dangerous incidents.
FAQs
Are Possums Dangerous To Dogs And Cats?
Possums do normally not prey on any cats and dogs if they are in dangerous situations. However, when being attacked by possums, cats, or dogs can get some serious infectious diseases.
People should adopt some reasonable solutions listed above to fix these problems.
What Occurs When The Dog Is Close To Possums?
No significant problem occurs when the dog is close to possums without attacking each other. Only when they fight or prey on each other will extremely serious incidents happen for them and humans.
Conclusion
This article has just explained, “Do opossums carry diseases for dogs?”.
There is no exact answer to this problem; however, some possible solutions in this article can effectively reduce the attacking level between opossums and dogs.
Follow some other tips for caring for wild animals or pets from this website to understand this field better.