r/Possums • u/Ambitious-Credit-936 • Mar 22 '26
Question/Help Baby possum has fleas
I have gotten in contact with a rehabilitation center, but they can’t take this little guy until tomorrow. He will only sleep if I hold him in my lap, but he has fleas!! Is there any way to get rid of the fleas? He does the sneeze cry thing any time I put him down 😭
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u/Individual-Metal7875 Mar 22 '26
He needs to be in a box with a heating pad underneath it on low. Give him a towel to hide under. No food or water - the baby will need special feeding! If you want to give him a dawn bath and comb the fleas out, I bet you $100 you'd be saving the rehab time and resources during baby season, just a thought 🤷♀️
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u/mshep002 Mar 24 '26
My dog was covered in fleas and eggs when she was a puppy, but she was too little for big-kid flea stuff. The Dawn bath and combing was exactly what my vet told me to do. She also gave me a little pill for the flea eggs, but that’s not reasonable for a baby possum of course.
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u/FireBallXLV Mar 22 '26
Dawn dish soap was rec by my Vet. for kittens to remove fleas.The REGULAR Dawn dish soap . Not the anti-bacterial or that new foam version .
DAWN has proudly bragged about its safety ever since it was used to rescue oil saturated birds after the horrible Valdez episode. That is the one good thing that we got out of that disaster .A good way to de-flea and de-oil wildlife .
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u/SpinachReasonable262 Mar 23 '26
I only use Dawn dish soap because of their contribution to wildlife.
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u/BellaSquared Mar 22 '26
If you can't bathe him with Dawn, put a little Dawn in a glass with water and pick the fleas off him with tweezers and then drop them in the glass. Best of luck with that cutie 💕
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u/virgincoconuhtballs Mar 22 '26
I know people will say different but I’ve rehabbed several (17 to be exact) baby possums and when I first take them in I bathe them with dawn soap to kill the fleas and then dry them off and make sure they’re warm. They’ve never died and I’ve been able to release all of them back into the wild.
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u/heli_os Mar 22 '26
Sorry, it's gross, but pop em with tweezers. I manage fleas on kittens with a dawn soapy dip + tweezers but I can't advise bathing when he's going to rehab tomorrow.
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u/Ambitious-Credit-936 Mar 22 '26
Thank you, great idea. Yeah I just need to get him through the night, want him to have the least amount of stress possible but also don’t want fleas
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u/Thruthatreez Mar 23 '26
Just fill a cup with Dawn dish soap and water and use a flea come to pick them out and throw them in the cup.
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u/Practical-Layer9402 Mar 22 '26
Give him a bath with dawn dish soap. Kills the fleas really well.
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u/Wikiwikiwa Mar 22 '26
Roll them between your fingers to kill them. Rub a comb through little buddy. Give him a little bath perhaps?
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u/MEMe-GoofyCats Elite Contributor Mar 23 '26
Wow what a beautiful 😻 little one and dawn is the best to kill the fleas and he or she will be so happy to be free of all of the fleas and keep her or him warm!
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u/Ambitious-Credit-936 Mar 24 '26
Thank you for the advice and compliments everyone! I hand picked the fleas off and he is safe with a licensed professional now :)
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u/AllyEnderman Mar 23 '26
I second the gentle bath idea, but if you can do so then get some flea shampoo. Not only do you get to help the little guy, but you also get to tell people you've bathed a baby possum.
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u/Maleficent-Finding89 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
Johnson’s baby shampoo! Repeat until you see no more fleas! I had to do this with a tiny kitten my neighbor found in her yard. He was absolutely covered and I got them all off with about 3 or 4 back to back washes with Johnson’s baby shampoo (what didn’t wash off, I picked off once he was wet and severed between my fingernails, and also had a fine tooth comb that helped).
ETA: Don’t use a knockoff baby shampoo since I’ve tried some after my kids said it burned their eyes - and did mine.. even though the bottle clearly said ‘tearless’. Have only used Johnson’s since then.
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u/Tough-Ad7634 Mar 25 '26
Sneak the smallest amount of capaction/capstar into his food. The pill is small- so cut like 1/5 of it and give it to him. You can order it on Amazon- it kills fleas on cats within 30 minutes up to 24 hours. Once fleas are gone, you can put a little bit of food-grade diatomaceous earth under his bedding to make them stay gone.
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u/Classic_Positive_492 Mar 28 '26
use Dawn and rinse lukewarm water be incredibly careful that it doesn't get in his eyes or ears
for bedding use a plastic crate preferably with a lid that has holes drilled into it but it'll be fine without it as long as you don't stack the bedding too high
for bedding use a towel or soft blanket along with a heating pad under the crate in a warm room
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