Opossum

Question
Hi, My name is Leacy and I work at a state park in AL we rehab animals, such as snakes, owls, squirrels and our opossum Lorretta. I'm writing because our girl Lorretta seems to have an abscess at the base of her tail. We have had her seen by our vet several times but it doesn't seem to be healing and our vet has no prior experience with opossum so he doesn't have an answer for us. She's been through 3 rounds of antibiotics and nothing has worked. Is this common for these guys and do you have any tips for us? Thank you for any help you can provide! - Leacy

Answer
My question to the vet would be: has he cultured this abscess to see what is in it? Possums are notorious for harboring things like paturella etc. which you would generally see in a lagamorph or squirrel.
So he/she needs to get this cultured before you do anything else. He can call the local zoos as well and they are usually happy to chat with the vets about exotic animal health.

Marsupials are not mammals and he is probably treating this one as such. Have him/her talk to the vet that handles the marsupials at the zoo.

All of the possums I have raised and released have never had an abscess so I can't be of much help that way myself. I would not call this a common occurrence either.

Some facts of interest:
Antibiotics - Due to their reliance on intestinal micro-organisms to digest their food, marsupials should NEVER be given antibiotics by mouth, only by injection.

Calling the zoo is your best bet.