[Ryle]

There is no reason to kill the possum. If you stop leaving cat food out during the night then the possum will not keep coming around. It's only in your barn for the food.

And while EPM is a horrible disease--it's been an area of special interest for me for almost 10 years now---less than 1% of horses that get exposed to the parasite that is shed in possum feces (and it's not all possums) will actually contract disease. Horses actually are fairly good at getting rid of the parasite on their own. It's stress and concurrent disease or damage to the central nervous system that makes a horse susceptible. That is why EPM is so often seen in competition horses or horses that have been hauled long distance.

I have had possums live in my barn. I've bottle raised possums. I've relocated possums for people who have survived quite well in their new surroundings. Possums are very hardy little creatures.

As for the diseases, it is EXTREMELY RARE for a possum to contract rabies. For some unknown reason, they are very resistant to that disease. And not all possums carry the parasite that causes EPM and as I said, only a very very small portion of exposed horses contract EPM.

For all of those reasons, there simply is no reason to just kill the possum.
Start feeding your cats at meal-times and then picking up the cat food. Keep your horse feed locked away so that possums can't get into it. Do those things and it's highly unlikely that the possum will stay in your barn. Trap the possum and relocate it away from your barn. I wouldn't just put it in your mother's barn because if you have cat food out it's going to come back, but take it out to a wooded area and leave it. You can relocate just a few miles, it doesn't have to be terribly far away.

 

[Ryle]

Less than 1%?? I've seen 7 horses my whole short 19 years of life contract the disease. And six of the seven were completely healthy horses. Two of them were almost dead.

But how were these horses diagnosed? EPM is a way over-diagnosed disease and as there are numerous conditions that can present with the same symptoms and for years people didn't bother to test most of the time and just started calling anything that might possibly neurological EPM. It is possible that you have run into that many true cases of EPM, but there would have to be some factor that allowed the parasite to actually travel from the GI tract the the central nervous system.

And yes, according to the studies on EPM less than 1% of horses that get exposed to the parasite contract the disease.