'Cranky' Opossum Hospitalized After Eating Costco Chocolate Cake in Family's Backyard
The "choco-holic" opossum turned out to also be dealing with lead toxicity, according to those who treated her
It's hard to play dead when the sugar rush kicks in.
An opossum in Nebraska with a "sweet tooth" was hospitalized earlier this week — and will eventually be returned to the wild — after she was caught eating what a wildlife rehab center is describing as an "entire" Costco chocolate cake in a family's backyard.
According to Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, the " choc-oholic" opossum was discovered just days before Valentine's Day. The marsupial looked a "little distressed," per the woman who found the animal in her Gretna yard.
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Kim Doggett, the real estate agent whose chocolate mousse cake lured the critter, told Forbes that she left the cake on her deck furniture after running out of fridge space.
Her son later went outside to discover chocolate footprints, a mostly missing cake, and an animal that "just didn't look right."
As she explained, the opossum ate more than half the cake before stopping. According to Costco's website, a standard 10" Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse Filling has two layers and contains fudge icing, likely not ideal for a wild animal.
"We googled chocolate with opossums because I know with dogs it's poisonous and thought this would not be good for this little girl," Doggett said.
Doggett's family rushed the wild animal to Nebraska Wildlife Rehab. According to Forbes, while she isn't aware of any published studies confirming this, executive director Laura Stastny said she assumed chocolate could be "toxic" to the animal. At the rescue, the opossum received fluids and a checkup featuring X-rays and bloodwork.
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The Virginia opossum — the only marsupial species in the U.S. — was treated by doctors at the Baldwin Wildlife Center and Hubbard Family Wildlife Hospital after being brought in "panting" yet "alert." Her checkup ultimately revealed that, beyond her all-you-can-eat chocolate cake encounter, she was also dealing with lead toxicity.
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"This is a common issue in wildlife, with different causes for different species, and it will take several weeks of treatment and supportive care to chelate the lead from her body," Stastny told Forbes.
The animal rehab expects to release the opossum into the wild in March, writing on Instagram — alongside an image of the "cranky" animal — that after "some time in rehab" and a "diet reset," she should be "stabilized enough" to get back into the swing of things.
"But until then, she is definitely a little cranky about our strict 'zero chocolate' policy! Same, opossum.... same."
Read the original article on People
