Heh... midday update...
Day started with a sad note from ecurbh, he thought he saw one of our calico feral kitties dead on the road behind the house, so I went out to check, and to take her off the road if it was.
Well it wasn’t one of ours, it was a dead possum, but it was pretty obliterated by then so it was a little hard to tell! :~[
Well, I decided as long as I was there, I’d scrape it off the road, and I’d brought my manure fork to do that. So I scraped it off and tossed it in the bushes on the side.
Then I started thinking I’d just gotten possum blood and guts on my fork and what if it was an EPM carrier? I shovel stalls with it and sometimes even rake hay with it.
Phooey, so I start googling to find out if there is much of an EPM risk in this area, which I didn’t find, and whether it would live on my manure fork. And if it would? What would kill it? I start trying to google what might kill it and disinfect the fork, and I can’t find that either. I couldn’t find anything I needed to know!
So I end up calling the Animal Disease Center at WSU Vet school, and they transfer me to a vet there and I warn him that I was about to ask a silly question, told him about the possum and the pitchfork and asked him if I should clean it or toss it, or stop worrying about it.
He said “Don’t toss it, you might hurt somebody!” ;~)
He said it was a good question (he’s nice) and that I should soak it in a bucket with some bleach. He also said EPM is not real common but good to be concerned.
Well - I’m really glad it wasn’t one of your cats. I’m hoping they decided to make your place home and won’t roam.
That’s good that you thought about the possible contamination of the fork - I would think it would be. Good old bleach -my answer to just about everything :)
Well I’m glad to hear that it wasn’t your kitty. Also glad to hear that the vet said that EPM wasn’t much of a problem in your area. Soaking the pitchfork in bleach is a good idea. That’ll kill most anything that may be on it.