If you can easily get to the dead animal, you should start to plan how you are going to remove it. But, if it has been trapped somewhere within the walls or under the floors, you will need to work out how you are going to get access to it, which is where a lot of the cost can start to come in. You may have to resort to cutting a hole in the wall, or ripping up insulation, to reach it. But be careful not to jump straight into it, as you do not want to inadvertently cause more damage, for example by cutting through electrical cables or water pipes.

Be warned, however, that you may simply not be able to do anything to get access to the animal’s body. A common example of this is chimneys, which can be very difficult for any creature to scale down. More often than not, animals will get injured in the process and get stuck in a position where you can use a brush or hook to get to them. But sometimes their bodies will get trapped somewhere impossible to reach by conventional means. In this case, you may have to wait for the body to naturally decompose and increase ventilation in your home enough to reduce the odor.

Either way, once you know where the animal is and can easily reach it, you need to assess what state it is in order to properly prepare the right tools for removal and post-removal cleaning.