Some sad… some happy happenings

We have been super, super busy these past two weeks, with quite a few rescues and lots of joeys in care, including a few little-uns.

The “fruit bowl” has been topped up since our last update. We now have Strawberry, Kiwi, Midgenberry, Guava and Mango… and our littlest pinky, Cranberry.

Mr Mango has a bright red/orange cast on his broken leg. He is being very brave and coping well and we are hopeful his leg will heal and he will make a full recovery.

Many thanks to Dr Richard at Lismore Vet Clinic for the fabulous splinting and bandaging!

Here are some photos of the other fruities…

We have Also had two larger 2.5kg red-neck wallabies come into care in very bad condition… both with sad stories.

Grubby had been seen regularly by a Nimbin resident for almost a month with no mum in sight. He got weaker and weaker until the MOP was able to catch him. Grubby had huge numbers of fly eggs and small freshly hatch maggots on him, as well as fleas, flat flies and ticks. We had to immediately bath him and work hard to get all the maggots off. He was emaciated and dehydrated, so we did emergency hydration and treated his puncture wounds (potentially caused by a raptor or cat). He was in intensive care for two days. When he managed to jump out of the cot we figured he was feeling a bit stronger. However sadly he took a turn for the worst and didn’t make it.

The next day we rescued a similar sized boy… also a very sad case.

Ticky had heaps of ticks around his head and had scratched himself so much trying to get them off that he had ulcerated both eyes. We were sure the vet would say “no hope” but it seems that his eyes look worse than they might be. So we are giving him a chance. Ticky has settled in ok, and is now accepting that he has to have eye drops four times a day. He is quite happy that this is accompanied by a bottle of milk and some of Don’s magic “contact reiki”.

We have also had a few sick joeys with the “mystery illness” and have been working with a research team to find some answers… but more on that in a future post.

And on a happy note, the two feathertail gliders are almost ready for release. They have been getting exercise and gliding practice in the outside aviary, and we are just waiting for fine weather to start the release process. These little guys are VERY difficult to photograph… but Eva managed to capture this picture before she left, when they were still inside in the smaller enclosure.

Feathertail glider