Event of September 2017

While Worm and Duke were just youngsters still in their bags we had a little wombat come for a visit. Our friends , Ted & Jenny Finnie, had a young female wombat in care. They found the mother on their property close to their home .She had a baby in pouch and she died. Ted performed an autopsy on mum and found her lungs were in very bad condition causing death. The baby was named Tillie and move in with them of course! Due to illness in the family they had to go to Victoria .Ted and Jenny always take their animals with them but it’s illegal to take a wombat across the border so I was asked if I would look after Tillie. Ted being ex Taronga and Dubbo Western Plains Zoo wildlife vet  and Jenny a wildlife carer with many years of experience entrusting me with this baby was such a privilege and a compliment of their faith in me to care for her. I was very nervous I must say . Wombat babies experience a lot of stress when taken from their mother and they bond tightly with the carer .Tillie had bonded with Jenny who had  her for about 3 weeks at that stage so to move her again was traumatic making me doubly nervous! Tillie was about 3 kilo  and drinking 3 times over 24 hrs . She was clearly traumatized losing her mother for a second time. I kept her close to me and after about 3 days she started to settle. I don’t think Worm and Duke were very impressed having mum showering favour on this interloper!

cuddling Tillie – Worm and Duke in their bags watching.

Tillie checking out lounge chair

This chair seems O.K. I think I could get comfortable here.

burrow inspection

looks O.K. I’ll go in.

After a week we let her stay in the nursing pen at night. I had been taking her in there ,feeding her and spending time in there while she had a munch of the grass and she felt safe in there and got to like it. She investigated the burrow.

snoozing with Tillie

Tillie drinking – this is good!!

I really enjoyed having Tillie and being able to help Ted and Jenny was good as they will gladly help any animal any time. When Jenny came to collect Tillie it was obvious that Tillie recognized her immediately and was delighted to have her other mum back.Tillie was released at Ted and Jenny’s property as an adult where she was born.

Adult Tillie hanging around ,just after release.

16th May 2017  

I received a phone call asking me if I could take an orphan grey female kangaroo. She was found on the Golden Highway at Cassilis. Her mother had been hit by a car and died. I went and collected her from the local vet and bought her home. She weighed 1147 grams . After measuring the length of her foot and Tail I ascertained she was about 205 gram underweight which was expected for a little orphan coming into care. I got her warmed up and gave her her first bottle which she took O.K.

Wormie peeping out of her bag.

Things did not proceed well with this little girl . I would expect that within a week she would have settled and passing urine and feces normally. Initially all seemed like it was going O.K. She did have a small weight gain then started started passing runny yellow feces . I determined she had thrush a common complaint of babies coming into care and not difficult to treat with nilstat. She was not sucking well and  not enough. Feces then became like black pea soup! The woman that had handed her into the vet had left her phone no so I rung her to see if I could get some backround info.She was wriggler and I called her Worm which soon became Wormie! What had happened the woman thought she could manage and had kept the Worm for 4 days and had been giving her cow’s milk then she realised something was wrong and took her to the vet. Cows milk is a no with roos . They must be fed the correct formula like mother’s milk. I got the local vet to do a feces test .They looked for various things it may have been but to no avail . It seemed the likely cause was indeed the cows milk.  I then consulted Ted for his wise and insightful counsel . He got me to put the little Worm on a course of codeine for her weight and age administered at certain times. After a few days it fixed the problem and she started to suck normally as the nilstat had done the job with thrush and the codeine her tummy troubles. She then began to thrive. I wanted her to have a friend to grow up with particularly when she was big enough to be moved into the outside roo pen. I contacted Penny in Dubbo and she had a little male grey approx the same weight . He was already named Duke and Penny agreed to bring him here. Duke was sick , he had some little bald patches, thrush and a wheezy chest . Poor little fellow had Pneumonia so againTed to the rescue . Ted got me to give him 2 courses of antibiotics which was done over a 2 week period . Finally I had two healthy little greys both thriving .They got on really well and it was wonderful to watch them grow into healthy adolescence.

Wormie with head out of her bag.

Dukie arrives, poor sick boy.

Wormie and Dukie finally both well and thriving.

Worm and Duke were moved into the outside pen mid Sept . They were happy n there together and the 3 of us would go walking around the property during the day.

little followers

wormie tired – its a hard life!

Duke with other friends

Duke and Worm with Scarhead. Scar healed by now but name remains.

Worm and Duke growing , looking great.

Not getting much rain and grass not as abundant for grazing as it had been.

Worm and Duke on guard at front door!

These two almost ready for release, approx 11 kilo. Still like evening milk ,out all day but  still locked them up in the pen at night.They come when called for lock up , reluctantly!

The decision  to release was taken out of my hands as we had “The Apple Gum Disaster” . Mid Feb 2018 one evening Larry and I were Having dinner. I had just been up in the pen and given Wormie & Dukie their eve milk and locked them in for the night. We heard an almighty crash and it felt like the ground shook .The enormous Apple Gum Tree had fallen right over the pen .Everything in there  was squashed. Its a sight hard to explain when a large tree falls , quite scary. We were sure we were going to find the roos dead in there .After an extensive search no bodies were found .We got our torches and starting searching the property . Worm and Duke both found O.K. and didn’t seem very perturbed so that was their release! The tree had fallen and flattened one side of the pen where they had been grazing but the angle had missed them and they had jumped over what was left and continued their grazing in the paddocks.

Apple Gum Disaster

We did have a pen there, what happened to it!!?

Don’t seem to perturbed , resting in the sun. Worm was still around through March then she went off and would return sometimes for food as we were heading into drought and the grass was sparse. Duke stayed for much longer and he also cut his foot on some tin so he had to be treated till the cut healed. Fortunately he trusted me and loved his almonds so while I treated his foot he would eat about 10 almonds which gave me time to do what was needed.

Dukie’s poor sore cut foot

The cut healed completely with no complications. Duke was still around for a couple of months after Wormie.

Wormie has returned from time to time with a baby .We have seen Duke also .

While Duke and Worm were only youngsters in care we also had a wombat visitor come and stay for 2 weeks.