Stunned???

Yeah. You stunned 'im just as 'e was wakin up. Norwegian Blues stun easy.

It seems I owe the lorikeet an apology. It wasn't drunk but concussed. I'm not sure how well the vet examined him, but most vets know a lot about dogs and cats, but don't have much experience with birds, especially wild ones.

Donna took the lori over to Natasja's on the weekend. When she examined it she found its pupils were dilated and took a long time to react when a light was shone in them. It also has a bruised wing.

Anyone that lives in Australia and is familiar with lorikeets will know how prone they are to flying into things; walls, sheds, parked cars. It's really scary standing in your back yard and suddenly having a half dozen of them take flight and fly past you below head height. My usual reaction is too duck as low as possible as soon as I hear them take off. The picture below was taken just before I ducked, about six months ago. I still don't know if it was a wing, or just my camera strap that brushed my head as I ducked. I was standing in front of a garden arch at the time and most of them flew through it.



Apparently it can take as long as three weeks for them to recover from concusion. Hopefully it'll be ready for release before we go away on holidays.

Pissed as a Parrrot

This lorikeet got brought into the vet's this morning.



It seems he (or she) is a bit intoxicated, or at least that's the vet's diagnosis. Just how it got drunk we don't know. I personally think it's a myth that fruit falls off trees, ferments on the ground and gets animals pissed when they eat it. After a couple of days in the sun the fruit would most likely dry out rather than ferment.

With wild birds like lorikeets though, a lot of people, ourselves included, put out food for them. As lorikeets are nectivores, the food put out for them is usually a very sweet, watery mix. Normally you would put out just enough for them to eat in one afternoon, but if someone put out a whole heap that lasted a few days, then it's quite possible it would start to ferment. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to get a bird as small as a lori pissed.



When Donna got this one home and put it in the big cage its in here, it just grabbed the bars at the top of the cage and hung there with its legs dangling. After a couple of minutes it had moved down to the perch in these pictures.

The main reason it looks such a mess is it's rolled around in its food. I'm not sure if lorikeets get into fights, tell everyone they love them and throw up all over themselves when they get drunk, but I can imagine it. They're very gregarious birds.

Anyway, if this one survives the hangover, or the alcohol doesn't poison it, it'll be released soon. Either that or it'll be introduced to a few other lorikeets and released with them. It all depends on its age.

Either way, I hope it's learned it lesson. I doubt it though, I never do. There's a rum and coke at my elbow right now.

All quiet

It's very quiet here now as far as animals are concerned.

We only have Lucky to look after now and all he does is come out of his drey at night to eat and explore. We had a female brushtail, about twice Lucky's size, sitting in one of our trees the other night, making croaking sounds. I assume she could smell Lucky and was getting a bit territorial. Lucky completely ignored her.



You can barely see where he'd lost his fur now it's nearly all grown back.

We've had word back regarding Mogwai. The carer looking after him can't touch him as he won't let her. That's a good thing, it means he's getting more feral, and he didn't get too domesticated when he was with us. He'll be with the new carer for a couple more weeks while he gets bigger. He's already getting a female visitor apparently. I'm not surprised, he's a good looking boy.

This is what it's all about

This is a rainbow lorikeet where it belongs, in the wild, well in our backyard actually, but you know what I mean.



We picked him up from the vet surgery where Donna works on Friday afternoon. We'd been told he was malnourished. A quick look at him made me think he wasn't malnourished, but he was definitely feeling sorry for himself. His beak was a bit darker than normal and we wondered if he'd eaten something he shouldn't have.

We took him home gave him some lori mix, water and a couple of native flowers, covered the cage and left him alone.


The intention was to pass him on to another carer when we took Mogwai over to be passed on. That day was today, and while we were getting ready the bird seemed really antsy and active. He'd had plenty to eat and certainly didn't look ill anymore, so we took the cage outside, opened the door, and let him do his thing. Once he got into the tree, he had a look around, got his bearings, then he was off. Our first release. I know we hadn't had him long, but it still counts, and he probably would have been eaten by a cat the way he was when we picked him up.

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So now we only have one wild animal to look after. Mogwai looked a bit overawed when we opened his box at Natasja's place, who are all these people?

By now he'll be at Mt Tamborine near the Gold Coast in an even bigger aviary than he was with us. He'll spend a few more weeks there, fattening up on the local cuisine, then he'll be allowed to get out of the aviary and go and explore in the evenings until he decides to stay away.

Goobye and Good Luck Mogwai

Tomorrow the 11/11/07 Mogwai our possum in the pocket that is in the photo moves on to new carers for his soft release at Mount Tamborine. Sad but great for him we have been told that a few ladies have been released lately on that site so hopefully he will find some company and there will be lots of new little mogwais out there late next year. I went into his cage tonight for a final goodbye and got lots of kisses and a hug and a scratched lip, will miss him heaps.

Farewell my big boy do well in the wild.

Moving

Lucky moved into an aviary on the weekend.

He's got to the stage where he's recovered enough from his dermatitis and the stress of the Vetadine washes that he could be moved.





We kept and eye on him to make sure he wasn't stressing out, hence the pic of Donna holding the bowl up for him. Later on, Donna got in the aviary with him to check on him and he showed his appreciation by biting her and peeing down her back... twice.

All he needs now is to put on a bit more weight and get a bit more feral, and he'll be ready for release in a few weeks.

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We had another bird come into care on Sunday. BARN's rescue line got a call about a baby magpie that had been injured and there was no-one else in the area that could go and pick it up. Being a Sunday afternoon we'd already had a drink, so the person that had rung up was called back and they agreed to drop the magpie off at our place.

When it first arrived and I looked in the box, my first thought was that it wasn't a magpie. The colouring was wrong, it was too small and the beak was the wrong shape. That's no surprise though. BARN often get calls from people that have found injured owls that turn out to be tawny frogmouths. You can't expect people that aren't as interested in animals as we are to know everything about them. A bird is a bird.

Anyway, the bird had been attacked by other birds and had a lot of blood on its head and both eyes were closed. Our past experience with birds led us to think this one wasn't going to see the night through. That was Sunday, tonight is Wednesday, and as I sit in front of the tele watching House and typing this, the bird is still alive. The trouble is, she might well survive, but if she's blind she can't be released back into the wild she has to be euthenased, that's not only the law, it's the kindest thing for the bird in the long run.

Have I mentioned before that being a carer can be a bit frustrating? I still reckon it's rewarding though. There's something about tapping the side of the basket the bird is in, knowing it's going to think mum's arrived with food, then shoving grub down its gob before it realises it's you.

Possum heaven is getting crowded

It must be with all the ringtails that have gone there recently.

I wrote last week that Rusty died. On Sunday we picked up two more ringtails to keep Rufus company. They were a male and a female, Linus and Lucy.

Rufus was a bit overwhelmed when he was first introduced to them, but he'd settled down a bit by the time we went to bed. The three of them were all snuggled up together in a cute little bundle.

The next morning Donna got up to check on them and Rufus had died in the night, most likely from the stress of meeting the other two.

We'd been having a bit of trouble getting Lucy to feed, but were told she wouldn't feed while being handled, unlike the others. So we moved Linus and Lucy to a bigger carrier and put a small container of Divetelact and some foliage in with them. The bigger carrier was so they had some more room for the food and wouldn't knock it over.

The morning after Donna had found Rufus dead, she went downstairs to check on Linus and Lucy, and Lucy had died. To make things worse, Linus was almost dead from the stress of losing Lucy. He didn't make it through the day.

From the smell of her urine, we're pretty sure Lucy had bloat, and possibly thrush as well. Something Natasja (our co-ordinator and previous carer of Linus and Lucy) said she wouldn't have got in the short time she was with us. Bloat in possums is similar to bloat in horses, in that the food they eat isn't digested properly and it ferments in the gut. It usually comes about in young possums because their gut flora (bacteria) hasn't developed enough yet. It's the reason a lot of carers feed young possums yoghurt to start off with.

It's disheartening having every ringtail we've cared for die on us, that makes six so far. There's been a lot of self analysis going on this week, trying to work out if it's something we're doing wrong. We're definitely much more aware of things to look out for now, not only with the ringtails, but also the brushtails after Lucky's bout of dermatitis

Speaking of Lucky, I looked in his cage yesterday evening and he came up to me and licked me on the nose. Apart from the fact that his hair is much shorter in places, he's pretty much back to the Lucky he was three months ago.

With the failures come the successes, and it's nice to know that in a few months there'll be a couple of brushtails back in the wild where they belong because of us.

What're you lookin at?

We dropped in to see Natasja, our co-ordinator today. She had a couple of young ringtails for us as company for Rufus, now that Rusty is gone.

The last time we were there she had two tawny frogmouths, so I just had to photograph them this time.





Both the pictures are of the same bird. The feathers on them are so soft, and with those big expresive eyes you can't help wanting to give them a big hug.

Mogwai, the brushtail has reached the stage where wheels are in motion for him to move one. He's getting big enough and old enough to be released, so he'll be moved soon to another carer where he can be soft released.

It'll be sad to see the little guy go, we've had him since he was small enough to fit in one hand.

The snake and blue tongue both left us today. They've gone back to Jess now she's moved into another house. I didn't write much about them in this blog, mainly because they didn't really do much.

I'll post some pictures of the new ringtails, Linus and Lucy, next time I write.

Feeding time

I've mentioned before that Rufus and Rusty have different personalities and that Rufus is a lot easier to feed now that he laps from a spoon. Below are a couple of pics of them. I'll leave it up to you to decide who's who.





Unfortunately, when I got up on Wednesday morning, Rusty had died. He'd never been as exhuberant as Rufus and the night before it was harder than usual to get him to drink his milk. Even so, it was a shock to find he'd died. We're getting used to the fact that a lot of animals die in care, simply because of the stress it causes them. With Rufus though it was a bit harder to take because he was such a cute little guy.

So Rufus is alone again for the time being. Because he's spent some time with another possum his own age, it's even more important that he gets another to keep him company. It just so happens that Natasja, our co-ordinator has another one that needs to be paired up, so we'll be picking him up tomorrow.

Another mouth to feed

This is rusty. He's come to live with us to keep Rufus company.



Now you might say he looks just like Rufus, how do you tell the difference? We were worried about the same thing until we got him home. He's slightly bigger than Rufus at the moment and Rufus is a bit darker.

The easiest way to tell them apart at the moment though is when it comes to feeding time. Rufus is really easy to feed as he will lap from a teaspoon. All we have to do is trickle his formula into the spoon and he'll drink it up. It's a lot tidier that way, although you do have to wipe his chin afterwards.

Rusty on the other hand, will only drink from the teat and he's easily distracted. You pretty much have to restrain him, then drizzle the formula on his lips. Invariably, some of it misses and you end up with milk everywhere. Rusty is eating some solids though. He ate most of the leaf shoots Donna put in with them last night.

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I haven't mentioned Lucky for a while. As you can see from the picture below he's pretty much over his dermatitis, it's now just a case of waiting for the fur to grow back, oh and his whiskers.



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Unfortunately, the magpie we rescued the other day didn't make it. Looking at him afterwards it was obvious he never had a chance. He had a really bad case of gapeworm. I've mentioned gapeworm before in this blog, it's a parasite that infects the throats of birds. When it gets bad it prevents the bird swallowing and therefore it starves or chokes to death.

It's treatable with Ivermectin, but in this case the bird was too far gone to be helped by the time it came into care. It's probably why the bird was out of its nest and not being helped by the parents in the first place.

First Rescue

Today Steve and I went to a wildlife rescue (you might say wow) but it was a little rescue a little tiny magpie. Cute as anything and unsure about everything. Pity this is not a paying job I could do it all the time. So we now have a baby magpie at least until tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow we do a swap the maggie for a baby ringtail originally we were going to hand Rufus to another carer who had a ringtail (roughly same age same weight) but there is a huge shortage of carers out there so we will after tomorrow have a mate for Rufus. We know he is another male so we hope they take to each other. How does Rufus and Rusty sound? Trying to think of names is fun.
Just like having kids only kids are more demanding. Maybe not, you feed them, wipe their mouths, clean their bottoms, and change their beds. (No not much different).

A day in the life of Rufus

You've met Rufus before. That was him on his mum's back in the previous blog entry. Unfortunately, his mum didn't survive. Whether it was from her injuries, or shock, we don't know, but little Rufus is now an orphan.

It's just something that you have to accept as a carer. As I've mentioned before in this blog, about forty per cent of birds coming into care don't survive, and that was also the case with the noisy miner from the previous post.

The noisy miner should really have been left where it was. We discovered that it was able to fly a little, so if the person that found it had just left it alone (keeping pets away of course), it would have most likely survived.

Anyway, we now have Rufus to look after and he's as cute as a button. Actually I've never been able to figure out what's cute about buttons, but there you go. Rufus is cuter than a button.

Below, I present to you, a day in the life of Rufus (actually it was only about ten minutes, it was feeding time).



Is it time to get up already?




I'll just have a quick read of all the important news.




Breakfast, or is it dinner? Hard to tell with nocturnal animals.




Some joeys start to lap their milk at an early age, luckily Rufus is one of them.




Oh, how about a bit of privacy.

If you're curious what Donna is up to in that last picture, when the joeys are in the pouch their mum licks them after feeding to get them to go to the toilet. A damp tissue is a suitable substitute.

For more pics of Rufus have a look at Donna's blog.

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Just a little note while we're on the topic of possums. I've mentioned this before and I'm going to continue to mention it, a lot of the hits on this blog are from people googling for information on looking after native animals. If you have a wild animal that you're looking after, make sure you're part of a wildlife carers organisation.

Do not try to look after wild animals if you don't know what you're doing, or don't have some kind of support network. It's not like looking after cats, dog, budgies or guinea pigs.

You can't learn it from a book or from the internet. There are some very good, very informative websites out there on caring for wildlife, but when you come across a problem with your animal, and you will, an experienced carer will usually be able to help you fix it straight away.

Rufus is a good example of the need for a network. Ringtails really need to be with their own kind as they're a lot more social than brushtails. Rufus will most likely end up with another carer from BARN that has a ringtail the same age and size as him.

Bringing your work home

Donna's working part time as a receptionist at a vet surgery. The pay isn't the best, but that's balanced out by other things. Below are pics of some of the other things.





The bird is a young Noisy Miner. Now I've got to admit that noisy miners are one of my favourite birds, despite the reason they got their name. We have two options with this little critter. As they are territorial, they need to be in a group when they're growing up, this means either we pass him (or her) on to a carer that has other noisy miners, or we take on a few more to keep it company. The jury is out on that at the moment.

The ringtail possum had her tail run over by a car. Ringtails, with their prehensile tail, rely on the tail being healthy. We're keeping an eye on her to make sure the tail is okay, and if it is she'll most likely be released within a few days. As you can see from the pic though, she's a mum. That was another concern yesterday, but seeing the littlun tonight was a big plus. Mum seems to be over the shock of her injury and is moving around more, so things are looking good for the two of them.

The big outdoors

Mogwai finally moved out into an aviary last night.

We've been meaning to move him for about a week now as he's been ready to move for a while. I removed his drey from the cage he'd been in and fixed it up in the top corner of the aviary, while he sat on my shoulder and watched.

Even though he's been in the aviary a few times over the past couple of weeks, to get him used to it, he spent a lot of time last night exploring.

He's now at the stage where he won't be getting the same contact with us as he has been. He won't come out of the aviary now until it's time to move him to his release site. He can't be released here as there are already a lot of brushtail possums in our area.

Lucky should really be in an aviary now as well, but we've held back on that because we're still treating his dermatitis.

As you can see from the picture below, he's not as good looking as Mogwai. That doesn't stop us caring about him just as much as Mogwai though.



Oh, and the fur will grow back. He won't always look like a poodle.

More new experiences

Donna started working at our local vet surgery today. Talk about bringing your work home with you, she came home with an abandoned peewee (magpie lark) nestling.

It wasn't with us for long as Jess and Brett were coming over to pick it up and look after it, but it was with us long enough to give it a bit of a feed and to go, "Ah, isn't it cute". Oh, and it crapped on Sarah.

We intend looking after birds in the future, but as we're going overseas in the new year, we don't want to get too much into it yet. That said, we would have happily looked after this little guy. There's something about shoving a tweezer full of mince and Wambaroo mix down the throat of a baby bird, that makes you realise you're making a difference in the little critters life.

I never realised before, but baby birds seem to have telescopic necks. When it was sitting there minding its own business it was about an inch tall. When it was offered food, or it thought food was forthcoming, it was about three inches tall. The neck seemed to come from nowhere.

Cyclone Mogwai

Doesn't he look cute?



If the publishers of Men's Health magazine did Possum Health magazine, Mogwai would be on the front cover.



His cuteness hides a destructive streak though.

The cage he's in has two bars at the bottom that support a tray and one of these had fallen out while the cage was being cleaned. No-one had noticed, except Mogwai. Sometime during the night he'd pushed the tray down at one corner and squeezed out the back of his cage.

Donna went downstairs to check on the possums this morning. Lucky was in his cage hissing at her when she went close. He doesn't like anyone since the washing episode.

There was no sign of the Mogster.

The door to the laundry was open, which meant he wasn't just restricted to the room he's kept in. He could be anywhere downstairs, including in one of the cars.

I wandered through the laundry and the garage to, what we call, the computer room. The light was off in there, but the computer had been left on over night, so there was a faint blue and orange glow from the various lights on the computer and all the other things plugged into it.

As soon as I turned the light on I knew he'd been in there. There were papers, lotto coupons, CD cases and pens on the floor. Papers in trays were in disarray. Ok, the computer room is usually like that anyway. What really proved he'd been there was the evidence that he'd been to the toilet while he was there, and it wasn't solid.

The mouse was hanging off the front of the desk, and I suspect he may have knocked it or stood on the keyboard, causing the monitor to suddenly come on. Imagine creeping round in the dark in a strange place and all of a sudden a huge blue light about three times your height comes on right in front of you. I'd evacuate too.

There's a window in the computer room that faces into the garage. After looking high and low in the room, I went out into the garage to see if he'd got up into the ceiling space above the room. There he was sitting on the window ledge, between the window and the curtain.

The look on his face said, "please put me back in my cage, I've had enough exploring for today".

He's back in his cage and I've got some cleaning to do.

Training

To be a wildlife carer in Queensland you must have a permit, either your own, or one issued to the wildlife organisation that you are a member of. This permit has certain requirements that go with it and they are covered in the Code of Practice: Orphaned, sick or injured protected wildlife.

That's a bit of a mouthful, but it's a pretty straight forward, common sense document. One of the things it specifies is that you must have ongoing training while you are a carer. You can't just get a permit, read a book (or someones blog), then look after wildlife. You must be trained by an experienced carer who knows what they are doing.

So yesterday, Donna and I drove over to Natasja's house for the first of our training sessions. Natasja is our co-ordinator and the president of BARN. She also trained Jess and Brett when they became carers at the beginning of the year.

We knew we'd found the right place when we walked to the front gate and there was a kangaroo joey in the front yard.

The training involved, among other things, diet, assessing the animals for injuries, and recognising the different types of birds when they are chicks, something that is not always easy to do. The easiest way is usually by looking at their feet and beaks.

The little fellar sitting on my course notes below is a magpie fledgling. He's just starting to realise what his wings are for and was doing short flights of about 2 feet from one person to the other. Natasja showed us how to hold him and check him over and, as he has gapeworm, a common parasite in birds coming into care, she showed us what it looked like and I helped to treat it with some drops.



As we're mainly looking after possums at the moment, we were shown the proper way to hold a possum so that it doesn't scratch. This involves holding it around the neck and shoulders with one hand, and the base of the tail with the other. Believe me, you couldn't learn this from a book, if you get it wrong it hurts. I have cuts and scratches in my right hand to prove it. I had him by the neck okay, but didn't have my fingers around his shoulders. this allowed him to turn around slightly and dig his claws in. We don't generally need to handle Lucky and Mogwai this way as they're used to us, but a wild possum that hasn't been hand raised would be a different matter.

Around about the time we were due to leave, Matilda had to be fed. Matilda is a female joey, the one we'd seen in the front yard was a male. Matilda had been wriggling around in a pillow slip inside a cat basket next to the sofa the whole time we were there. Natasja got her out and gave her a bottle of Divetelact, and I don't think I've ever seen a human baby empty a bottle so quickly.

As we were leaving, Matilda was allowed outside for a while to get some exercise and too explore. As you can see from the picture below, she made the most of it.



If you're wondering about the height of that fence and her ability to jump over it, Donna was too. Natasja has an enclosure in her back yard with a seven foot high fence and they'll soon be going in there where they can't jump out.

Weigh in day

Luck and Mogwai are due to be weighed again tonight.

They're both putting on weight and doing the things that you expect a growing possum to do, Lucky to a lesser extent because he's sick, but he's advancing none the less.

I've been showing Mogwai the aviary that he'll be moving into soon. He usually has a bit of a look around (aargh... he just jumped on my ankle and dug his claws in) then jumps on my shoulder or head before I take him back to his cage where all the food is.

Lucky is getting back to his old self again. He was up yesterday morning before I went to work, having a feed and grooming himself. Mogwai just climbed over the top of my laptop, and I'm sure he wants to make a drey in the back of my head. He really needs somewhere that he can get plenty of exercise oiujg[rnv [ (get off the keyboard Moggy).

No more baths

Lucky doesn't have to endure the Vetadine washes anymore.

We took him to the vet again last night, a different one this time, one that seems to have more wildlife experience. Not that we have any problem with the other vet we took him too, we still take our other animals there.

The vet had a look at him, then pulled a tuft of fur off, something that didn't impress him at all. She had a look at the fur under a microscope to see if he had lice or mites, which he didn't. She said that, what a lot of people call mange, actually isn't. Mange is caused by mites.

She gave us a tube of Neotopic-H lotion to put on him two or three times a day for the next few days. The lotion will not only be easier and less stressful to put on than the Vetadine, but it's also and anti-inflammatory and an anaesthetic.

He sat on Donna's lap last night while she applied the lotion and I cooked our dinner. Then Donna went and changed her clothes and washed her hair because he'd gone to the toilet on her, several times. She reckons it was paybacks. I reckon he was just proving that, apart from the skin problems and the hatred of those cruel humans that keep doing nasty things to him, everything else is perfectly healthy. He's still putting on weight as he should.

We've just about finished setting up an aviary outside for Mogwai, as he'll be moving into that in the next few weeks. He's getting a lot less attention now than he used to, although I might have to put a padlock on his cage to stop Sarah getting him out whenever she feels like it.

He's learnt to jump now, which can be a bit painful if you're his landing pad.

On the mend

Lucky's eyes are looking better now, the drops must be working. He doesn't like having them put in, and they're not like the drops you or I would use for ourselves, more like a cream, but it's a lot easier and less stressful than washing him.

He had another wash yesterday. I've decided that wearing surgical gloves while we wash him is a waste of time. He didn't try to scratch or anything like that, but he hissed a lot and kept trying to wriggle out of my grip. By the time we'd got him done and Donna had him wrapped up in a towel, there where great chunks ripped out of my gloves.

Afterwards, anytime we went near him he would hiss, until he realised he was being given a flower or a bowl of milk (Di-Vetalact, never cows milk).

We didn't put him straight back in his drey this time. Instead we put him in a small carrier with a heat pad and a blanket. He seemed much happier with that arrangement, which is good because that's what will happen toady at wash time as well.



We've now had the animals with us for about three weeks. In that time I've been doing a hell of a lot of reading on wildlife caring in general, and possums in particular. I've even downloaded a few scientific papers to read, things with a lot more information than we really need as carers. I'm a science student, I can't help myself.

I can definitely see why certain animals, like kangaroos, can only be cared for by experienced carers. It's not just a case of having the knowledge to deal with whatever problems crop up. You have to be able to do whatever is needed for the animal in your care, no matter how much it might hate you for it at the time. I think the more you do that, the more you get used to it.

In a way I'm glad we're being challenged with Lucky. I don't like seeing him in discomfort, and I certainly don't like stressing him out, but I think I'm learning so much more this way than I would if he was like Mogwai. Mogwai is so easy to look after at the moment, he still pees on me though. I think he saves it up, because he doesn't have as much contact with us now as he did when he first got here, so he has to time it right.

And that's another thing that comes with experience. We still think the little guys are really cute, but the novelty phase has passed and we can get on with the job of caring for them properly. That means they can get on with the job of being wild animals.

Of course, the next baby possum that comes along will still get to spend some time in my pocket.

Ringtail update

Sadly, the ringtail died sometime this afternoon.

We've been checking on him through the day, and when Donna went down to check on him about half an hour ago he was dead.

This is something that'll happen to us often as carers, and something we went into it prepared for. I must admit, I wasn't really surprised that he didn't make it. The first twenty-four hours are usually the test when animals come into care and this one was really looking sorry for himself right from the start. He didn't attempt to bite or scratch anyone, didn't hiss, he just took everything that was done to him.

I think you'll always question yourself when an animal in your care dies; was he too hot, did he have enough to drink, did we stress him too much, etc?

When it comes down to it though, not all animals in care survive, in fact eighty percent of animals that come into care are birds and forty percent of them don't survive.

The fact that we've at least given them a chance makes it all worthwile though. It gives you a feeling that you've made a difference, and that's a good feeling.

I couldn't help treating the ringtail as gently as possible while I wrapped his body up, kind of out of respect.

Wash day

Possums don't like taking a bath. Lucky is no exception.

We kind of thought that would be the case even before we washed him, so we had everything prepared to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Donna bribed him out of his drey with a piece of coriander. We probably shouldn't feed him that, but it works better than anything else to get him to come out, and we have heaps of it growing in a pot just outside the kitchen door.

It was recommended we put him in a pouch with just his head sticking out, then soak him in the Vetadine wash, rinse, then soak again.

Well, the pouch we had ready for him turned out to be too small, he's put on about 180g in the last two weeks, so we tried wrapping him up in a pillow case.

After he'd sat on Donna's shoulder and peed all over her, we managed to get him wrapped up pretty well, with just his head sticking out. He was not impressed.

Trying to keep him wrapped up was just about impossible, so we removed it and just held him. This seemed to calm him a little, but only a little. He still wasn't impressed, and now he was soaking wet as well.

Once he was finished and towelled down a bit he seemed a lot happier, especially when Donna put him back in his cage with that piece of coriander.



He's now back in his drey with a heater on so he doesn't get too cold. He hisses every now and then to let us know he's still not impressed.

Sorry Lucky, but we've got to do it tomorrow as well, and every day until the rash goes.

New critter

We had a new animal come into care today. An adult one this time.

Donna and Jess were out looking at apartments and while out they got a call from BARN to go and pick up an injured ringtail possum from Wollongabba (the Gabba). They just happened to be in that area anyway, so picked him up on the way back home.

The first I knew about it was when I opened the front door and Donna handed be a cardboard box saying, "here take that, it's a ringtail".

He's looking pretty sorry for himself at the moment. It looks like he's been attacked by a cat or a dog. There's a few holes in him and a bit of fur missing, but the vet said there's no broken bones or internal injuries. As they used to say in the movies, "it's just a flesh wound".



Sorry about the quality of the image, but I didn't want to upset him by using the flash. You can see the part of one of his wounds on his back. That extends half way down his left side and he has a few puncture marks in one of his legs as well.

Anyway, he's downstairs in a pet carrier now, rugged up in a blanket with some water and and a few choice gum tree shoots.

Hopefully he'll be right as rain in a couple of days and we'll be able to release him back at the Gabba.

No name for him as we're not expecting him to be here for long.

A trip to the vet

This is Lucky.



As you can see his eyes aren't as clear as they should be and he has a few red spots around his ears that shouldn't be there. He's eating and drinking okay and everything is coming out the other end as it should, but the gummy eyes have been bothering us, so Donna took him to the vet's this morning.

There's nothing serious, the symptoms are probably caused by stress, but the vet gave us some drops for his eyes and a bottle of Vetadine to wash him with. Actually gave is probably the wrong word, sold is more accurate, but we don't begrudge paying for medicines for the animals, especially considering most vets, including this one, don't charge for a consultation when you take native wildlife into them.

Anyway, Lucky's got to have the drops in his eyes twice a day and a wash once a day. Washing him is going to be interesting although I don't think it'll be like washing the dog. More like a sponge bath.

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Our copy of the rehabilitation permit from BARN arrived yesterday. For those readers that aren't carers, being members of a wildlife rehabilitation organisation means we're covered by their permit. You don't have to be a member of an organisation to be a carer as far as I know, but you do have to have a permit.

I've noticed in going through the visitor stats for this blog, that a common thread is people googling for information on caring for possums. If you're looking after a possum, or any native wildlife for that matter, and you aren't registered, please do so. Becoming a member of an organisation like BARN, or WIRES, or whatever your local organisation might be, means you will get proper training from experienced carers. You will also get ongoing support from them whenever you need help.

The fines for keeping wildlife without a permit are quite hefty.

Keep in mind too, in New Zealand possums are a pest. If you care for an orphaned possum there, it will most likely be illegal to release it back into the wild. It's the same here in Queensland and probably the rest of Australia with certain birds like common mynas and feral pigeons.

New home

Mogwai moved into his new home yesterday.

He's still with us, but he's now in a cage instead of the cat carrier he'd been in. He should have moved earlier (he's up to 500g now), but wasn't able to for various reasons.



He was a little unsure when we first put him in the cage, and he didn't get into the drey until Donna picked him up and stuck his head in there. Once he'd been in there though he spent a lot of time exploring, sniffing and chewing everything.

He wasn't sure what I was up to when I tried to put another branch in for him to climb on. He was sitting right where it needed to go. Instead of moving out of the way, he sat there and held onto the other end.

Lucky's put on about 100g since he's been with us. He has a bit of a rash under his armpits, but Natasja, our mentor, says that's most likely stress as he's probably missing Jess since the move. She being his original carer. It certainly seemed that way when she came over last night. He just curled up in her hands and looked all content.

Kids today, I dunno

I don't have any kids of my own, just two grown up stepdaughters. That's a learning experience in itself, but nothing like the learning experience of having your own babies.

Now, you could consider having orphaned possum joeys as having your own babies. It's certainly a learning experience.

I was sitting out on our back verandah with the laptop where it belongs, on my lap. I had a glass of Riesling beside me on the table and had just stubbed out a cigar.

Donna brought Lucky out and let him wander round on the table to explore. Explore he did, everything was a new experience, the Dolphin torch for watching the fruit bats in the tree, the binoculars for watching birds during the day and the aircraft inbound to Brisbane airport, (not for watching the neighbours, honest). He even started to climb the brick wall part of the way and if there'd been any geckos around he might have had a taste.

Then he noticed my glass of wine.

I learned two things at that point. Don't tempt young critters with alcohol (actually, that applies to homo sapiens too), and Lucky is teatotal.

Now, if you're a carer, you may be thinking that's terrible me letting him drink alcohol. Actually I suspect someone with no real experience of looking after young critters would be more offended. He didn't drink it, he merely tasted it and didn't like it, and no other animal in our care will ever get the opportunity to taste a good Aussie Riesling like that, let alone the cheap rubbish that was in my glass. And it wasn't really a case of letting him drink it, it was more like, "Oh shit, get out of my glass".

While we're talking about possums, I have a theory about Mogwai's toilet habits. I think he's quite regular and his normal toilet time is around 9:15pm. That's around about the time he got me twice, and Sarah had to change her pyjamas around about that time last night after he peed on her.

No one was game to test the theory tonight.

Open day

We went to an open day at the local animal shelter yesterday. Well, when I say local it was a good forty minute drive, but it's the closest one to us.

The main reason we went was because BARN were having a stand there and we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to meet some other carers and to pay our membership. We're now fully paid up members and therefore covered under BARN's permit.

They had some t-shirts for sale there, so we thought we'd buy a couple to help support the organisation and to advertise it as well. I commented to one of the ladies at the stand that it would be something else for the possums to pee on. Her reply was, "when you're a carer, everything is something for the possums to pee on".

And speaking of possums, we had my family over today for Father's day. Naturally they all loved the animals, my mum reckons caring for sick or orphaned animal runs in the family, especially on her side. She even held the blue tongue for a while.

Lucky made a short appearance to lots of oohs and aahs. He reminds me of a teenager. He always seems to come out of his drey at least once during the afternoon. He has a bit of a snack, goes to the toilet, then goes back to bed. He's just like my youngest stepdaughter Sarah when she's been out the night before.

Actually, Sarah's like that pretty much all the time.

Incidentally, I've been calling the reptiles by the wrong names. Jess calls the snake "Snakoo" and the blue tongue "Lizard Queen". I think I'll just keep calling them "Willy" and "Fatso", it rolls off the tongue more easily and they won't know the difference anyway. Like the old saying goes, "you can call me anything you like except 'late for dinner' ".

All Creatures Great and Small

The good lord loves them all.

Apologies to Mr Herriot for stealing that title, but regular readers of my personal blog will know that I've long had an interest in all kinds of living creatures.

We actively encourage wildlife to our backyard, especially native birds, who are congregated on the back verandah as I write this, and brushtail possums, who like to walk across our roof late at night in their hobnail boots. At this time of year, with the trees starting to bloom, we're getting nightly visits from fruit bats, with their beady little eyes that glow red in the torchlight.

At the beginning of this year, Jess, my oldest stepdaughter, joined an organisation called BARN the Brisbane Area Rescue Network, and became a volunteer wildlife carer. My wife Donna and I have been planning to do the same thing for a while. With Jess away on holidays and us baby-sitting the animals she has in care at our place, we thought it was time we joined BARN and became carers ourselves.

At the moment we have two young brushtail possums here, Lucky is the oldest and currently weighs about 300g. He's living in a cocky cage until he gets bigger, when he'll be moved to an aviary outside. Mogwai the youngest is living in a cat carrier at the moment. That's when he's not snuggled up in my jacket pocket, or peeing on my lap.

We also have Willy, a blind carpet snake. Willy was attacked by birds a couple of months ago and lost an eye as a result. We're pretty sure he can't see out of the remaining one. It doesn't stop him feeding though. Talk about flip top head.

Last but not least, we have a blue tongue skink. I'm pretty sure Jess calls her Fatso, but I'll have to check up on that. Fatso was originally being kept illegally as a pet by someone that overfed her. As a result she was way overweight. She's slimmed down a bit since Jess has been looking after her. It's amazing what you can do with a healthy diet and a bit of exercise.

So why am I writing this blog?

There are a couple of blogs out there written by carers, but not many. There certainly aren't any written by people that have only just started. People who are just getting used to being scratched and peed on as part of their daily routine.

I hope you'll get as much out of reading this blog as I know I will writing it. If you're a carer, you may see a bit of yourself in what I write. If you're thinking of becoming a carer, hopefully this will be the encouragement you'll need to get started. If you're just interested in cute little critters, then there'll be something here for you too.

Be warned though, I'm not going to hold back with the sad stuff. Not all animals survive when they're in care, I'll be writing about all facets of being a carer, not just the happy stuff.

I'll also try to put a lot of photos on here too and I'll be adding links to various wildlife related sites as I find them. If you have a website you'd like linked, let me know and I'll be glad to add it.