This week our featured patient is a juvenile Green Tree Snake named Dilution, who was admitted to the hospital suffering puncture wounds from a cat attack.

On many occasions, patients that are admitted with injuries made by dog or cat bites will be prescribed a course of anti-biotics so infection doesn’t set in. The actual bite might not be life threatening, but if it is left untreated, the infection certainly may.

This little Green Tree Snake was given the name Dilution based on the tiny doses of medicine he has been prescribed by Dr Arana. When calculating how much medication to give to a patient, the vet bases this on the patient’s individual weight and as Dilution only weighs 16 grams, this makes his doses very small! Some of Dilution’s medication includes receiving a 0.0003mls injection of sub-cut anti-biotic.

Green Tree Snakes are common in suburban areas and are frequently encountered in backyards. These snakes are non-venomous and, as the name suggests, spend a considerable amount of time in trees and shrubs. When annoyed, they flatten their body showing their blue skin colouring, which is normally hidden under the green scales and they will also sometimes produce a foul odour.

Dilution is due for a re-check in seven days and if all is well he should be taken for release back to the Shorncliffe area.

The Green Tree Snakes’ diet includes frogs and skinks; fully grown they can reach around 1.5 metres in length and be thicker than a ten cent piece.

Call the Australian Wildlife Hospital on 1300 369 652 for all wildlife emergencies.

Late one afternoon the AZ Rescue crew got a call from a family business at Elimbah. They were reporting a magpie that was up a large gum tree, attached to a nest with fishing line! The rescue crew got there just in time as the sun was setting and quickly hooked up our lines and Andy began to climb!

Magpies quite often use lots of different types of nesting materials to make things nice and comfortable for their young chicks, and fishing line is sometimes used as part of the nest.

Once Andy was up near the nest, he noticed that it was actually one of the parents stuck in the line, and there were two chicks in the nest. The other Adult was calling out from a tree nearby, reassuring the chicks and the injured parent.

Andy hooked up one of our trusty tools and was able to cut the line, and Kado caught the Magpie from below. Once on the ground, we were able to cut away the fishing line that was tangled all through the legs and wings of the Magpie. We transported the injured Maggie back to the AWH for treatment and Andy spent the next half hour up the tree, cutting away all the extra line from the nest so that the chicks would have an injury free start to their lives!

For any Wildlife Emergencies please call Australia Zoo Rescue on 5436 2000

The Year 1 students of Talara Primary College had a fantastic day at the Australia Zoo recently. We saw lots of great animals and we even got to touch some animals we had been learning about at school. The crocodile felt bumpy and the koala was soft and furry. It was amazing to see so many animal babies. The cassowary chicks were running around looking for food and the new koala joey was adorable as it clung to its mother. We would love to know how old the joey is. We have learnt that koala joeys are about the size of a jellybean when they are born and then stay in their mothers pouch until they are fully developed. The wombats were playful as they chased a zoo keeper and the croc show was by far everyone’s favourite. Thanks to all the staff for making it a memorable experience had by all.

Crikey! If you can’t make it to Australia Zoo to celebrate Steve Irwin Day then you can catch it all online, streamed live at www.australiazoo.tv.
The live stream will begin at 10:30am (AEST) and will stream the cameras in the Crocoseum LIVE directly to the website. There may also be live feeds taken from various other locations throughout Australia Zoo on the day, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled.

Check out the Steve Irwin Day website for all that is happening on the big day www.steveirwinday.org

Steve Irwin Day LIVE!

Early Saturday morning, a koala arrived from Arundel on the Gold Coast suffering horrendous burns sustained in a bush fire Friday night. The fire was thought to have been caused by a thoughtless person throwing a cigarette butt from a car travelling along the highway.

The fire destroyed an area of bushland roughly four to five football fields in size, and a known koala and wildlife habitat. Wildcare wildlife carer volunteers were unable to access the area Friday night as the bush was still burning fiercely and the danger from falling trees was ever present, making the scene very dangerous.

At first light Saturday morning, the rescuers were able to search the burnt out area and this is when the koala was rescued and transferred to the Australian Wildlife Hospital under the expert care of a veterinary nurse.

The seven-year-old female koala was named Jacinta and Dr Amber placed the critical patient under anaesthetic so she could assess the full extent of her injuries.

Jacinta’s fur was completely singed and left smelling strongly of smoke. Her nose was raw and swollen and her ears were blistered inside. All four paws were severely burnt and the top layer of skin was peeling off to reveal the raw swollen skin underneath.

Dr Amber treated and bandaged all of Jacinta’s paws and applied burn cream to her nose. Long term the burns should heal well but there is the risk of infection, so the bandages are carefully changed and the wounds checked every day. The most worrying aspect at present is the threat of Jacinta developing pneumonia due to her lungs being damaged by smoke inhalation.

Currently Jacinta is on strong pain relief, antibiotics and fluids and the vets hope to see her well on the way to recovery in four to six weeks.

This week’s patient is Cutter, a nine day old orphan Grey-headed Flying Fox, who was found clinging to the body of his dead Mum. His Mum had been shot and she had died a couple of days earlier leaving a helpless Cutter unable to fend for himself.

Fortunately Cutter was found and taken to the Australian Wildlife Hospital for emergency care and treatment.

The Vet examining Cutter found he was severely dehydrated as he had not had milk in those days since his Mum had died. He also was suffering from pneumonia which he developed over the cold nights struggling with no extra body warmth from his Mum. He was also covered in fly eggs and the maggots had eaten a ten cent piece size hole in his wing membrane. Cutter’s prognosis was bleak.

But being a courageous little fighter, Cutter has now stabilised to the point where he has been placed with a bat carer. He is currently fed 6mls of soy baby formula every four hours (around the clock) and he has even gained weight. Cutter will be with his carer for about four months and then he will be placed in a bat crèche with other orphans to begin preparation for life as a wild flying fox.

The Grey-headed Flying Fox is listed as vulnerable in the wild and as a species they are widely misunderstood. The role of Grey-headed Flying Fox is to pollinate native trees and disperse their seeds keeping the native forests healthy. This is accomplished as they feed on a tree’s flower pollen and nectar. Travelling from tree to tree, they transfer pollen as they go. They also feed on native fruits; as the seeds travel through their digestive system and leave the body in faeces, the seeds germinate many kilometres away from the parent tree. Keep in mind when a flying fox eats orchard fruit it is doing so because the natural food has been cleared and to survive it must eat every day, just like us.

Call the Australian Wildlife Hospital on 1300 369 652 for all wildlife emergencies.

The Rescue Crew received a phone call from worried locals south of Eumundi – there was an Emu running across the road with a big injury to its neck. The Rescue Crew loaded up our Emu Box, wrangled Bonnie the Australia Zoo Veterinarian away from her patients, and quickly headed up!

Once we arrived at the property, we searched and searched for the injured Emu but it had escaped the contained area through some barbed wire, and all that remained was a few feathers caught in the barbs. After searching the nearby properties, we had to wait for another sighting to resume the rescue.

A few days later, we received a call from the Post Office at Eumundi – An Injured Emu had just walked down the main street, past the post office and down into the fields below! We asked our local carers to locate him, but once again, the elusive Emu had disappeared!

The very next morning, we received a call from a family near the main street; they had managed to corral the Emu into a cattle yard and had closed the gates! SUCCESS! So we headed straight there, Emu box in tow, to check out the injuries! We were able to tell from the injury that it was possibly a wild dog attack, and so time was of the essence!

Briano and James had the difficult job of containing the Emu, while Kado secured a bag over his head to calm him down, once secure, the team transported him into the Emu Box, and back to the AWH! We were able to have a quick glimpse of the injury – it didn’t look good.

Once at the Australian Wildlife Hospital, Dr Peter McKinney quickly anaesthetised the Emu, and all of the team were on standby to help out if he woke up. After over an hour and a half of working on him, and perfectly sewing up his open trachea and neck, sadly the Emu was not strong enough to come out of the anaesthetic and he passed away.

If you have a Wildlife rescue or concern, please call Australia Zoo Rescue on 5436 2000.

This week’s patient is a timely reminder that baby bird season is here in full swing. At this time of the year, the Australian Wildlife Hospital will have many baby birds admitted to the hospital as orphans. Many of these patients are merely fledgling birds learning to fly under the watchful eye of the parent bird.

Squirmy is a fledgling Welcome Swallow and the lady who found him did all she could to re-unite him with his parents, but sadly the parent birds didn’t continue to feed him. Without help Squirmy would not have survived, so he was admitted to the Australian Wildlife Hospital. He will now go out to a qualified bird rehabilitator to be raised until he is able to be released successfully back to the wild.

So remember, on finding a young bird on the ground:
1. Check to see if the youngster is injured; if so take the patient to the Australian Wildlife Hospital (if you are unsure a vet can assess the youngster).

2. Look to see if there is a nest/siblings/parents close by.

3. If the youngster is uninjured, the best thing to do is simply place the youngster up in the original nest, (if needed, a make-shift nest made from an old ice-cream basin with drainage holes in the base will suffice, as long as you tie it securely to a branch in the nest tree and place a stick down into the basin so the youngster can climb out when ready).

4. And finally, make sure the youngster is out of reach of any passing dogs or cats, and stand well back and watch to see if the parents come down to feed. Most times the parents will continue to feed and the youngster’s attempts at flight will improve as the days pass. Some youngsters may need a helping hand more than once.

Call the Australian Wildlife Hospital on 1300 369 652 for all wildlife emergencies.

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