Wilbur the Mudlark was left with an injured wing on Sunday after being struck by a car. The incident happened at Golden Beach, Caloundra, and luckily for Wilbur a wildlife carer lived close by and was called to assist.

Wilbur’s left wing was badly bruised making immediate flight impossible and far too painful.

Injuries that render birds flightless leave them susceptible to dog and cat attacks, wild bird predation or starvation as they are unable to move from food source to food source.

It is important that injured limbs are x-rayed to check for fractures which will need appropriate veterinary treatment. If a fracture is left to heal on its own, the bones can become misplaced causing them to heal crooked which makes flight and movement very difficult, impeding the birds’ long term ability to survive in the wild.

Luckily Wilbur’s x-rays were clear, showing no fractures, so Dr Stacey prescribed anti-inflammatories, pain relief and cage rest while the swelling and bruising subsides.

Wilbur will be due for reassessment in a week, at which time he will either be sent to the bird carer for further rehabilitation or released back home to the wild. He is certainly a lucky little bird considering he weighs only 80grams and a car weighs over a tonne, but most importantly someone took the time to stop and call for help.

Mudlarks are very common and widespread throughout Australia. They are more commonly known as the Peewee in New South Wales and Queensland.

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

Hooty is a Southern Boobook Owl that was found unable to fly properly due to an injured wing. Hooty was given sub-cutaneous fluids at a local vet surgery and then sent to a wildlife carer. The carer brought Hooty to the Australian Wildlife Hospital for x-rays, which showed a fractured right wing.

Due to the nature of the type of fracture and where it was located along the wing, surgery was not an option. Instead, one of our vets, Dr Stacey, wrapped the right wing with a figure-of-eight bandage to immobilise the wing while the bones healed. Dr Stacey also prescribed pain relief, anti-inflammatories and two weeks of rest and plenty of nutritional food for Hooty.

Hooty is now due to be reassessed in a couple of days and all going well, he will enter into flight rehabilitation stage of his recovery. This will help Hooty to regain his wing mobility and flight strength, which is so important for raptors, as they are predators.

Boobook owls are nocturnal hunters, feeding on small mammals and insects which they detect with their excellent vision and then immobilise with their long talons. Boobook owls are found right across Australia with habitats ranging from open to dense forests.

Hello Warriors,

Check out this video I made to help spread the word about Steve’s Place.

Save Steve’s Place

Cheers,

Stevo in the USA

Hi fellow wildlife warriors! If any of you live in Southern California I want to invite you to my Steve Irwin Day fund-raiser. Wildlife Warrior Wednesday will be held on November 11, 2009 at The Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, CA. This is a great Comedy Show with 100% of the $15 ticket price going to Wildlife Warriors. You must use the promo code WILD when purchasing tickets and you must show up for your money to be donated. Full details are at www.rememberwildlife.org I hope you can come! If you can’t make it but would still like to donate you can. Please go to my hero page at http://www.everydayhero.com.au/rememberwildlifeSID I am one zoology student making a difference. Together we can save wildlife! Whoo Hoo! Thanks and good luck to everyone’s fund-raisers. Rebecca

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.

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.

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.