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Mairi MacLeod |
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Andy is a Red-necked Wallaby who came to me on 16/10/08 weighing in at 436gm. He started off on five feeds a day of Divetalact, beginning at an 80:1 mix and gradually increasing the strength till he was on 40:1 On the first weekend in November, when we were at Glenreagh catering for the Reptile team, he developed a red rash on his body and keratosis on his hands and feet. This condition appeared to develop once he was on full strength milk. His milk was changed to Biolac M150 and, though he was a slow feeder, things started to improve. Then about a week later he developed conjunctivitis and we started him on Chloromycetin Eye Ointment and it all cleared. But his good health didn’t last long – he then developed an opaque film on his right eye and it turned out he had a corneal ulcer (which could have been caused by me trying to clean the crusty bits off his eye). His ointment was then changed to Soframycin drops and we all relaxed again as his eye began to clear up. But it didn’t stop there. As his eye was about healed, he started to get pustule-like spots on the right side of his face from above his eye all down to his mouth. Thankfully, Barbara arrived to deliver milk but, after examining him, she admitted she had never seen anything like it before but she thought that Sandra would know. So photos were taken and emailed to Sandra who also admitted defeat but she forwarded them to Australia Zoo and they thought that it might be Pox. Anyway, back to South Grafton vet we go and Dr Chris aspirated the biggest pustule and sent it off to a Lab in Sydney. The result came back as it being a bacterial infection and he was prescribed Baytril (0.4ml b.d). Things settled down again, he began putting on weight and I relaxed. He grew a lovely thick coat but never got any fur on his arms and legs. He looked as if he was wearing shorts and had his shirt sleeves rolled up, and he hated having his arms touched. He was eating grass and looked healthy but was never good at his bottle and often left some of it. He was now ready to go onto Biolac M200 but he didn’t like the idea very much and we actually had to have two attempts to get him going. He then became very lethargic and didn’t want to get out of his pouch. His feet got really sore and hard but his hands were OK. He was a very sad little joey. Panic again! I was told it was very unlikely to be Keratosis a second time. So it’s back to Dr Chris who by now remembered his name. He thought it was an infection and once again put him on Baytril for a further ten days, which yielded no result. Joan O’Shea had a look at him and thought it was Keratosis and gave me some Wombaroo .7 to try. He was also seen by Barbara who agreed with Joan’s diagnosis. So he was started on Wombaroo and the very first bottleful disappeared down his gullet in a flash. He loved the stuff and I was able to give him extra water which he would not previously drink. From then on he simply flourished. His feet were still sore, and there was nothing he liked better than, after his last bottle at night, to lie on his back on my knee and go to sleep as I rubbed Papaw ointment on his feet. All through his problems his one positive was that he always had good poo. He was now growing fur on his arms and legs and was quite a handsome young fellow. Unfortunately, Andy never had a buddy and a couple of weeks ago he had to go to live with Di who has a mate for him and I’m sure he’s very happy. After what we’ve been through together, I would have loved to have seen him through to pre-release. But that’s being selfish. Sincere thanks to Joan O’Shea, Barbara and Dr Chris for supporting me and putting up with all my panics. |
Just
when I thought I was getting the hang of this caring
business, along comes one little joey to prove I know
nothing.