Hospital for...possums? no. 3

Possy Possum at 52 grams
From koalawrangler's gallery.

Strictly speaking, Possy wasn't really in the hospital's care, but rather in Cheyne's, the hospital supervisor. Cheyne fed Possy around the clock at home and brought him into the koala hospital every day on her motorbike, tucked safely into her leather jacket. Possy spent the day in the humidicrib which is usually reserved for pinkies (unfurred koalas). Possy was snug as a bug in a rug, enveloped in a nest of knitted pouches, all the colours of the rainbow.

Possy Possum
From koalawrangler's gallery.

Cheyne fed Possy with a marsupial supplement every few hours - much the same routine as with a young koala joey. The syringe was almost too big for little Possy who would eagerly gulp at the drops of formula.

Ten weeks' later, and Possy Possum is showing all the signs of developing into a healthy young sugar glider.

He weighed in at the grand amount of 52 grams, and he is developing the telltale webbing through his arms that will allow him to glide from branch to branch.



Possum Cam!

Click here to see more photos of possum patients recovering at the Koala Hospital, Port Macquarie.

Hospital for...possums? no. 2

Possum
From koalawrangler's gallery.

I was coming up the hospital driveway the other day, driving slowly as you tend to do since there are wild koalas who live in the grounds. I noticed something smack dab in the middle of the driveway. It could easily have been a piece of bark, but something made me look twice and I realised that it was a possum lying face-first on the ground.

I just assumed it was dead.

I parked the car and went over for a closer look. I prodded it gently and was shocked and delighted to find that it moved. It was still alive. I turned tail and ran full pelt up the hospital building, blurting out to Amanda as soon as I had her in my sight that there was a possum out there needing our help.

We grabbed towels and dashed out to the rescue! Amanda gently picked the little one up. It was completely docile, obviously in shock after its fall, and had a gash on its chest.

The hospital supervisor wouldn't be in for half an hour so we did what we thought best, filling a hot-water bottle and preparing some hydrating formula. It was a warm, humid morning but the possum was cold; it had probably been lying there during the cool hours of early morning.

The water bottle was a bit of a failure (it leaked), but the possum did accept some formula. We wrapped it in a towel to keep it warm and placed it in a basket pending Cheyne's arrival.

Cheyne knew just what to do, of course. The hot-water bottle was necessary to increase the animal's temperature. It wouldn't take much liquid while it was still cold and in shock. I prepared the bottle (a non-leaking one this time) using boiling water from the urn, covered it in a fetching knitted cover and placed in near but not next to the possum.

Later during the shift, Cheyne reported that the possum had perked up and had polished off most of a pot of fluid.

Sadly, though, the combination of a probable cat attack and a night on the cold ground proved too much for this little patient who passed away soon after.

Hospital for...possums?

Anna Bay Miles
From koalawrangler's gallery.

I wasn't able to fend off the non-koala part of my life the last two Thursdays and so missed my koala shift on both those days. (I told Amanda in advance, of course.) So today I'm back giving the understudy teamleader thing a go.

Anna Bay Miles is now in an outside yard looking positively glowing in the morning sun. He is a changed koala. I remember having his wet bottom resting against my smock while Cheyne fed him on the treatment bench. There was quite a stink coming from his wet bottom. His fur was discoloured which can occur when a koala is very unwell. I remember the strange blonde colour of Dunbogan Val's fur, a little koala I encountered when I first started working at the hospital.

As Amanda and I walk about with our leaf chart, I realise that Linksy has moved from yard 9a to his own digs in yard 4, so there'll be no more adorable scenes of joey love between him and Kimmy for us to fawn over.

Jackie greets me with the rhetorical "another beautiful day in heaven" -- I have to agree with her.

Ocean Therese
From koalawrangler's gallery.

I'm in yard 10 with Vanessa. Golfer is down on his gunyah for a change so I start to feed him, while Vanessa feeds Sandfly Jye. As Golfer feeds, I notice an indentation in his fur. It's a huge tick pulsing near the skin. It's on his arm, so I don't want to risk digging for it. Andrea's doing her rounds in the yard. I ask her to pull it off while I distract him with formula. Even with the distraction, he takes a swipe at a Andrea. She's too quick for him though and comes away wielding the full tick in her fingers.

Ocean Therese is in fine form. She reaches out for me, gently swiping for attention. Beatrice is also helping in the yard. She tells me that Jye is doing something strange. He's sitting in the corner of his yard again, looking like a yogi in the lotus position.

Oxley Jo is curled up like a baby bunting (with the fur wrap built in). She regards me sleepily.


Oxley Jo
From koalawrangler's gallery.
I mention Jye's behaviour to Cheyne and Andrea in the treatment room. Cheyne says it's important to bring it to their attention if we think the koalas are doing something strange. Andrea thinks it's because Jye's bored; he's on the last phase of his treatment and is just marking time before release back into the wild.

We have an early tea break in the dayroom. I ask Andrea about a few of the other patients. I'm concerned about the beautiful Bellevue Bill and his kidney damage. Innes Tony has kidney damage too, but his prognosis doesn't seem to be as poor as Bill's. Fortunately it's not curtains yet for Bill though; he may yet turn a corner.

I ask the other vollies if anyone has seen Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The scene where Borat tries to capture Pamela Anderson in his wedding sack reminded in a comically exaggerated way of koala-bagging (although when we do it, it's a lot less rough!).


Watch Borat bag Pamela!
Provided by Flixster
Actually, when we bag koalas in the hospital, it's usually for their comfort. Sometimes it's easier to feed a newcomer koala by securing the mouth of the bag around their face, or it the bag can be used to shield the koala from something unpleasant like an injection.

Reading the daybook, I see that Jupiter Cheryl and Kennedy Easy have both been released!

Just as I walk out the door towards my car, I hear a voice demanding if I work at the hospital. I turn to see a chap walking towards me with some urgency, carrying a plastic garbage bag before him. He tells me, "I've got a sick animal, but I'm not sure what it is". I usher him quickly into the hospital, calling Cheyne and Andrea to assist. It turns out to be a ringtail possum wrapped in a towel. Cheyne gently examines it while Amanda quickly mixes up some rehydrating liquid to feed the little fellow. As Cheyne checks it over, the long tail curls around the little body. Cheyne gently twirls it away, rewraps it in the towel and places it in carboard box. As with koalas, it's better to hide a hurt animal from the light.

Click here to view more of today's koala hospital photos.