Rehabilitate Wallabies & Other Native Wildlife

Thank you to all our supporters, you have helped over 1,000 animals to be rehabilitated and released this year.

Below is just one example of the work Sydney Wildlife rescue does as a team.

Imagine having an excruciating eye infection and having no possible way to get to a health care professional to have it treated?

When you are a 40kg kangaroo living in the wild with your dependent joey, your chances of getting help are fairly limited…

Thankfully some property owners are astute enough to notice when their local wildlife visitors aren’t quite right and are need of some assistance. The lovely members of the public rang Sydney Wildlife Rescue and we went out to assess the situation.

Capturing this gorgeous kangaroo proved rather tricky as we needed to bring both her and her joey into care. Being a large and fairly fast animal, it was decided that we needed to call in our darter to tranquillise them. The mother was darted first and then her little “at-foot” joey.

Our volunteer vets preformed the initial examination and blood tests on the two kangaroos and then they went to our rehabilitation facility. We needed our ophthalmic veterinarian to look at this unusual case.

The mother kangaroo’s eye was examined the with a slit lamp, stained the eye with fluorescein and tested the pressure using rebound tonometry. The fluorescein stain showed an ulcer and associated infection.

Ordinarily one would apply eye ointments on a twice-daily basis, but - as you can imagine - that is just not possible with an adult kangaroo! Vets decided to trialled subconjunctival injections every 72 hours to allow adequate drug delivery whilst minimising handling. Unfortunately we thought even this was too stressful for both mum and joey.

Advanced technology in the form of a bioglass implant was investigated and the team from Global Surgical Innovations donated a specialised implant which our ophthalmic vet was able to insert to slowly deliver subconjunctival antibiotics over the period of a week.

After a few weeks, Mama Kangaroo’s eye was back to normal and she and her joey were released back to their mob on the same property where they were initially captured.

The volunteers at the rehabilitation facility put in a huge effort for all the ongoing care that both kangaroos required. And special thanks to the home-owners for caring enough about their local mob to call for help

The Australian Honours and Awards system recognises the outstanding service and contributions of Australians.

While typically they haven’t sought thanks or recognition, they deserve both. The Honours and Awards system gives the nation a chance to celebrate and acknowledge those who work tirelessly to improve local communities and to make Australia a better place.

Joan R– For Service to Conservation and the Environment

Lynleigh G – For Service to Wildlife Conservation.

Sydney Wildlife Rescue have had a wonderful year with two of their very active volunteers receiving a medal at the Australia Day Awards ceremony for their contribution to Wildlife.

Joan started up the Rehabilitation facility and is the project manager of the rehabilitate Wallabies and other wildlife projects at the facility.  She also was instrumental in the development and implementation of the idea of having a wildlife only Mobile Care Unit       (Wildlife Vet Clinic).

Lynleigh and Joan have both been co- managers of the mobile care unit since its inception where they ran many fund raisers to raise enough money to buy the brand new RV and then set it up as a clinic. This would not have been possible without the huge amount of help from other members and the donations from the public.

Lynleigh is Northern Beaches reptile co-ordinator for Sydney Wildlife and as well as the OAM, she also received the Pittwater Woman of the year award last year.

Joan and Lynleigh were awarded these OAM’s because what they accomplished would have been a feat if it was their paid day job, but No, they did this completely as volunteers! This is not always easy when you have spent the day at work, then when you get home, you need to look after a family, feed the wildlife in your care and clean and then organize fundraisers and manage the Rehabilitation Facility.

Both ladies have numerous awards for their tireless volunteer work with wildlife and we are soo lucky to have them on our team and see them recognized for the amazing work they are doing for our native wildlife.

During the month March, Sydney experienced many weeks of consistant rain followed by a couple of days of extreme rain falls of over 300mm (12 inches).  With an already water logged earth, there was nowhere for this rain to go which resulted in major flooding events all across Sydney and the wider NSW area. 

Sydney Wildlife starting receiving more calls to assist with animals being affected by the ongoing wet conditions.  These included:

• turtles being washed out of their homes into unsuitable areas
• waterlogged possums and birds with nowhere to shelter from the constant rain
• possums and macropods have presented with a type of rain scald on their feet due to the prolonged wet ground and their feet not being able to dry

As a follow on effect from the rain, we have seen an increase in the mosquito population which has resulted in viruses being spread amongst macropods and other animals resulting in them needing to come into care for medical intervention.  

The rehabilitation facility didn't escape the effect of the extreme weather.  The road leading to the facility is not a sealed road and therefore, a lot of the surface was washed away during the rain making it hard for volunteers to drive in and out of the facility.  Some of the enclosures experienced gereral flooding.  As we have infrared cameras in most enclosures, any animals in danger of being stranded or harmed were relocated to other enclosures. 

We have had a lot of help from our Sydney Wildlife volunteers and our Corporate volunteers to get the facilty back to its former glory, and in some instances, even better than what it was before.  

There has been great community spirit formed amongst all the volunteers that have helped to bring the facility back to its former glory.  This wouldn't be possible without your generous donations that keep the facility running.

Thank you for your ongoing support. 

We have been very busy with 16,000 animals rescued by Sydney Wildlife volunteers this year. 

As a result of Australia’s COVID lockdowns, our lovely corporate volunteers were not able to run working bees at the rehabilitation facility for the majority of the year which meant a lot of extra work for the Sydney Wildlife volunteers. 

On top of this, we have not had as many donations as last year either but have still managed to continue to provide great care to all our wildlife we rescue.

The rehabilitation facility has been extremely busy, especially with birds and wallabies now that it is spring.  As people are slowly heading back to the workplace, we have seen an increase of injured wildlife especially on the roads.

This cute little Feathertail glider came into care over 3 weeks ago after Travis, one of our members son, found some leaves in a dead tree that had fallen and needed cutting up. Lucky for "Lucy", our little girl glider, Travis saw the leaves and gently pulled them out of the hollow finding a little pink thing which he put in his hand and took a photo to ask him mum if it was a native animal.

Once it had been collected by a Sydney Wildlife volunteer, it was brought to Joan to hand raise.  Joan had never cared for one this small before, only 1 gm, and at the time, was not sure if it was a Feathertail Glider or a Pygmy Possum.  It required two hourly feeds when first in care but she has now grown and her patagium for gliding has developed confirming that she is a Feathertail Glider.

Lucy still has a long way to go but hopefully she will grow up to be a big (10gm) Feathertail Glider that can go into our rehabilitation facility prior to release.

Please make sure if you do have trees you have to cut up, check for any living creatures first as lots of Australian animals big and small use trees for nesting.

If you find any native wildlife call Sydney Wildlife Rescue 94134300

We hope you have stayed healthy during COVID and that you and your families will have a Christmas full of love and a happy and healthy 2022.

We cannot do the work we do saving lives without your wonderful donations, thank you for your continued support this year.

Regards Joan

Angiostrongyliasis 

A big word with big ramifications for small animals.

Angiostrongyliasis is a disease caused by a parasitic lungworm which belongs to the nematode (roundworm) family. It is believed to have arrived in Australia via an introduced rat species.

The adult worms are found in rats which then excrete the parasite’s larvae in their faeces. When snails or slugs come into contact with the infected rat faeces, they become infected. Wildlife such as tawny frogmouths, kookaburras and blue-tongued lizards eat the snails or slugs and – without treatment – they will die from the disease.

It is a difficult disease to diagnose and often we can only look for clinical signs such as ataxia (abnormal gait), muscle wasting and ascending paresis (rapid paralysis moving upwards from the legs). Sometimes it is only possible to confirm the disease post mortem.

In tawny frogmouths the most common presentation of an affected individual is the inability to clench its feet and falling forward onto its head with wings splayed. We also test their ‘righting reflex’ which involves placing the bird on its back and seeing if it can right itself.

This tawny was rescued by John and Kylie who were walking their dog, Jay. He was ‘sniffed out’ by Jay as he lay helplessly on the ground.

They rushed him to Mona Vale Veterinary Hospital where Dr Rikki examined him and began treatment straight away. He was then transferred to us and our Sydney Wildlife Rescue veterinary team for ongoing treatment and care. A combination of 3 different medications used over a period of 4 weeks saw this tawny frogmouth go from moribund to mettlesome! After the 3rd phase of the treatment plan (which was administered to ensure that he didn’t suffer a relapse) he spent some time in our Sydney Wildlife Rescue Rehabilitation Facility to re-build his muscle strength and ensure that he was ‘match-fit’ for his return to the wild. Thanks to the wonderful volunteers at the facility for taking care of all his needs.

We provide free treatment to injured and sick wildlife. 

We can only do this with your support and donations towards our rehabilitation facility.  Thank you for contributing to help our wonderful wildlife.