The moment Tim tells me he's seen a lump on the jaw of this kangaroo
"my heart sinks, because so often that means one thing, lumpy jaw."
"And it causes a nasty infection in the bone of the jaw."
"From there it grows and it can be incredibly hard to treat."
He has to slide that hand down her back and grab on to the tail,
"and from that point on he has to be committed."
Go for it.
That’s it mate, two hands.
Hold her.
"Got her.
Beautiful."
"Nice one mate.
Woah, right in the back."
Hey Timmy, what’s up?
And you need me up there now?
"Alright.
No I'll see you soon."
Chris is responding to a call for help
"from Australian Reptile Park operations manager Tim Faulkner."
He's concerned about one of his kangaroos.
There’s no doubt
"Tim’s pretty good when it comes to his animals."
So for him to be worried enough to call me in, you know,
this must be pretty serious.
Timmy.
"- G'day, mate.
- How are you buddy?"
Good.
How about you?
Alright.
I always get nervous when you want to meet me off exhibit.
Ahh, you’ll be right.
"- General public can’t save me here.
- Yeah."
So what's going on?
Ahh well, we've got mum up there.
It's the female on the right.
Yeah.
And she's just behaving a bit abnormal.
She's licking around her mouth and I can see something on her face.
All that's there at the minute
is just a small lump under the chin.
"- Kangaroo?
- Yeah.
"
" - Got a lump?
- Yeah I know."
"- Yep.
- Yeah."
So I mean, you know what I'm worried about?
"- Yeah, well, lumpy.
- Yeah, lumpy jaw."
The moment Tim
"tells me he's seen a lump on the jaw of this kangaroo"
my heart sinks, because so often that means one thing.
Lumpy jaw.
"- Is it big at the moment?
- No,"
so maybe three weeks ago, we noticed something that was
the size of a marble.
"And in the last few days or week, it has got a little bit bigger."
"It's still small, but the chin is normally flat"
and we've got a definite lump there.
"That's been the giveaways and enough for us to react."
Yeah.
"Lumpy jaw is a disease that's really common in kangaroos."
"It's caused by bacteria they pick up off the ground,"
"and it causes a nasty infection in the bone of the jaw."
From there it grows
"and it can be incredibly hard to treat."
Has she got a bub there?
Yes, he's got a big bub.
That's our worry is that she's a bit drained from that big baby,
and, you know, something's wrong with her,
"- and we need her to rear that joey.
- Yeah."
Lumpy jaw is what I was worried about,
because it's an infection in the bone,
and bone doesn't have much blood flow.
"The antibiotics can't get in there.
It's worst case scenario."
"My hope is it's going to be something like an abscess."
Yes.
"But we're only really going to know once we get her."
"- Yeah.
- And actually feel it."
" And have a look."
If you don't get onto a lumpy jaw quickly, sadly, it can be fatal,
and for young mum,
who's currently juggling a Joey,
it's something we just don't want to think about.
Lumpy jaw it's a hard one to treat.
"Yeah, we've had a few cases of it and it's..."
Well, that's why we a bit reactive now and the lump now
is seemingly small, but over the last few weeks it's got bigger.
Um, so that's why you're here.
Yeah.
"Tim's called Chris to the Australian Reptile Park to examine Matilda."
The mother kangaroo has developed a swelling
on her jaw and Tim is worried
"it may be a fatal condition called lumpy jaw."
Now Timmy, obviously, we need to look at this.
"Talking about a gray kangaroo here though."
Yep.
How are we going to catch that?
We're not going to catch it.
You're going to catch it.
You don't have uniform on.
So this uniform, unfortunately, if any of the roos are sick,
I have to catch them.
They're used to me giving them injections, and I won't get close.
"So you're going to be the tourist and grab on."
The plan of action is a little bit unique.
"Essentially, I'm going to try to act like a tourist,"
walk up to her, offer her some food.
She's going to hopefully take it, from there, I have to reach for the tail
"and get it before she hops away."
They you go mate.
One bag of kangaroo food.
Okay, so I might hang back next to the shed.
Yeah.
And you head up and see how you go.
"Getting close to a sick kangaroo, which is protecting"
a Joey will not be easy.
And there's also an added pressure.
Chris catching the kangaroo on the first go is critical.
"If he misses, we will not get a second chance."
I'll just give this one some food first.
Try and get a bit side on to her, if you can.
Chris is doing well.
He's got the trust of the kangaroo.
He's feeding her, he's giving her a pat.
But now comes the moment of truth.
He has to slide that hand down her back and grab on to the tail,
"and from that point on, he has to be committed."
Go for it.
That’s it mate, two hands.
Hold her.
"Got her.
Beautiful."
"Nice one mate.
Woah, right in the back."
That’s it mate, two hands.
At the Australian Reptile Park,
Chris and Tim are struggling to capture and calm a frightened roo.
"Nice one mate.
Woah, right in the back."
Matilda has a swelling on her jaw and needs an urgent examination.
Can you grab the bottom legs.
That’s it and lift her over.
"Okay, that’s it mate.
Got her?"
She obviously didn’t like the blue shirt.
No.
So the shirt's gone.
Jeans are gone.
Fingers are bloodied.
Yeah.
With Matilda now
"under control, Chris must remove Walt, the little Joey from the pouch."
It’s alright.
But mum isn't happy.
That's alright.
"It can be hard dealing with a mother and her young."
What we don't want is for the baby to jump out and take off.
"Now, Chris’ job is to slip it straight into an artificial pouch,"
"keep them close together so they are comforting each other."
It needs to go well.
I can see that lump.
Now Chris can begin an examination of her jaw.
It's a bit bigger than I thought.
What do you think?
"The worrying thing for me here is that, that lumps firm.
You know,"
if I wasn't concerned before, I’m concern now.
With these, I always find that you’ve got to act quickly.
Yes.
So I think the most important thing is
to first of all, let's relax her.
Let’s give her an injection of something.
Okay.
" But we need to get her to a vet clinic."
Yeah.
"And actually have an x-ray of this."
Okay, sure.
"And then from there, work out what we can do."
"- Okay, no worries.
- Let's hope we can do something."
Yep.
The prognosis doesn't look good.
"Matilda has all the telltale signs of the potentially fatal lumpy jaw."
Settle down.
That’s it settle down.
Okay.
Yeah, she's asleep now.
"- Happy?
- Yeah."
"- I'm going to jump off.
- Yep."
Now we've got her under control.
She's been given her sedation.
It's time to get her to the vet clinic.
"- You alright?
- Yeah."
Tim knows just how serious this disease
" is, but he's trying to stay positive."
I mean, it could be a fatty tissue lump.
That would be good because it's very treatable, but lumpy
jaw is worst case scenario.
Chris and Tim have brought Matilda and her Joey Walt,
to the Green Cross Vet Clinic.
5 minutes from the Australian Reptile Park.
Just straight through to x-ray would be good if we can.
An x-ray will confirm
"whether the growth in her mouth is the potentially fatal lumpy jaw."
"Okay.
Ready to go."
3, 2, 1.
X-ray.
We've got a probably in the right side of that jaw.
All this area underneath
"- Yeah. - shouldn't be there."
So that shaded area, that's actually bone?
So it's actually the lumpy jaw,
so new bones being produced around
"there to try, almost form a capsule around this infection."
The body knows it's not meant to be there
"and it's trying to get rid of it by wrapping up in bone"
and that's what we're getting here.
"This diagnosis is the worst possible outcome."
The x-rays really confirm what we suspected in the kangaroo pen.
"That's the fact that Matilda does have a lumpy jaw."
Now, that's not what I wanted to hear.
I mean, lumpy jaw, it's a problem
"and even as small as it is now, the reality is it's"
going to get bigger.
"Matilda now needs urgent lifesaving surgery."
The strategy is pretty simple.
"Make a nice incision over the top of that lump, work"
"my way down onto the bone, scoop out the infected bone."
And really,
if we do that well, at great chance of limiting
any spread of this infection.
"Chris needs to work fast, every minute under anaesthetic"
"greatly increases the risk to the kangaroo."
Feeling the pressure of you guys, but
"it's Walt,s eyes that are currently burning a hole in me."
Yeah.
He's happy, he's in his little bag.
Just in that raised area of bone now.
"It's quite inflamed, so we're getting a bit of blood coming through."
"It's almost like this bacteria don't want to be found,"
"so they hide away in this jawbone here and deep."
And so you got to sort of uncover
them in that little lair by scraping away until you get in there,
and really scooping them out.
Alright.
I've done just about enough scraping there.
Now that the base of the jaw feels flush with the rest of the bone.
"I'm pretty confident we've got enough tissue out, so"
it's time to close it up.
Alright, that's the last stitch there.
"- So we're done.
- Okay."
"I think the best plan now is that we move quickly, get her off the gas,"
"- back into a box.
- Yep."
"Hopefully this increases her chances of survival."
I mean, lumpy jaw,
it's a problem.
"If this gives her a chance, then it's a good thing."
Fortunately, we've managed to get Matilda through today safely
"so far, the key now is getting her back to the park"
before she wakes up.
One, two, three.
Go slow.
We good?
Good to drop.
At the Australian Reptile Park
"Chris and Tim are keeping a close watch on Matilda"
"as she wakes up from the life saving jaw surgery."
"As we saw a few hours ago, kangaroos can be quite flighty,"
so when they come out of anaesthetic, it's a really risky time.
"Even after we've done so much, you just can't celebrate until"
"she is totally awake, sitting up and looking alive."
"Here we go.
Oh, okay girl."
You’re fine.
Now you take your time.
"- That's all we can ask for mate.
- That's good, hey?"
Yeah, it's great.
Alright, no rush.
"No rush.
There we go."
"For her to be awake and happy, to just gently take her time."
It's very good.
"Now, Matilda, there is one thing we still owe you."
"When Chris reunited, Matilda and little Walt,"
it was pretty moving because little Walt knew exactly where he was.
He knew what to do.
And as he moved around
the side of Matilda, they just touch noses
" and had a bit of a smell and a kiss."
And then he moves around and jumps straight back in the pouch.
Home sweet home.
I'm sure that was comforting for him,
and I'm sure it was comforting for Matilda.
Now, hopefully what we've done for her today
" makes the rest of her life easy."
Yep.
I'm really happy that Chris has come up.
"I mean, it's unfortunate that Matilda has lumpy jaw."
"Hopefully what's been done today has fixed that"
and she lives a long and happy life.