I've been a koala carer for coming on about 10, 11 years now but been a wildlife carer for 17.
I've always loved koalas right from a little girl and
they've always been a passion and I aimed to get to where I am
with looking after koalas and really specialising in that species.
In the mornings I get up and just do a visual on everybody.
Then I will do the morning medications, which is me giving them injections or
oral medications. I'm actually a vet nurse as well so that helps, and then
I'll give morning feeds, if anyone's on morning feeds.
The morning feeds could either be a specialised mammal formula or it can be a baby
soy-based formula that's made into a paste so it's not actually as runny as a milk,
it's a little bit thicker. The adults can have it as well if they've come into care and they're
malnourished and not doing too well, it's a bit of extra nutrients.
We actually use the term "paste junkies" because they become really addicted to it
and love it and they will actually swing for it when they see you coming.
And clean each enclosure, scrubbing branches and raking and
changing towels if they need changing.
And then I will generally go for a drive to cut leaf for them.
So then I'll come back and give everybody their fresh leaf for the day and
normally that takes place in the early afternoon and then I'll start the
afternoon feeds, afternoon medications. Big vicious circle.
"Pap" is almost a runny, gluey like substance, faeces and the baby will just
ravish it. It'll eat it and eat it and eat it.
That pap puts the bacteria and the good bacterias into
the stomach and starts the whole process of how a koala
gut works, so they have to have that.
We generally know with small joeys by
weight, demeanor and the consistency of their faeces as to whether they've "papped"
yet from their mum. And if they haven't we then will start the phone around to all
the wildlife hospitals to have pap on hand for when they're ready.
With antibiotics with koalas, they quite often will wipe out that good bacteria and
they'll be left with none and the faeces becomes quite runny and they just don't
do well. So we then have to pap feed them. Which we collect pap from deceased or
euthanised koalas and then we can actually feed that to whoever needs to
re-establish that gut flora and it's literally like liquid gold.
The enclosures they're housed in, luckily enough I've been given grants for the
enclosures. They're invaluable, I couldn't do what I do without them.
We generally know what size joeys start to thermoregulate, so anything sort of before that
we will keep in a humidicrib, at an ambient temperature to try and
replicate mum's pouch a little bit.
When it comes to caring for small joeys,
four-hourly feeds around the clock, lots of patience, there's lots of washing, there's
lots of sterilising because everything has to be super, super sterile with them.
The smaller they come in, obviously the longer they're in care but I think the
longest time I've had one in care for is 18 months and he became quite
part of the family because he was not releasable.
Yeah I lost a little boy that I've had in care for quite some months now.
He came in as a small joey, he was never quite right and they couldn't pinpoint
what was actually wrong with him. He crashed on me the other night so I had
to rush him out to the RSPCA. So he got general anaesthetic and they did a full
series of tests on him, bloods, x-rays, the whole kit and caboodle. And he
actually died on the table and they revived him and brought him back
and kept him there to keep an eye on him overnight but he just didn't pick
up and the decision was made, he didn't have quality of life.
They did a necropsy on him and he had quite a few things wrong inside, that nobody could see.
Heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.
You've got to be able to bounce back,
you've got to be able to pick yourself up and keep going because
you've generally got more in care. And there is quite often that special one,
that you have and they're the ones that really hurt, yeah.
Just if people see a koala on the ground if it's sitting on the ground it's not a
good thing. They don't sit on the ground for no reason. If it's just crossing
the ground to go up another tree that's okay but to keep an eye on
their eyes if they've got yucky eyes or if they've got a wet bottom phone
somebody. Just get in contact with a local wildlife group, the RSPCA, whoever and report it.
If we can get the animal sooner rather than later we can actually
treat it but if left too long that's not a good outcome.