Three Swamp wallabies have come in to care in the last month, two of these in unusual circumstances.

The first one was found after a lady was woken up at 2am by her dogs barking. She went out to investigate thinking that there may be an intruder in the yard, as the dogs were very excited. When she came outside she just caught a glimpse of a wallaby jumping the fence. Thinking that would be the end of the matter, she heard a strange sound, she walked towards the sound,and found this very young swamp wallaby joey, calling loudly for his Mum. The joey was unhurt, but most distressed when I received it about 1 hour later at 3 am.

I checked it for injuries but there seemed to be none, just shock, which in itself can be a dangerous state for a native animal.

It took almost 14 days for this little joey to settle, he had to be force fed formula, and he had no interest in life at all. I must admit it is very special the first time you see the change in their eyes, and it is very obvious when you look, and they have decided that life is after all worth living.That happened 14 days after he came in to care.

 

The second one came in a short time later, a lady called that her dog had brought a joey to her in it's mouth. There was no sign of the mother, and the lady had no idea of how the dog had found the joey.

Usually this happens after a dog has chased the mother, and the joey is dropped, in this case I do not know if that is what happened, but when I received the joey I was relieved to find that there were no injuries visible, the joey was in deep shock which is easy to understand, we can deal with the shock, at least there were no actual wounds. Often when they come in under these circumstances there is internal injuries from the teeth of the dog, where it has carried the joey. It does not take very much for such a small animal to get injured in the mouth of a dog.

Again it took a long time for this little joey to get the will to live, but after 10 days she started to take interest in what was happening around her.

It is a sad fact that in cases where dogs and cats have been involved, there is often many more problems associated with not only the health, but also the time it takes for the animal to settle in to the new environment it now finds itself in. From car accidents I imagine the stress involved, as long as the animal is found quickly, is not as great as when the mother of the orphan has gone through extreme and prolonged stress, thus transferring that stress to the joey. In each and every case I have had a joey come in from domestic animal involvement, there has always been greater time involved in the rehabilitation, not to mention the associated health problems that it can also cause. In both of these cases we were lucky, there were no visible injuries.

The third joey came in from a car accident, she was found by a passing motorist, the mother was dead in the middle of the road, the joey unhurt in her pouch, lucky for the joey that someone stopped to check in time, being so young she would not have survived for long, predators on a lonely country road are many specially at night. After coming in to care she settled fairly fast, as is usually the case with car accidents where the mother has been killed instantly and there is no injury to the joey.

She is seen here shortly after coming in.

The three joey's will of course be brought up together as they are similar ages, and as long as all goes to plan, they will be released together as a family group, that is however many months away yet.

Three swamp wallabies turned in to four in no time at all, I am happy to report that they are all doing well.

 

 

 

Joey number two is seen here now happy in her surroundings, interacting well with all the other joeys in care, seen again with a Red neck wallaby.

 

The fourth swamp wallaby joey came in as a result of a car accident, and again took little time to settle in with the others, he had been in care with another carer since he was but a pinkie, so when he came here, he already had his routine down, drinking well, and was quite excited to have company of his own kind.

 

He is seen here some time after arrival, sucking his finger whilst he waits for his bottle.