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Head Injury 20th.September 2003 A
little swamp wallaby was brought to me one late afternoon and I must
admit I did not hold much hope for her after looking at the state
of her injury.Mum had jumped from an embankment straight in the path
of a car, and she was hit front on. The joey was obviously feeling very poorly, her fists were clenched indicating pain, her eyes were half closed, her pupils dilated indicating concussion, she had damage to her tail, and one ear had been bleeding. She had also had blood coming from the nose, hard to tell if that was superficial, or from the head injury. In this picture you can see the bruising on the side of her head, and the half closed eyes. The fellow that hit Mum stopped immediately and retrieved the joey, and drove her straight to a vet, he did everything he could to make sure if she was to survive she would have the best chance. The vet checked her for broken bones of which she had none, all was intact, so the main worry would be the head injury. There is no way of telling if the animal will survive an injury like that, only time will tell. I could only hope for the best. She could not keep warm, even in the humidicrib she felt cold to the touch, shock was certainly a major contributor to this. Feeding her proved a bit of an ordeal, she was not able to suck, her nasal passages were blocked probably by congealed blood, and she was unresponsive to say the least, her head was leaning to one side and she could not hold it up.But she could swallow, so I was able to get the nutrient in her and then wait. The morning after receiving her, I went to the vet and had her injected with medication to help with the swelling of the brain, also pain relief that would work for 24 hours, this way she could sleep as much as possible with no or little pain. She
was fed every 3 hours for the first 3 days and nights, and finally
she started to respond, she was now looking around, she seemed to
have sight again,she could now hold her
It
is hard to put in to words the feeling of joy when one like this finally
responds, every animal is so very different, not unlike people really,
some have the most unbelievable will, and I am sure that is what gave
this animal the strength to get through the first few days. Picture
on the right is taken 4 days after coming in to care.
17 January, 2010 |
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©Wildlife Mountain 2000 - 2012
We would also like to acknowledge the amazing support and help we have had from the Lismore Vet Clinic who have been an invaluable support to both us and the native wildlife of this region.
Webmaster Susanne Ulyatt
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