2014-17 Benny, red-necked wallaby + About myopathy

2015-17 Benny, red-necked wallaby. 

July 24th 2017 been a bit busy lately, benny still not at all well, little ones coming in and 'home alone'. To say i'm worn out comes no where near it!
Little Rudy's mum dropped dead in a small paddock, in Taralga she had managed to trap herself and the kind farmers, tried to show her a now open gate but she just dropped dead. (see myopathy below) This was probably not the first stressfull event in her life but it was the final straw for her. The upset couple that tried to help contacted us and Rudy is going to require 2-3 hourly feeds for a bit, reducing as he grows so he will be going to a carer who will buddy him up with another his size and raise him till hes big enough to go to a release facility like us.

. Kangaroos that get highly stressed suffer from Myopathy, which is basically the muscles stopping their normal function for a variety of reasons, we treat it in humans and it usually isn't fatal. In Macropodids however (Kangaroos, wallabies etc), it requires an injection of a Vitamin E/Selenium within the first hour or so (along with followup injections over several weeks sometimes) to try and stop this killing the Kangaroo via organ failure (sometimes slow and painful), often not successful.

So what can you do to stop a Kangaroo getting too stressed out? Well not that much really, if you are driving in the bush and you scare some on the road in front of you, just don't make it worse by chasing them or revving your engine loudly, especially if there is a fence nearby that they can get caught in. Don't let your dogs chase them either, they 'get away' and would often die later. Note this is a very abridges version of Myopathy

Mum ran into a watertank here, sight-impaired. Little joey Benny was rescued and eventually in early 2017 got cataracts. He still went on his daily walking flollowing our sound and enjoyed his stuffed toy hanging from a rope swing.  His cataracts wereoperated on and sight fully returned to one eye with a scar to be removed to give full sight in other. But he ate a sharp object, possibly bone, and after July 2017 was eu by Dianna 

Ned the red Neck wallaby 1kg, having finally mastered getting into and out of his bag.

Jasper wombat whispers the good news to benny the red neck Wallaby. He's getting an operation to fix his cateracts in April. Benny suddenly went blind over xmas and we now suspect his mum had vision problems as she ran into a watertank and broke her neck here, she was a totally wild wallaby. Benny has a very small amount of vision (20%?) and manages very well in his enclosure, so we feel he will cope with the operation. Red more about Benny on our website news and shop where you help us by paying $20 towards the cost. We don know how much, were told we will get a special rate which is great, but as were self funded it all add's up

Benny red neck wallaby has been slowly getting his sight back after his operation last year, it's good enough to chase the wild girls around now. He's got his 'jumpy ' bag for a bit of fun as well.

Benny the red neck wallaby has been critically ill for some 7 days now, spent all day sat and got home 11pm from the Dr Howard Ralph an amazing man and Vet. Poor Benny has pancretitus and a foreign body in him, no poo for a week, not eating not good at all. Now an IV line in and lots of pain relief and various drugs today see's the light at the end of the tunnel, he ate grass, is finally pooing again although still on strong pain relief as he has been all along. I thought I was busy with the 14 wombats and 4 kangaroo's and wallabys, 2 releasing at a release pen, wombats, local wombats with mange finding and starting their treatments. All this while being by myself as warwick's away, but this last week I've managed to get 30 hrs out of each day! so glad he's getting better! Warwick is on tour with the spooky mens chorale on an all expenses paid trip to the uk for a month singing his heart out while he can before parkinsons dulls that lovely voice!.

Sad news, not every thing is cuddles, bottle's and happy endings. Benny red neck wallaby did not make it. The last chance salon gave him 4 chances at life here. We have had just 2 weeks short of three years, getting close to release, after a cateract operation with one eye with sight the other just needed scar tissue removing. He's not been well a while , see previous post. this last week and a half has been tricky, and we thank Dr Howard Ralph and Glenda Ralph for all they did for him he's been pain free, medicated and recovering but the othernight ago things started to go pear shaped, and late last night something went horribly wrong with his stomach that all the pain relief i had made no effect. So with my good friends Nev and Kirsty the vet at the other end of the phone and Warwick texting from the UK we made the call. And I had the hardest job ever to put him out of pain. I will ask a very good friend who knew and loved Benny too to help me dig a hole tomorrow where his mum is burried.