Tonight as I write the rain is pouring and that is the best news to my ears for a long time. Also the phone has not yet rung for a koala needing care today - an extremely rare occurance.

Over the last month Friends of the Koala has seen 35 koalas euthanased, mainly koalas suffering from incurable diseases, too severe to treat. A further 10 plus deceased koalas have been repoted to us. This is the worst month we have had in the whole history of the group with regards to deaths of koalas. A significant contributing factor has been the hot, dry weather.

These numbers are significant as there is no other single species in our area that has so many reported deaths during this period. For a species that is currently being considered 'Threatened' by the Federal Government it is a great concern.

Two of our previous blogs were about a mum and bub up in the Tweed area and a koala called Sooty who was rescued several months ago with burns from a fire. We thought the mum and bub story was a successful one until the area she was released into was burnt out the following week with another fire. Friends of the Koala Volunteers have spent many hours looking for her but to no avail. We can only hope she went in a direction away from the fire.

Sooty was unfortunately euthanased a couple of days ago. Sooty was ultrasounded when she first came into care for cysts on her ovaries - a complication from chlamydia disease that is incurable, can develop rapidly, makes the koala infertile and can result in an extremely painful death. Her initial unltrasound was clear but unfortunately she has since developed cysts for which there is no treatment and the only option is euthanasia.

This was very sad for all those who had put so much into her care for so many months.

Another sad story was the poor fire fighters who had been endlessly fighting fires in the Kyogle Shire for weeks and had come across a koala. They bundled him up and made him comfortable thinking he had just been burnt and could be healed. An ultrasound showed this extremely thin boy had gone into kidney failure. Both his kidneys were completely diseased, incurable and causing him a great deal of pain. I felt so sorry nothing could be done to save this boy for those fire fighters.

Last night I saw one of the first healthy koalas I have seen for a month. A beautiful 3 year old male, in great body condition was hit by a car. I felt like hitting something myself when I saw his injuries, a major break near his knee joint, bleeding into his abdominal cavity and head injuries were just what was obvious - I knew that even the best vet care in the world could not make this boy better. How frustrating that one of the first healthy koalas we see in a month gets killed by a car.

Lets hope it rains some more so the koalas that are on the brink of getting some sort of illness are more able to cope as the feed will be better and the weather cooler. Koalas have a poor immune system as it is so it only takes something like extreme weather conditions to push them over the edge.

A big thankyou to all the rescuers, vets and those caring members of the public who have taken the time to help a sick or injured koala. I am sure the koalas appreciate it.

If people would like to get some idea on how they can help lobby governments about the problems koalas are facing in the Northern Rivers please visit our Advocacy pages .

Submitted by Care Coordinator Barb Dobner