Hewy was found on the ground so cold, stiff and blue that his rescuers thought he was dead. He was gently warmed up and taken to Ray Austen at Keen St Vets, Lismore.

At 1.9kg with head injuries, a very faint pulse and so little blood in his veins we could not get a sample to test things were not looking good. Ray did a great job of placing him onto IV fluids and gave appropriate medication for his head trauma.

Two days later on a visit to AWH all signs of concussion had gone and Hewy was now able to sit up in his basket and eat leaf. The next day he started to climb although he still lacked strength.

A fortnight on and Hewy is still improving. He has moved to an outside run and enjoys the company of the other koalas. He loves his milk, especially the late night feed and forest red is his favourite type of leaf.

Unfortunately not all koalas that come into care have a happy ending. Hewy had been progressing well but was not as active as other koalas of his age. Despite extensive testing it was not possible to pinpoint what was wrong. He had been living in a large tree outside when 6 months after coming into care he started to have seizures. Sadly he was euthanased. A post mortem revealed he had cancer. A condition he had most likely had since coming into care but extremely difficult to diagnose.

In the Northern Rivers we appear to have a higher incidence of cancers and leukemias in koalas than in other areas including in young koalas such as Hewy. More research is needed and Friends of the Koala is working on encouraging more interest in this area. 

If you would like to Support Hewy, find out more about his story and help us to encourage more research into the incidence of disease in Northern Rivers koalas, Click here to download a form to print out and post in.

To Support Hewy online, Click here, follow the prompts and put Hewys name in as koala of your choice.