I was on the Friends of the Koala 24 hour rescue phone when a call came through for a koala with a pouch young. Both had been found sitting on the side of the road in the Clarence Valley Shire. This area is covered by Clarence Valley WIRES however they do not have many koalas come into care so refer many of them to us, in particular if they require the specilised services of the Australian Wildlife Hospital in which case we help out with transport.

Jennifer, the WIRES CV Koala Coordinator, had already done a quick assessment the koala. As a result she had already decided to make a long trip from Maclean to meet me at Woodburn. The koala had been sighted on the side of a road and Jennifer had gone to find it. Not an easy task, even for a koala sitting waiting to be picked up. She had had it for about an hour, it was unable to sit up and was crying when touched. She thought it had a broken hip. The spine seemed OK, the back legs were moving, but she was very worried about its constant crying.

We transferred the koala to a special cage I had packed with towels from the abundance waiting at the Care Centre. Also waiting was a supply of leaf – so I took some small pieces to reassure the koala during transport. Kay, Care Centre Coordinator was aware of the pending arrival and we thought it would need to spend the night at her place. Because it appeared that the koala had been injured, I packed her quite tightly to stop her being rocked around by the car. By this time Jennifer had told me that this was a female with a joey in her pouch!

I took her straight to Kay’s (in Lismore). We tried to check her on Kay’s brightly coloured carpet and couldn’t see anything much at all. Cream carpet at night is much better! Here we had an incredibly thin, brown koala with fur that parted because she was so dehydrated. She couldn’t sit properly, so Kay propped her up on the floor and packed warm packs in the cage and behind her as well as switching on a heat pad, ready for keeping her warm for the night. I checked that her bottom was dry. She did not look as if she had been hit by a car. Despite her incredible thinness, she was a really sweet, alert koala. She watched Kay very carefully with her bright brown eyes when Kay put some glucose on her gums for quick energy and stayed alert for her return when she made up a glucose solution. Kay then gently syringed glucose into her mouth. She drank it enthusiastically. Koalas seem to eat fluids, giving anything in their mouths a good thorough chewing.

I left to get more leaf for the night at Kay’s and when I returned, she was happily sitting in the cage, looking so much brighter. When we put the leaf within her reach she was very interested, but could only manage to suck one. Kay quickly found a spray bottle and misted the leaf for more moisture. So I left them to it.

Next morning I was delighted to find that the newly named Joan had gone to the Australian Wildlife Hospital. Peter had done a very early, 5:30 in the morning, dash to Karen’s place. Karen completed the journey from the Gold Coast to Beerwah.

Joan was septic and had to be operated on. The possible cause was a dog attack which may have happened some time ago. She was in very poor condition and so was her 100g joey. While she was anaesthetised, the joey was taken out of her pouch, assessed and given a feed by Gail. They are so lucky to be given such attention from a team incredibly skilled in koala care. On a Sunday morning as well!

Good luck Joan and your joey. I hope you make it.

Submitted by Chris Borthistle

Post Script - Unfortunately Joan did not make it as her septicemia was too far advanced. On the happy side her little joey - Mollie - is going well in the very capable hands of Gail Gipp. The latest this week is she has even started to grow fur. Thanks for all those invovled with her care and all that driving so she has been given the best chance possible.