Heartwarming Mission To Save Baby Wallabies | Vet On The Hill

Hi, you must be Shane. Yeah, it's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Who is this? This is little Freddy. Oh my gosh. Our agile wallaby. And you're just in time for a little joey playdate, we're about to start feed. Oh my gosh, I'm well in, that sounds amazing. Come on in. Thank you. Little Freddy still needs his bottle. Oh my gosh. Everyone. It's like cuteness exploded in here. Oh my gosh. This must be the best part of your volunteering job. Definitely. 24-year-old Shay leads the Agile Project, a team of 160 volunteers dedicated to saving local wallabies trapped by rapidly growing housing development. I always say I was raised next to joeys or alongside them. My mom was a wildlife carer. She was a single parent to two children, but also we just lived in a madhouse. I remember doing snake relocations, we did cassowaries, we did, of course, wallabies. My mom was a little bit sick growing up and so, you know, if she was to go into hospital, it would be left to my brother and I to take care of the animals and I think that really put a lot of responsibility on us, but I do think it's made me the person I am today. Why are they being looked after by you guys right now? Yeah, I think that's where the situation gets pretty grim. A lot of these, the majority of their mums, have been hit by cars. Some have been killed by dogs off-lead. We try and get them back out into the wild, just not right here where they're from, because suburban area has taken over their land. Oh my gosh, there's so many of them. Coming down to these fields and seeing the wallabies in situ, you really feel for them. They are just squashed into this really degraded area, not well looked after at all. These guys here are called agile wallabies and this mob, I mean, you can see there's probably a good few hundred of them and the problem here is that they're actually refugees. The plight of wallabies in this particular area is 100% as a result of human development. You've got development of sports fields on all sides and then at the escape route, you've got a huge highway, so these animals have been crushed into a small space, not thought about, not considered. The only way to escape is along the main road, so they're getting killed in their hundreds every year and these guys really need some help. Hi there Joel, how are you going? I'm Scott. Hey Scott, how are you going? Nice to meet you. Wow, this is a sad picture to see, isn't it? Yeah, that was one of this morning's casualties. Nearby, wildlife rescuer Joel has found the latest fatality. Adult female with a pinky that survived the car strike. You can see the blood on the highway. You said that she had a pinky, a baby wallaby in her pouch, what's the future for that animal? Unfortunately this one is too small to survive in care. There's a human care for an animal under 160 grams, they just are not successful, so that animal was taken to the vet and euthanized this morning. It's pretty shocking, it's a daily thing for our volunteers to deal with. All kangaroos and wallabies are gorgeous, they are beautiful, iconic creatures and we need to remind ourselves what is a pest and what is a native animal. This road's busy and unfortunately this is two lives lost. Yes, yes. With one collision. Yeah. It's pretty sad. And this happens every day on the northern beaches up here. How does that make you feel? Oh, I'm the guy that maps and does the data for it, so I feel horrible. It's pretty, you know, it's just tough to see that, they deserve better, they really do. The work of these volunteers is never-ending and Shea has called Scott to help deal with an emergency situation. So what you got? Well, I've just got Joel on the phone now, we're looking at a paddy melon and I would love some help with a rescue if you're keen. Yeah, absolutely. No worries. Paddy melons are small marsupials in the same family as kangaroos and wallabies. We'll be there as soon as we can. Let's go. Shea's described her home area as the death spot of wallabies in Australia, but rather than just accept the status quo, she is fighting the man and she's actually taken the Queensland Government to court over her ability to relocate animals rather than just simply shoot them. She's represented herself in court, she won and she has now proven that you can move macropods from one place to the other and that is an absolutely amazing achievement. So is it to the left or right of the bin? It's not very often that Shea gets to have a vet on call with her, so it's great to be of use. I can assess the animal and if it's okay, we can release it straight away without having to go into a vet clinic and all the stress associated with it. So we've got a good team here. If it comes past you, don't hesitate, grab it by the base of the tail. When we do capture the animals, it looks a little bit funny, we grab them by the base of the tail. Now that's the equivalent to scruffing a kitten. It's not going to hurt them, it's the safest for them and us because we get to turn those vicious legs away from us. The other person who's hands free gets the sleeping bag and puts the wallaby in and then Dr Scott can assess from there. Shea gives me a very quick version of catching a macropod, it's basically grab it by the base of the tail and hold it up and hope that it doesn't kick you in the face or bite you. You don't think about it, just go. Just do it. Don't think, just do. Okay. Okay, let's go. It's going to come out here. Bag it, yeah, get it Scott. Nice. Great work. All right. Base of the tail. You're okay to hold her? You got it? Shea goes in like an Amazon and just catches this paddy melon single handedly. This girl is incredible. Wow. Like she takes no prisoners. She just takes wallabies. Just wallabies. Yeah, I mean there's three grown men standing there watching Shea in all her glory just completely lady handle this paddy melon. It's really impressive. I'll hold the base of the tail so you can assess. It's all right darling. Yeah, so I'm just looking for any injuries, anything external that would explain why this guy's here, but so far not finding anything. In these kind of situations, we really just don't know what the outcome will be. If it's got a broken leg or a really severe injury, it does mean that we will have to euthanize it. To be honest, a lot of these cases end like that. So really hoping it's not that situation. So let me just have a look at his head and if I can get him. There we go. All right. Yes. Hi. It's okay. It's all right. We're here to help. It's all right. He's really struggling. I'm going to go get the vitamin E. Can you someone hold his tail? Macropod, which pretty much means big foot, that involves kangaroos, paddy melons, wallabies are quite susceptible to myopathy. Now this is essentially death that can be caused by stress, but Dr. Scott has got some medication on hand that will reverse the stress. So what do you think, Chey? I mean, he seems pretty healthy. If you've cleared him, then I think what's happened is he's accidentally got himself trapped. So we've helped remove him from the situation, which is really good because if he would have come out this way later tonight, chances are he would have got hit by a car. So I think we go for a bit of a walk into the deep bush. He knows this area and we can let him go. Wow. This is virgin rainforest now. It is. It's pretty perfect here. Away from everything. Nice clear spot for him. Great release site. So, ready to release? Yep. This is a clear space. All right. Off you go. Good boy. There you go. Perfect. Oh, he's great. Back where he's from. I'm feeling inspired and amazing. We've managed to relocate an animal that needed us and release it back into the wild. Rescue one life at a time. Yeah. Good work. Yes. Come on, team. Nice one. This release is just a warm up, with all hands on deck required early tomorrow morning to help with a massive capture and relocation operation. I am so excited to channel my energy into something really positive, joining this team of wildlife warriors as they scurry around at two o'clock in the morning, capturing as many wallabies as possible. I literally cannot wait. Ahead of the wallaby catch and release program, Scott's heading back to the Marlin Coast Hospital. Waiting anxiously are Amanda and her young children, Jai and Ezzie, who've brought in a tiny bird they're worried about. We found a little finch on the back patio, and we are thinking that it might have been chased by a bigger bird, or it might have fell out of its nest. If the wing has been injured, hopefully they could fix its wing and make it so that it could fly normally again. My first reaction was to look around and see if there was a nest close by, because I thought, you know, obviously it's a bird in distress and it needs to be with its mother. Our children very much love all the animals, so, yeah, it's good to see them again. Hi guys, I'm Dr. Scott. Do you want to come in? Yes. Come on in. Let's just jump in there. Well done. You know what, whenever anyone walks in with a box, I like to guess what it might be. A platypus. No. No? Okay. It's got little air holes, so, is it a bird? Yeah. Yeah, it is? Alright, do you want to show me? Let's have a little look. Let's have a... Oh wow, look at that. Isn't that beautiful? Wow. So, where did you find him? We found him on the back patio. Not looking too well, is it? He's got his eyes closed, so he's looking a bit sad, isn't he? And a bit fluffed up. So he's not 100% well. Alright, let's just get you out. Come on in. Okay, so it's a little finch. So what I'm going to do is feel the legs, hold my finger, and you can see that leg's okay, yeah? So let's just check the wings now. There's no issues there. So no injuries? Not that I can find, no. Could be a very young bird. It's still got a lot of energy to it. I just want to see if we dare. Are you going to have a little fly? So that's pretty good. That's a good start, isn't it? Ready? There. Look how cute it is. I so love the fact that your kid's already rescuing wildlife. That's a good start, isn't it? You're like, when I was your age, that's what I would be doing as well. I'd find a sick bird and bring it home and look after it. It is just closing its eyes, so I think it is debilitated, but the fact that it's trying to fly, I think, just needs to rest. Although there doesn't seem to be any obvious external physical injuries with this little finch, it is unwell. It's fluffed up, its eyes are closed. So it could be either two things, a disease process going on, so maybe a bacterial or viral infection, or concussion, which happens a lot to birds. They fly into glass, they hit the head, and then they suffer with concussion. It means that they just need a few days to recuperate. So I think this is the kind of patient that might do well at home being looked after by you guys for a few days. How does that sound? Should he ask what kind of seeds? What kind of seeds should we give him? Well, I think it's quite easy. You could just get budgie seed or canary seed from the supermarket. Easy. Lovely. Yeah. And once you see that he's eating and he's happy, then you might better return him back to his little family. Yeah? From your family to his family. Do you remember what was the name that you picked out for him? Marlin. Very good. Marlin. That's a cool name. All right. There you go, guys. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. All right. Look after Marlin for me. Thank you. All right. You're welcome. Bye, kids. See you later. Bye. It's always tough with little birds because despite your best efforts, a lot of them don't make it. Let's hope that Marlin pulls through and goes back into the wild. But even if he doesn't, what these kids have shown is they cared enough to pick him up, pop him in a box, and bring him to the vet. So those kids are amazing. The vet said that it's pretty healthy and that he might have just thought it would be a concoction. I'm really excited. Hi there. How are you doing? Hi. Nice to see you. Brand new. Do you want to come on in? Sure. Thank you. Scott's next patient has arrived with Meg, the wildlife manager at a local native fauna park. So what's been happening? So this is Honey, the squirrel glider. This morning we noticed that she's got a small swelling on the left-hand side of her face and it looks like she's got an infected tooth right at the back. Okay. Wow, that's so little. Yeah, she's tiny. She's so light. Hello, precious. Oh my gosh, look at you. We checked all of our squirrel gliders this morning and noticed that Honey had a bit of a swelling just on the lower left side of her face along her jawbone. It wasn't noticed yesterday, so I'm hoping it's only just started and we've caught it early enough that we can get it treated without too much discomfort for her. Wow, she's so beautiful, isn't she? Yeah, she's gorgeous. Exquisite markings. Wow. Hello, baby. How are you? Popping out of the little bag, Honey, just this vision of gorgeousness. She's got these beautiful big eyes. Of course, she's a nocturnal creature. Seems also quite confident. She's amazing. Yeah. She's pretty cool. Honey is friendly and placid with the keepers at Karanda Koala Gardens. She's very happy to be out and about with us when we're feeding her. Squirrel gliders do exactly as their name implies. They glide. They will start from one tree and be able to, like a kite, catch some air and glide to the next tree. So they don't fly by any means. They don't actually gain any height. They do glide in a descending manner. So how far can they glide from tree to tree? About 50 meters. If they start high enough and they have enough open space. So they use their wings, if you want to call them that. The large bits of skin connect from the back of their hand to the back of their feet. And they use that to glide from tree to tree. Oh, good girl. That's it. I love Australian wildlife. When I was seven, I was camping with my parents in the outback. And a small rodent touched me on the finger. And it was this sort of almost religious moment where I just went, you know, this is what I want to do. I have an affinity with animals. And I took it all the way to being a vet. Now I can see that swelling. Yeah. Very clearly. So just under the eye. Yeah. And that right hand side, right? Yeah, yeah. Her left, your right. Yeah. So has she still been eating normally? She was eating yesterday. What do you feed these guys? A bit of fruit and a little bit of hard veg. And then they also get a variety of browse. So we give them eucalyptus and fig. The possibility is that she's got an infection around the tooth. Also maybe some sort of foreign body. Maybe a bit of other vegetable material that she's eating. Yeah. Is it a possibility that she's had a chew on some of the browse and maybe a stick or something's gotten stuck? The likely causes for the swelling on Honey's face is a tooth root abscess. So either there's a damaged or dodgy tooth that needs to come out or there's something stuck between the teeth. Either of those things cause infection, leads to pus, and that's the swelling that you see. Hey, Kath. Hi, how are you doing? Hi, good. So I've got little Honey, the Squirrel Glider. She is unbelievably gorgeous. Here we go. Just have a look. When you see this girl, she is just magic. Oh, hi, beautiful. Isn't she just magical? She's stunning. You can see the swelling on her face. That's it, yeah. And that's the issue that we have to address today. So we'll give her a little bit of gas. We'll wait until she's nice and sleepy. I'll have a look into the mouth. We'll see what the problem is and we'll go from there. Perfect. Sound good? All right. Yes. All right, sweetie. Put your little nose in there. There we go. This is the first time Scott's treated a Squirrel Glider and dealing with such a delicate native animal is making him more than a little nervous. All right, you happy for me to put the gas on? Yes, I am. Yeah. Come on. It's really difficult to manage the anesthetic of a little creature like a Squirrel Glider. When they're that little, they have a very fast metabolism. So they absorb the anesthetic quickly and then they throw it away quickly as well. So they wake up, then they go back deeper. And so trying to get the job done in between those quick highs and lows is really tricky. She's getting there. Yeah, she's nearly there. Good girl. She's getting a little bit floppy there. It's hard to build up on that back molar. Just trying to see if that tooth wants to actually come out. Scott needs to take a closer look at Honey's tooth to decide if it needs to be removed. Jail bars right in the front of the mouth there just makes it tricky. But the shape of the four-year-old marsupial's mouth is making the job almost impossible. The anatomy of the Squirrel Glider is quite challenging. Very long, pointy incisors, kind of jail bars getting in the way of what I need to do. So it does make it really difficult to navigate around the oral cavity. So access is proving quite difficult in this guy. All right, sweetie. It's all right. Suddenly, the tiny patient begins to stir. Honey is giving us constant frights. Going deep into the anesthetic and then would virtually stop breathing. And then she would wake up because she took the anesthetic away. It really is quite a difficult day at the office. Just wondering what we should do to just monitor her heart rate. Honey is a tiny little creature. So delicate and unfortunately can die without trying at all. You just need to go back to your basic skills. Your patient needs to keep breathing and their heart needs to keep beating. All OK? Breathing's good. Heart rate's great. Amazing. OK. Perfect. With Honey's vital signs back to normal, Scott discovers the cause of the fragile little creature's swollen mouth. Oh, yuck. There's a massive build-up of fluid just here. So it's definitely an abscess. I can see that the molar at the back of her jaw is actually fine. I crack a bit of tartar off, but there's no issue of root decay. But further back, there's this sort of cheesy pus that's present there. And although I'm using cotton buds to try and remove the pus, there's still a big, large lump of fluid that needs emptying. Gosh, yuck. There was a lot of infection in that. Once again, the peculiar shape of Honey's mouth is preventing Scott from getting enough access to the infected area. There's definitely a hole down the back there where all this pus is coming from. So I think what we'll do, we might just put a tiny little incision just underneath the chin and flush it out that way. As a vet, you need to be light on your feet. And when you can't perform a procedure one way, you need to come up with a solution. So as I can't get the pus out of her mouth, I know I need to go from underneath to try and relieve that pressure of this abscess. What it means now is I need to perform a lancing of the area, basically using a scalpel, very carefully applied through the muscles and the nerves and the blood vessels of that area, and then allow the pus to run free and escape that area. That is disgusting. Oh gosh, so much infection. Oh my god. As soon as I lance it, a torrent of nasty green pus comes flying out of Honey's face. How can something so cute produce something so disgusting? That is a huge amount of pus for a little creature. Yeah, it's half the size of its head. So glad we've done that. Oh, that's going to make such a massive difference, just that pressure relief. You can just imagine, she'll be like, ah. Yes. Within the pus is a whole bunch of toxins and it actually really depresses you, makes you feel nauseous and sick. So now that we've got rid of that, that's going to be the start of Honey's recovery. Even the swelling's gone down considerably. Yeah, I can actually feel she's got a jaw again. Scott gives the infected area a flush before starting the tiny screw glider on a course of antibiotics. OK, well that looks pretty good, I think. That face looks so much better. Oh, it looks so much better. Yeah. Hi, beautiful. Hi. Honey's face just all of a sudden changes to be much more sleek and slimline and perfectly balanced on both sides. So we know we've done a good job here and it is just a privilege to be handed tiny-mouthed Honey. It could all go wrong, but it didn't, thank goodness. Meg will be here soon to pick you up and reunite you with your family. Honey has made a rapid recovery from her surgery. Hi. Hello. Here's your girl. Hello, Honey. How are you feeling? She looks even better. Yes, yes. She had the most incredible amount of pus come out of her mouth. It was really gross. It was a lot. Well done, sweetheart. Hello. You want to go back home, don't you, baby? That's so nice. Honey looks so much better now. The swelling in her face is completely gone. So I'm really happy we can take her back home and just continue with some antibiotics for a few days and she should come good. It's great. Oh, yes. I love you too. But Honey's not ready to go home just yet. She's become quite attached to Scott. Honey seems to be a little bit like Velcro with Dr Scott. A little bit hard to get her off of him. I think she fell in love a little bit, has a little bit of a crush. Come on now. She just loves her vet. What can she say, you know? There we go, Honey. This little creature is absolutely stunning and getting the chance to have a little play with her and a bit of a smooch is really pretty special. I wish she was gliding off into the sunset back to the UK with me. Morning, everyone. Good morning. Back at Trinity Beach, it's 2am and Scott is meeting up again with wildlife rescuer Shea and her team to try to capture and relocate as many wallabies as possible. So everybody knows the traps I'll be setting this morning. I'll take Dr Scott. The aim is to get in and out as quick as possible. It's really exciting, you know. It's very quiet and very still at the moment but I appreciate from what Shea's been saying that the energy starts really pumping and the adrenaline gets going when the animals are going into the traps. So what have we got here? Heaps of sweet potato which is like healthy wallaby chocolate. They love it and we'll go set the traps and that is our tonne of sweet potato that we order in order to do this. The wallabies will be lured into special traps so they can be safely transported away from the busy housing development. And we've got pre-chopped sweet potato and we're going to give them enough that if one was to get caught quite quickly they have a really great time eating their little pieces. Now we zip it up. So this is where we're going to unzip it when we come out. When they're captured, yep. So we just go zoom, zoom, zoom. Grab. Lift. Yep. Bag. Sometimes they like to boing out. Try and grab a minute. Yeah, OK. It feels like it's going to be quite frantic. Like this is the calm before the wallaby storm. Yes, exactly. But it's also weird because we don't speak so it's all frantic in silence. Oh, OK. The only thing about tonight is it still seems pretty hot. Yes, it is a little bit warm. So 26 degrees and under is a safe space for these wallabies. If it gets above 26 degrees that's when we cease operations. When you're trying to remove wallabies from an area of course they're going to get stressed and they get even more heat stressed when it's hot. What temperature is it now? It is 26 but it is dropping and then going back up. So we've got a little limited window of opportunity here to get these wallabies rescued and out. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's why we go, go, go and just don't stop as soon as we start capture because it really is a timely matter. We cannot go ahead if it is 26 degrees or above. So that's why the pressure's on. Wow, I'm feeling it. Yes. You'll be feeling it soon with the sweat as well. So just drop that one. Make sure it drops perfectly. Great. Right, so now we've set our two traps. How long should we expect it'll take for a wallaby to jump on in? Yeah, these back ones, they love these ones. So they're our go-to spots. Sometimes five minutes but they do have a whole hour to come in. So we check them on the hourly. So in one hour's time we'll be back out here and probably pull in a nice big boy from this trap. Oh, hey. I'm excited and nervous in equal measure. It's going to be fun. Well, Shae and I have just finished setting all the traps with the team. And the good news is that the temperature is coming down. So it's now gone down to 24 degrees. So we are ready to go. The light is green. And it isn't long before the first traps produce results. All right, this will be the first capture, guys. Everyone feeling OK? Guys, let's go. Somebody walk Scott basically. All right, let's go, team. They fly on in and they grab these animals. And yes, it looks, you know, rough. But what we're doing is bringing them somewhere where they can be safe and be free. And that's what it's all about. Dr. Scott, do you want to get this one? As soon as each wallaby is captured, Scott's ready with sedation and vitamin E to alleviate any stress. Done. You have to have your wits about you because they've got really sharp claws. They try and bite you, of course. They're trying to get away. They don't know we're trying to help them. Got him. Nice. Yep. But you can just feel the passion and you can feel the love of these young people. They are amazing. And I feel just so blessed to be a part of them tonight. Oh, he's really big, really strong, very heavy. Scott's also making sure any mature females are given a thorough pouch check. Oh, wow. Tiny little baby. A couple of days old. Oh, my gosh. Look at that. Wow. Two lives saved. Two lives for one. Well done, everyone. That's amazing. All right, team. We're going to head back out straight away. Yes. Yeah, it's so fast and furious now. The team have just got another one and I've got another one. So it's been a great haul in the end. So right at the last minute, we've managed to save a whole bunch of agile wallabies. The sun's just coming up over there so you know that the heat's going to come with it and that's why we need to move. The wallabies will now be taken to a safe area, well away from housing and busy roads. So that's it. Sun's up. We're ready to go to release site. We've got eight and four babies and that was an incredible effort, team. Well done, everyone. That's awesome. So that's very precious cargo right there. Come on, then. Let's get moving. And relax. Knowing that in the back, you've got eight wallabies and four joeys in their pouches is not standard, but it's magical, really. We always say if they were to die and go to wallaby heaven, this is probably where they'd end up. It is completely away from cars, dogs and roads and has a massive acreage system that also backs onto National Park. Any order, except leave that last one to the end with the joey. One by one, each team member gets to release a wallaby into its new home. Good, wasn't it? It's fine. She gone. Okay. There she goes. This is the big, heavy boy. It's going to hopefully lead this mob into a bright future. Very happy boy. He is very happy. Amazing. These are creatures that deserve our respect and the fact that we've been able to bring them out here and it's absolutely gorgeous. And this guy's just confidently hopped away to his new future. It just feels so good. A healthy little joey that's still in the pouch. Mum and baby are very relaxed together, twitching from dreaming. So cute. And well done, you. Look at that. You rescued all these lives. That's good. Good mama. Well done, everyone. Good job. Well done, well done. That was great. Now to bed. Wow, it's exhilarating, isn't it? It is, it is. I can see why you do it. You almost want to cheer, but you're like, oh, it's going to be fat. The moment that you get to open up that bag and watch the wallaby run away is just a sigh of relief. It's done. And it's probably the most incredible part of the whole journey.