Joey’s Pet of the Week – Spring has Sprung!

By Scott Lackenby | Dated September 7, 2016

Heya peeps! How are you all? How AMAZING is this weather?!? I’m loving the warm sunshine. It means I can spend more time outside getting into mischief, I mean topping up my Vitamin D. With the warm weather comes a few things to be aware of. Some of it good and some not so good.

Let me start with the not so good. You guessed it, ticks. They really are icky little critters. The warm weather has seen an increase in the number of these little buggers, so if you haven’t already started, it’s time to use tick prevention on your 4legged friends. And you will also need to start doing daily tick searches on your pets. The preventative products that are available now are good, but nothing is 100% effective, and a daily tick search is the best way to ensure you are finding the little nasties quickly. Not sure what products to use? Unsure how to perform a tick search? Then just come in  and see us! My wonderful Nurses will happily talk through your product options and give you a tick search demo!

The good part of Spring is we start to see an increase in the number and variety of wildlife around. But there is a down side to this. With more of my native friends out and about, the more likely it is that they are going to find themselves in a sticky situation and need some help from us. Take this echidna we had in recently. This prickly fellow was out for a walk when he got hit by a car. He was hard to examine at first, he just kept curling himself up into a ball. But when we were able to check him over, there was a lot of blood coming from his nose. This made us worry that he may have a broken jaw, which would make it hard for him to be rehabilitated and released. It was decided that the best chance he had was with our good friends at the Taronga Zoo Wildlife Hospital. Nurse Jacqui kindly volunteered to transport him up, and is currently in their capable hands.

All strapped in and ready to go!

Not everything we see needs specialist treatment, and while we sadly can’t save all of the wildlife that is brought in to us by kind members of the public, we are able to send a lot off to the wonderful carers at Sydney Wildlife Service and WIRES so they can work their magic and get these guys back to where they belong. We recently sent them a cute little duckling and some baby possums!

So what should you do if you find injured wildlife? Take it to a Vet ASAP. Providing it’s safe for you to do so. Always remember that while they are cute, our natives are still wild animals and are capable of causing you harm if you accidently hurt or scare them. Scoop them up in a thick towel or blanket, put them in a secure box and then transfer them to a Vet. We will ask you a few details when you drop them off, most importantly where you found them. This is really important info. A lot of our wildlife are quite territorial and do not cope well if they are released into unfamiliar territory. If you are unable to transport the animal yourself, give the lovely wildlife volunteers a call. And I know you all know this, but it’s always best to leave snakes alone. We have a lot of dangerous snakes in Australia, and I would hate for you to get bitten trying to do a good deed.

Well, I’m off to enjoy more of this sunshine. Meows for now, love Joey xoxo