Wildlife Conservation Australia Project #47818

Help save the Bare-Nosed Wombat

by Wombat Support and Rescue NSW/ACT Incorporated

Project Report | Mar 7, 2024
A wombat named Autumn

By Yolandi Vermaak | Project Leader

On the first day of Autumn, we rescued a very large wombat. I thought it would be a male but it turned out to be a female. An older girl I would say. She was so incredibly sick, suffering from sarcoptic mange.

For the most part, we treat wombats in the field when they have mange. We cannot possibly bring them all into care. We don't have the facilities to do that. Every wombat requires an enclosure and we only have a handful, all with current residents.

But sometimes a wombat is just so sick that we can't leave them. The only options are to euthanise to end their suffering, or bring into care if there is a chance to save their life and we have the space to take them in.

Autumn is a big girl and we hoped that in time, she would heal. She crashed after her capture, as most of them do, from stress possibly, but also from not having to live on adrenaline anymore. She fell into a deep sleep for two days. During this time I was able to keep her fluid intake constant which was her saving grace.

We are now on day 6 and I am more hopeful than ever. She is a beautiful gentle soul. She has not once tried to bite me. Once she is out of the woods we can move her out of critical care and into a small hospital enclosure to gain her strength back.

Why I'm writing about her is that this battle for us is non-stop. So many out there die alone, in agony and never found. The lucky ones are found, sometimes they seek out humans to ask for help. But the more that ask for help, the more we need to add to our infrastructure and resources.

I'm hoping that somewhere we will start winning this war on mange, but for now, it seems all we can do is help the ones we can help. There are many, and they are all so deserving of our assistance.

Autumn I hope will be another success story, but if not, she lives in luxury, being fed and massaged every day and gettting just the best of care.

Thank you as always for your support, it means the world to me. It means we can continue saving more wombats out there, like Autumn and the others.

Yolandi

Wombat Rescue

Links:

Autumn - the first 5 days in critical care

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Oct 6, 2023
The story of Coops and Teeny

By Yolandi Vermaak | Project Leader

This tale of mum Coops and her baby Teeny is one I see way too often. When an adult has mange and we witness their suffering, it is very hard, but seeing a baby with their mother, suffering, is almost unbearable.

One morning in the middle of winter I received a call from a tradie (tradesman) who was working on a rural property. He filmed a very manged mum and bub wombats and sent it to me.

Our team assembled and we went there in search of the pair. We found them both and although they were pretty sick, we decided to treat them in the field and monitor them. They were save there and seemed to move in a routine every day from their burrow to the little dam nearby.

Mum, named Coops by the tradie, looks horrific with her ears covered in thick plaques from sarcoptic mange. Her baby was nearby and looked a little better. We treated both for mange and kept monitoring.

I kept a camera on their burrow to see how they were fairing and a few weeks after their treatment I noticed that Teeny stumbled. I knew this meant he was weaker than before and started searching for him. We found him lying in a knoll of grasses, where he collapsed.

He was brought into care and given fluids and rehydration. We also treated his skin but his body did not recover and he wasnt able to fight anymore. He passed away that night, but he was loved and cared for.

I feel quite helpless that there are so many out there and we can only help the ones that get reported and that we have access to.

For now, that's all we can do. And the support we receive to help them is incredible.

Although mum lost her baby and we all cried about this loss, she is doing so much better and is becoming stronger every day.

We continue to monitor this property and have implemented a population treatment program with the owners to treat all the burrows to make sure those we havent' seen but know are out there, are getting medicine too.

Thank you for all your support over the course of this year. It has been amazing!

The Wombat Rescue Team

Links:

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Apr 14, 2023
Wild wombat Chessi

By Yolandi Vermaak | Project Leader

One of the wild wombats that we have been treating for a while, is named Chessi. She's a girl :) She was also suffering from sarcoptic mange, a disease that kills wombats after months of intense suffering.

Chessi was reported by the landowner and we started treatment right away. We also set up a motion censor, night vision wildlife camera to monitor her progress.

Chessi received treatments for mange between June 2022 and November 2023. In the beginning her eyes were crusted over and she was effectively blind. Mange causes a severe allergic reaction and thick mange plaques form all over their bodies. Even their soft and thin eyelids. This crust transform the eyelids into rockhard skin that cannot move, which means even though she isnt' blind, she can't open her eyes so she can't see.

Within 2-3 months it was obvious that Chessi was getting better as her eyes weren't crusted anymore. By November 2022 she looked very good, fur has started to grow back and she was moving very fast. She still had mange unfortunately, which is visible as the gill-like striations on her side.

In this time, disaster struck. She was mid-treatment but a fox took over her tree-burrow and she disappeared. We didn't know where to although we searched and investigated every report of a manged wombat that came in from the area.

She was still unwell so the worry was that her mange would increase and spread again.

Chessi was finally spotted by the landowner in March 2023 and we put the camera back in the tree-burrow and started treatment.

Unfortunately this time Chessi is much sicker as her mange has progressed unchecked for the last 4 months. It will take some time to fully heal but we are hopeful that we can keep track of her this time and that foxes won't interfere again.

Our wildlife face so many crisis, interference by pest animals is just one of many but foxes in particular are culprits in more than one way as they also spread and carry sarcoptic mange.

Chessi has now had 2 doses of treatment and will continue to be closely monitored. Every trip to visit her or service the camera or check footage is an hour roundtrip but we do this not just for her, but for every wombat that we are asked to help with.

Links:

Tracking Chessi's treatment over 12 months

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