Wildlife Conservation Australia Project #47818

Help save the Bare-Nosed Wombat

by Wombat Support and Rescue NSW/ACT Incorporated

Project Report | May 12, 2021
A wombat named Cotter

By Yolandi Vermaak | Project Leader

The first time I saw Cotter

A couple of months ago, I was climbing a little mountain in search of a manged wombat reported to me, when I got a call that a very sick wombat was spotted near the Cotter campground on the other side of town.

Giving up the search as I couldn't find the first wombat, I went in search of the Cotter wombat. When I found him he was grazing near the river but very evidently manged and very sick. I named him Cotter. He was blind from the thick crusty skin plaques that formed over his eyes. When wombats have mange, they will die without intervention.

His mange treatment program started right there and he was given antibacterial antiseptic spray as well to help his wounds heal and keep flies away. When a wombat has mange, they itch so badly that they scratch until they have deep open wounds.

After his treatment started, weekly searches commenced to find him as I had to keep giving him medicine and needed to find where his burrow was. I finally found him sleeping in a drainpipe where he spent his days as he was too sick to burrow.

Slowly but surely, week after week, there were small improvements. First his eyes started to slowly open as the plaques started to fall off, and the rest of the thick plaques on his body started falling off too

Underneath was new pink skin and finally I could see some new healthy hair growing.

Cotter is a male wombat but not aggressive and very calm. He was fairly tolerant of me being near him and giving him medicine.

Thank you for supporting this journey with saving the bare-nosed wombat species. Every wombat deserves a chance at life and whenever a wombat is called in, they deserve the very best of attention that we can give them. This would not be possible without your kind support. A heartfelt thank you from wombat Cotter too

From the Wombat Rescue team

He can finally see

Links:

Wombat Cotter's journey during mange treatment

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Jan 12, 2021
Wombat treatment project for mange at a winery in Australia

By Yolandi Vermaak | Project Leader

The owner of a beatiful winery just outside of Canberra asked me to help with a very sick wombat which had mange.

I helped this wombat but realised there are more wombats living on the property and they would all have mange as it's a highly contagious parasite (mange occurs throughout the world, in humans it's called scabies)

We scouted all the gulleys and possible sites where you would expect to find a burrow (wombats live underground in burrows) and identified 10 active burrows.

I built the necessary burrow flaps to install over each burrow. These consist of metal frames with an ice-cream lid fixed to the frame with cable ties that act like a doggy door and a peanut butter jar lid placed in a gap in the middle of the ice-cream lid where we put the medicine in to treat the wombat for mange

When the wombat enters or exits the burrow, the lid tilts and the medicine pours onto their back. Working with animals that are nocturnal, scared of humans and elusive, this is the best method to treat them

To monitor our progress I placed 3 motion censor infrared nightvsion wildlife cameras in front of 3 burrows to record them. It was clear that every wombat filmed was manged. But after a few weeks of treatment the wombats started to look better, new hair is growing in bald patches where they lost their hair and the crusty scabs are falling off

The project is halfway and will continue for another 2-3 months until all wombats and their environment are cleared of mange. Without intervention wombats afflicted with mange face months of incredible agony, deaf- and blindness, organ failure, hunger and ultimately certain death

Projects like this is time intensive and every piece of equipment and medicine is acquired with donations. Without your help this would not be possible and we wouldn't be able to help as many wombats are we currently are

Thank you so much for your support,

From the Wombat Rescue team and every wombat saved

Links:

Wombat mange treatment project 1 - status update

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