Wildlife Treatment
Here at Lynbrook Vet we are passionate about the care and treatment of our native wildlife.
Did you know wildlife is always welcome here at Lynbrook Vet and at no cost to you?
If you find wildlife that needs help, please don’t hesitate to contact our team and ask for advice. We support a number of local wildlife carers who raise and rehabilitate sick, injured and orphaned native animals but the first point of call for any injured wildlife should be the veterinary clinic.
At a vet clinic, wildlife is triaged and treatment begins. If an animal is able to be rehabilitated, it is then passed along to an experienced and registered wildlife carer where they continue their care until the animal is able to be released back into the wild where they belong.
The care and treatment of wildlife is very different to that of dogs and cats. Wildlife require specific foods, housing, milk formulas and medicine as well as quiet places to rest and recover.
What can you do to help our native wildlife?
- Do not feed wildlife human food and do not force them to drink water.
- Keep your cat indoors!
- Found an animal needing help?
- Make a wildlife kit for your car!
- Donate!
Wildlife Stories
July 2021 – Toto the Wallaby
March 2021 – Botulism and our native, aquatic birds
Here in Lynbrook, we get a number of wild birds present paralysed. Most of these birds are aquatic species such as the Australian White Ibis and native Ducks.
Due to the stagnant, man-made waterways and changing weather, bacteria begins to bloom in the lakes and our scavenger birds then feed from this dirty water. Sadly, these birds become sick from a toxin produced by the bacteria and they fall victim to a condition called Botulism.
Botulism can be life threatening if not treated straight away. The toxin circulates through the bird’s body, rendering them unable to fly leaving them as sitting ducks (sorry about the pun!) on the ground for predators such as cats to attack. If they’re lucky enough to not be eaten by a predator, they soon face an even worse fate as they suffer from weather and starvation. It is a slow, painful and lonely death.
But there is a solution!
In March we were alerted of an Australian White Ibis that was not flying away from people in our local park. A lovely member of the public brought the Ibis in to our clinic to be examined by our team. The bird was barely able to stand and was struggling to keep its head up.
The Ibis was diagnosed with botulism and we began treatment straight away. Treatment includes pumping the bird’s stomach with fluid and diluting the toxins. It can be a messy and smelly process!
After the first few treatments, the bird began to show some signs of improvement but it was not out of the woods yet! We contacted the amazing Kay at Wild Days Wildlife Shelter for assistance and she took the Ibis into care.
After a week in care, the Ibis was back to it’s happy, healthy self once again and was able to be released back home! Watch the video: