Roobella came to me like a lot of others, she wasn’t well and her carer didn’t know what to try next. Also the carer was going through a very stressful time with her family, she didn’t really need to have to cope with a sick roo as well. So she came to me. She was bright enough, and big enough to be getting out of her pouch, but not really well enough. She was coping, but not thriving. Her tummy troubles meant she couldn’t be given a lot of milk, and she wasn’t particularly interested in grass.
However, as a wallaroo, she was typical in that she was very vocal, and if things weren’t to her liking she was not backward in saying so! She hissed and clicked with the best of em…but she seemed a slightly gentler soul. I put this down to the fact that she wasn’t 100% and thought this would probably change as she improved. So I started racking my brain to find her problem. I treated her for thrush, (yes, what babies get in their mouths, but roos get it in their tummies) and there was an almost instant improvement. However, as soon as I started to increase her milk, she was back to square one….but at the same time, she had found her appetite for grass, so that was a plus. She would go outside with the others during the day, and nibble the grass with her head hanging out of her pouch, she still didn’t want to get out, as most other wallaroos her age would. I had to MAKE her get out, and have a little bit of exercise.
In the meantime we were still battling on with the milk, and making some headway, but very slowly, and slowly but surely she seemed to be growing. Then one day, while I was getting her organised to get out of her pouch, I discovered she had a lump on her skin. I thought I had better investigate this, and in the course of it, discovered an abscess! And, in the course of investigating it, it broke…..well, inside, was a small lump of metal, I’m assuming it had been there as a result of the impact with the car that killed her mum. I cleaned her up (despite her noisy objections) and watched it over the next few days in case there was more stuff to come out, but saw it close over……and her tummy suddenly improved….her appetite grew enormously…she wanted to be outside, eating grass, and she wanted to be out of her pouch….and her attitude changed to much more like a normal wallaroo!
But she never quite lost that gentleness of soul, and she was more affectionate with me than normal, and she never quite outgrew her love of her pouch.
Mamaroo's Diary 