MISS KITTY
18/10/2014
The beautiful Miss Kitty hails from Butterwick. She was found walking on
the ground bumping into things, her eyes were very red and sore, she was
completely blind. Mick, the rescuer, came off worse in Kitty’s rescue. I am not
surprized because this blind older lady was not going to be picked up by a
“goodness knows what” arms and legs trying to grab onto anything solid, she must
have been terrified, then pushed into a cat box ,(whatever that is), poor girl.
It was decided on transfer not to change her into one of our baskets or not to
give her sedation as was suggested but Rebecca brought her home and once out of
the cat box we started to work on gaining her confidence. We talk to her as soon
as we enter her room so she knows who is making the noise she can hear, when we
touch her we use our bare hands but when we are going to pick her up we run a
bear hand down her back then put the gloves on and run both gloved hands from
her shoulder to her hands, hold her wrists and lift her, she is so use to this
now she even lifts her back legs up before we take her full weight. Before her
pumpkin we rub the bib on her arm before putting it around her neck and put our
hand under her chin so she knows we are going to put the syringe in her mouth.
She is not like any other koala I have ever had for any length of time, she eats
her pumpkin but only because we are encouraging her to have it not because she
likes it.
After seeing Don over the weeks she was has been on antibiotic eye ointment
and has had two lots of plasma eye drops and subcut Baytril. The infection has
cleared up but she has really bad scaring on both corneas so is still completely
blind. Don has referred her to an eye specialist who comes up to Newcastle from
Sydney. Don hopes she will be a candidate for a corneal scraping. I hope this
will be possible also as this older lady has given us lots of joeys over the
years (her pouch is enormous) so now it would be good to give her something
back.
We are having difficulty finding a type of leaf she likes to eat and has
been loosing weight. She was in such good condition when she came to us, even
though she couldn't see she was still managing to feed herself, hearing and
smell familiar habitat, hardly need to see. This shows the importance of not
trying to relocate koalas into different habitat, even if the leaf is of the
same type it obviously has a different taste. Different soil and water equals
same but different.
After many weeks in the cot she is now in a cage, didn’t take any time at
all for her to work it out, amazing lady, so now we wait till the specialist
appointment and hope for the best.
Fran
17/12/2014
Miss Kittys eyes don't look much different and her sight has not improved
that I can notice, she masters the cage so very well, if you didn't know you
would think she can see .. amazing animals ... Sue has suggested testing for
crypto, something that had not crossed my mind as she didn't come from Soldiers
point but apparently she does come from close to where Little Alice lived ... We
had an appointment on Monday so we will do that then and wait for that result
also..
...Fran...
28/12/2014
Just before Christmas I had to take Miss Kitty in to see Don after she had
been given another course of Pred forte ... Unfortunately it has made no
difference to her eyes ... she is blind and will stay that way for the rest of
her life ... Don took blood to test for Crypto ... All depends on the result
of this ... if it comes back positive then there is no alternative but to put
her to sleep .... if it comes back negative then don has asked us to look for
somewhere that will take her for the rest of her life .... I have never had
dealings with a totally blind koala before but this girl amazes me .... I would
not be worried releasing her in the trees she was rescued from... I know she
would manage quite well .. As I know we are not allowed to do this I think she
would also relocate without to much difficulty, if she is safe from predators
she will defiantly be able to find her food source ... So for her we have our
fingers crossed for a negative result and then a positive result from one of two
places Sue said might take her for us .... Third option ... we win Lotto.....
31-12-15 ...
Beautiful Miss Kitty passed away at 7pm tonight ... She had been very well and actually eating leaf we had found for her .. pellets by the ton, good wees .. then on Tuesday she looked a bit down, ears dropped, fewer pellets not protesting to much when having pumpkin ... usually you would have to follow her all around the cage holding the bib up so that she didn't get caught on it ... She is the only koala that I have had dealings with that hasn't ended up liking her pumpkin ... we stopped giving it to her but her weight dropped and as we were having difficulty finding leaf she liked we thought it best to start her on it again in the mornings.... anyway, yesterday she hadn't eaten much over night,ears down, pads cool, pellet count low but still on logs ... Rang Zoe at 9am in to see Don at 10am ... Said to give her 10mg Dex, Sup feeds and of course sub cut fluids .... The Dex did nothing, she managed about 20 mls of sup feed (no pumpkin added) small amount water ... and two lots of subcut.. Nothing made her spark up ... Warmers in with her did nothing .... wanted to put her on the logs but she was almost to week to lift her head ... as the day went on she decided it was her time and at 7pm, when Rebecca left us and went out to do Jasmine, she said good-bye .... I told her to fly back to her trees and her many babies .. keep them safe ... This girl, who we were told was a spitfire, turned out to be the most gentle adult female I have had the pleasure to care for .... even all we put her through she never once tried to grab or bite us .. we had worked out way to let her know what we were going to do and she understood .. if she wasn't happy she would rest her arm on us never with a grab or a claw .... She came to us 19th October and left us 31st December .... RIP .... She can see now ...
