Update 26th Feb 2013 - Possum Hospital

Kiki, Pinot and Marlon are still visiting and Wesley has returned with a bite wound on his neck. It looks like another case of exudative dermatitis. [The wound is actually significantly worse than it looks in this photo; I chose the photo because it's a better one of Wesley.]

Wesley after a bit of a fight 22^nd Feb 2013

Wesley was last seen in November last year and we thought he'd returned to where he came from, but it seems he's come back for medical treatment.

I'm not necessarily claiming that possums consciously reason it out like this, but I think it's not just a coincidence that he's appeared soon after getting an injury. A number of times we've had possums, who haven't been seen for a while, turn up when they have a problem, visit regularly for treatment and then go away when they're healthy. Maybe it's something simple like choosing an easier food source when they're feeling weak (even if that means running some risk intruding on another possum's territory where they would not normally go), but I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that they make some sort of connection between the yummy pink stuff (Ceclor) and getting better.

Wesley isn't the only one to turn up with injuries. Kiki has suffered what must be an extremely painful wound on the outside of her pouch. [In case it's not clear, that red patch is the wound; it's not the entrance to the pouch, which is up higher.]

Kiki with pouch wound 18^th Feb 2013

Kiki's pouch is now getting very plump with the baby inside and often drags on tree branches; it wouldn't surprise me if it got caught on some sharp metal squeezing into someone's ceiling space or garage door.

Kiki and Wesley are both being treated with Ceclor. Kiki's wound isn't actually infected, but it's fairly large and probably comes into contact with dirty surfaces quite often, so (according to our veterinary advice) preventative measures are appropriate. BTW, it's OK to give Ceclor to mother possums with pouch young.

At least Pinot's eye wound is now much better. There is some missing fur, but there's clean, healthy skin visible underneath with no sign of infection.

We haven't seen Kiki's new baby in person yet, but we've got more footage on him, this time in Box 1. He actually looks like a proper possum now.

 Kiki's baby exploring 20^th Feb 2013

Despite the face-scrabbling and toe-biting in this movie, Kiki's baby seems to be less of a brat than other baby brustails we've seen. He was more interested in exploring than pestering his mother and (although it isn't shown in this video) frequently climbed up to look out of the box entrance.

There has been at least one ringtail seen around, but it didn't get close and we can't tell if it's one of the babies seen earlier. No ringtails have visited any of the possum boxes in over a year and they tend to keep clear of the house. Quite possibly our house has a bad name in the ringtail community owing to the abundance of pythons last year. Still no pythons so far this year.