Update 22nd Mar 2013 - Possum Hospital 2

Kiki, her baby Spock and Wesley have been visiting regularly.

Spock doing his impression of Wesley 19^th Mar 2013

Kiki with Spock back-riding 15^th Mar 2013

These possums all have minor injuries.

Wesley's wound had healed and it looked like the infection had cleared up, but about a week later it had come back almost as bad as before. I'm no sure if we had discontinued treatment too soon or he had injured it again.

This hasn't slowed Wesley down. He's been seen pursuing Kiki, who is presumably ready for mating now that Spock is out of the pouch.

Kiki's pouch wound has healed over and looks OK, but meanwhile, she has had some toe injuries. At first, the toe on one side of her missing toe was all swollen up and painful. After we noticed this, she went away for a couple of days. When she came back, the toe looked like it had got better on its own. Unfortunately, soon after that, the toe on the other side of the missing toe had swelled up.

It's not clear how these toes are getting injured. Our veterinary advice is to treat the infection, but unfortunately, Kiki has taken to refusing Ceclor. It's quite possibly the toe will get better on its own like the other one, but we'd like to treat her if we can and we're trying various ways of making the Ceclor palatable to her.

Spock also has an injury on his nose. It's only a small scrape, but it's been there for a considerable time without getting better and it looks like he might need some help.

Spock with scrape on nose 21^st Mar 2013

In addition to these problems, we're worried about Marlon. About two weeks ago, he injured his leg (the back right one, the same as Svejk). This didn't look so bad and seemed to be getting better, but then about a week ago, he suddenly stopped visiting and using the possum boxes. He hasn't been seen since. The worry is that he might have suffered the same fate as Svejk.

Some good news:

Wasabi is still visiting. He looks healthy and is as cheerful as ever. Despite his small size, he's a very confident possum. Recently he came face to face with Wesley on the handrail, and it was Wesley who ended up running away, despite being perhaps three times as large.

Wasabi 17^th Mar 2013

We also captured this video of a ringtail (I can't tell if it's Wasabi) trying to fly like a sugar glider between trees, but plummeting like a stone instead. Ringtails seem to make much more noise getting about in trees than the larger brushtails. I'm not sure why this is; possibly it could be they're trying to appear like a much larger animal in order to scare off predators lying in wait.

Ringtail Plummeting from Tree 12^th Mar 2013

Pinot has also visited after a long absence. He just popped in quickly to say hello and bite Xesce on the toe. He is also in good health.

Also, a new brushtail has been seen about the place a couple of times. It doesn't look like any of the known possums and is too old to be the baby that visited box 3. No photos yet.