By Dr Sally Salmon, Volunteer at Bunurong Wildlife Care.
(Excerpt of speech at BWC Fundraiser on 8 March 2026)
Good afternoon, I am a veterinary epidemiologist and in my day job I work for Agriculture Victoria. When I can, I am a shelter helper and I have the privilege of being able to use the knowledge and experience I have gained mostly in dairy cattle practice, to help solve clinical problems involving wildlife.
Like most baby animals, most of the problems we see involve poo. We all joke that our phones are full of pictures of cute wombats, and POO.
Poo is the window to the inner workings of the gut, too much, too often, wrong smell, and you know things are going wrong; too little, not often enough and you know that baby is in a world of distress.
Unfortunately, and despite the many pictures of poo, you usually cannot tell what is wrong by just looking at poo.. is it just a change in diet that will resolve? Is it dybiosis that will need management but NO antibiotics (please!); or is it a serious infectious disease that unless treated could spread through the shelter and potentially affect human carers, or even go back into the bush when the animal is finally released?
Treatment is another challenge. We aim for the right drug, in the right amount, for exactly the right amount of time. If we get it wrong, the animal may not recover or it may take antibiotic resistant bugs with it where ever it goes – to its carers and shelter buddies, and to the bush and the wild things there or to the livestock that live with wildlife.
This is where setting up a process that allows samples that we can collect, to be tested in a registered veterinary laboratory is so important. Just like when you go to the doctor, tests are ordered based on the doctor’s assessment of what may be wrong. Often, we need to culture the sample on specialised media to see what bugs will grow and what antibiotic will be effective against them. Sometimes we need smears and special stains to look for fungi, or gut parasites or single celled organisms. Sometimes we need blood to look for changes to the kidneys, liver or for indicators of infection.
Linda has created detailed stories on three of our beautiful courageous orphans, eastern grey kangaroos Jindy and Jack, and Charlotte a very special wombat. I encourage you read about their journeys from very sick babies to thriving teenagers and how testing and appropriate treatment saved their lives.
Another recent example of the kind of pathology that is within our reach is the story of an adult koala. She was found at the bottom of her tree and came into care. She stayed a few days, enjoyed the meals and a rest, appeared to be ready to go, was released and then was found dead two days later. Of course we wondered what we had missed.. A Friday evening post-mortem and vet lab examination of samples we sent in, showed that she had an invasive, malignant bladder cancer that we could never have detected and certainly could not have treated.
Finally, I leave you with the thought that there is SO much we don’t know about the beautiful creatures that come into care. Wildlife carers are true citizen scientists, noticing, sampling, testing and sharing what we find with vets, and other carers.
Public support in helping us continue this work is very much appreciated.