Aussie Animal Magic

                                                     Jemima 

 Jemima arrived on 11 July July 2008 weighing only 70 grams.  She had no fur and her eyes were still closed.  She was in good condition, no injuries  and had been found in the pouch of her dead mother.  Being so small meant that she was going to have an uphill battle to survive and you can read her progress in Jemima's Diary below.

Jemima's eyes opened this morning and although not fully open yet this will take place over the next couple of days.  It will take a few more weeks before she is able to see anything clearly and hopefully by that time she will have grown some fur.

 On Monday 21 July she weighed 85 grams so she has put on 15 grams in 10 days which is very good.  She is much more settled and starting to regulate her own body heat although with the weather turning a bit cooler she she still needs a hot water bottle at all times during the day and at night she has been sleeping with me.

Jemima has progressed quite significantly in the last week, gaining weight and her eyes are now fully open.  Unfortunately she hasn't been feeding as well due to the fact that she can now see and wants to try and move about a lot more.  Because her weight gain was good I decided to try changing her to 4 hourly feeds to see if that would help and after a few problems she has settled down to a better feeding pattern. 

There is still no sign of any fur but during the day she is now sleeping on a hot water bottle but is still with me at night.  So with the 4 hourly feeds and no wriggling possum inside my shirt I have a bit more freedom.

Jemima has now been with me for just over one month and has progressed rapidly and she now weighs 136 grams.  She feeds well and her fur is starting to grow at last.  She is becoming quite inquisitive and it can be a bit of a problem getting her to sit still till she finished her bottle.  She is now having 5 feeds a day so no getting up during the night anymore, which is a relief for me.

Over the coming weeks she will start to come out in the evening for an hour or so for a play but at this stage she is still happy to do her exploring inside my jumper rather than outside.

Because the weather has been quite cold she is still having to sleep with a hot water bottle during the day but at night I have still been taking her to bed with me.

It won't be long until I start offering small morsels of fruit to tempt her.  I usually start will banana.

It is with great sadness that I have to write to tell you all about Jemima, who I had put to sleep last Sunday.  It became apparent over the previous week that Jemima was suffering from some sort of neurological disorder which was causing her to have fits.  The first of these was quite severe and I actually thought she had died during the fit as she stop breathing for quite a while.  However she rallied and over the next week she had some good and bad days.  Sometimes the little episodes were mild but as the week wore on I knew that we were looking at an ongoing problem and that I had a serious decision to make.

I had once before encountered this sort of thing in a brushtail possum but he was a lot older and in consultation with the vet we felt the best thing was to put him to sleep as we felt he would not have survived long in the wild.

Jemima was a lot younger than the other possum but the symptoms were the same.  By Saturday night I had made up my mind to take her to the vet and it was the correct decision as she steadily got worse on the Sunday.

It is always heartbreaking when something like this happens, especially after 8 weeks but in the end you have to do what is right for the animals.

For the first couple of days afterwards I tend to look back and wonder if there was anything I missed but usually I accept the fact that I did all I could and obviously there were underlying problems.

I have missed her terribly this week as she had been with me for a few weeks and spent most of her day actually sleeping inside my jumper so it is a strange feeling not to feel her there.  I now have no bottle feeds during the day so every time I go out I feel like I have forgotten something.

However I did the best I could with her and she was happy, warm, loved and fed for 8 weeks and she had a second chance.

Remember, being a wildlife carer can be quite disappointing but so rewarding when you have a success.