Adventure In Australia: Chapter 10: All Good Things Come To An End

Perth, WA Australia

January 27^th 2016

Wednesday it was back to work as usual. In the morning I helped Todd with appointments, seeing every thing from cute cats getting vaccines to Pomeranians to Portuguese water dogs. I got to run a couple appointments myself, which was good practice. I also learned about crystals and bladder infections in rabbits, since there was a case in hospital.

The first Kanyana animal was a domestic pigeon that needed an injury on its keel repaired. Then there was a magpie with a broken blood feather (meaning the feather was growing and the bird had damaged where the vein was – kind of like cutting a dog’s nail too short) that was a bit messy. I got to see what a Eurasian coot looks like, as there was one brought in suffering from what we suspect was botulism (a toxin that causes muscle paralysis that ascends up to eventually reach the bird’s head, rendering it unable to lift its neck). A galah with a not-repairable wing fracture had to be euthanized, as did a kookaburra suffering from multiple wing fractures and a suspected spinal cord injury. Lastly there was a little bobtail who had been in rehab for a month without improvement. Radiographs showed what looked to be a ruptured air sac, or potentially free gas in the abdomen. We took some gas off to relieve the discomfort, but some fluid came with it and when looked at under the microscope gave us evidence of peritonitis (inflammation), so we decided to euthanize the bobtail due to lack of improvement and poor quality of life.

In the afternoon I got some practice with ultrasound and cystocentesis (collecting blood via needle directly from the bladder), learned about psittacosis/chlamydia in birds, and met a little python who had previously been in hospital for a cloacal prolapse.

I also brought in my goodbye gifts for the staff today, and was glad that they liked them!! (but really, who doesn’t like funny coffee mugs?). I’d made sure to get thank you’s for the Kanyana volunteers and Steve and Sue as well, ‘cause I’m a nice polite Canadian like that.

January 28^th 2016

Thursday was my last day working with Tim, so I spent the morning helping him out with appointments. In addition to learning about the animals I was seeing, I got some great lessons in client interaction and how to handle tricky situations, as well as seeing first hand what a strong relationship a veterinarian can have with their clients. There were also two of the most adorable kittens here for vaccines, so that was fun. We met a tiny little budgie who had multiple leg fractures deforming his legs. Tim offered to attempt repair by re-fracturing the legs and putting them back in position, but there was no guarantee the procedure would work. Watching two little boys say tearful *potential* goodbyes to their little friend was heartbreaking. Luckily this story has a happy ending, and we successfully repaired our little budgie friend’s legs! There were more birds to see; a rainbow lorikeet and a beautiful sulphur crested cockatoo! I’ve learned so much about birds working with Tim, everything from surgery, diagnostics, infectious disease, husbandry, and basic care. I owe him so much for improving my knowledge and skills related to the avian world!

The first Kanyana patient was a cute tawny frogmouth that seemed to have poor vision. His pupils were of different size but he did respond to light, suggesting signal was getting through to his brain and he could in fact see. There was a kingfisher who’d had an injured wing in the past, and sadly was not improving in terms of flight ability. We assessed his vision and flying skills, and based on poor results the decision was made to euthanize. Next was a tiny little silvereye with a horrible wing fracture, one that we couldn’t hope to repair even if he wasn’t so tiny, so we euthanized him right away. One of the resident bilbies was also sent down for treatment of a laceration on its leg. Sadly the bilby from Tuesday we were supposed to see Thursday had passed away. We also euthanized a raven suffering from a pelvis injury.

January 29^th 2016

Friday was my last working day in Australia, my last at Wattle Grove :( I spent the morning with Todd in appointments, where we saw both routine check-ups and sick animals. We met the cutest little maltese/poodle puppy. A couple interesting cases were the dog with an aural (that’s “ear”) hematoma and a pregnant dog (oops!!) that we took a radiograph of to count the puppies (6 little spines…) and did an ultrasound exam on to try and assess the age of the puppies since the date of breeding was unknown. Not something you see in general practice everyday! We also scanned a little corella brought in by the Kanyana volunteer to see if it had a microchip (the bird was likely a lost pet).

The first patients from Kanyana were a bronzewing with puncture wounds needing no treatment (didn’t really get to see this bird), and a little brown honey eater that was favouring its left leg. No obvious fractures showed up on radiographs, but the poor little bird was in a lot of respiratory stress so we suspected sepsis and euthanized it. We then saw a crested pigeon hit by a car which had no obvious major injuries, but unfortunately died during recovery. Last was a little quenda hig by a car. He had some broken ribs and maybe some blood in his chest (hemothorax), but we suspected he would heal on his own and left him be. I also got to watch Todd perform a necropsy on a canary (part of a larger aviary flock) before I had to say my final goodbyes and head out the door for the last time.

January 30^th – 31^st 2016

Saturday was my last big adventure in Australia. I had booked a swim with wild dolphins excursion with Rockingham Wild Encounters. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins, but never in captivity because I believe it is cruel to keep marine mammals in captivity the way we do. It was a bit of an expense, but I splurged because when would I have this opportunity again?! I’d wanted to do this the previous weekend but didn’t book soon enough, so I booked it for Saturday January 30^th which at the time was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day. Well…it wasn’t, but that’s OK, because dolphins really don’t mind rain and the boat was still set to go (they only cancel if the weather is really bad). I got up early and caught the train to Perth where I met the bus and napped on the 45 minute journey down to Rockingham.

After checking in, going over safety information and details about the day and how to put on your wet suit, we were off! There’s no set schedule to this tour as they simply try and find dolphins wherever they may be. Sometimes that’s right in the harbour, other times it takes hours to find them. We were lucky that we spotted a few right away! We were grouped into small little teams. Our guide would hold on to a battery operated propeller, and we would hold onto each other’s belts in a line and submerge our faces in the water. The “dolphin girl” would ride her propeller around with the dolphins, and we would keep our eyes trained on her (either left or right side depending on which hand we were told to hang on with). Our first time in the water (I was orange team) we spotted a mother and her calf!! Very cool to see. It was awesome being so close to the dolphins, who swam around with dolphin girl right by us and underneath us. Eventually some male dolphins chased the females away.

The rest of the day was essentially spent chasing the dolphins around, and searching for good spots to see them. Sometimes we would get in the water only to have them swim away, or sometimes we couldn’t maneuver the boat to where they were. It may seem frustrating to spend hours and hours searching and have little results, but it’s actually a privilege to see these amazing creatures in their natural state. The dolphins aren’t fed or confined, so their choosing to interact with us is purely out of choice. The crew respects the dolphins’ rights to participate in their natural behaviours undisturbed, and if the dolphins don’t want to be bothered we leave them alone. We are also asked not to feed or touch the dolphins to minimize their human contact (which helps control disease and makes the dolphins more likely to come over, since we aren’t scaring them away by reaching out). We got to see a group of males playing around before the day was done, and it’s unusual for males to be interested in us (they’d rather focus on fighting and sex), so all in all a pretty cool day (despite the cold rain!!). We also learned a lot about dolphins from the team. It sometimes feels a bit weird doing these excursions on my own (almost everyone else was with someone), but I made some friends on the bus ride back.

It is now Sunday and basically all I’ve done today is pack up my stuff. I can’t believe my adventure is really coming to an end – it feels like it’s been a lifetime, but I’m also not quite ready to believe I have to say goodbye! It will be good to see all my family and friends when I get home though. And it’s certainly been the trip of a lifetime.