25/09/2025
It is with a heavy heart we announce the passing of our beloved Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat Bluey (2002 - 2025)β€οΈ β€οΈ
Bluey came to us in August 2024 from Adventure World and was an elder gentleman with a calm presence and friendly personality that he captured our hearts immediately. Bluey showed a great enthusiasm to life and an absolute love for his cozy, warm den that for his age we knew this was his place of retirement.
Sadly we didn't have as long with Bluey as we had hoped and early September he began to show a lameness in his back legs. The cold Winter days were not helping and we were hoping his vet visit would confirm that in the warm Spring he would perk right back up again, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
The wonderful Dr Brandon and his team at The Unusual Pet Vets Murdoch were a lifeline to help us figure out what was going wrong with our handsome boy. Sadly x-rays showed a diagnosis that we knew was going to be a struggle and he would never fully recover from, our boy had cataracts forming and osteoarthritis in his stifles (knees).
Our first point of action was to start him on several strong pain medications and see how he would react, and if those medication would give him back some ability to move freely to which we could then develop an ongoing plan. During this time, with the cold weather having set in, we made Bluey a makeshift den indoors for the night where he got to snuggle with many blankets and have the heater going all night long. On the days in which the weather was fine and the sun was shining to help lift his spirits we picked him up and wheeled him in the trolley back to his enclosure to soak up the rays. Unfortunately after 2 weeks, there was no substantial response to any of the traditional medications. Thats when we turned to more alternative treatments.
After many discussions with our vets, fellow wildlife keepers and those within the rehabilitation industry we were provided with some ideas of how to move forward. At first we tried remedial techniques, the amazing Susan at Physio for Pets lended her expertise to Red light therapy and Electrical stimulation and the wonderful Dr Neil at Dr Neal Loh - Holistic Pet Vet even tried acupuncture on our Wombat. We can't thank the physio's for their time and effort, on frankly what would have been a very unusual case for them to explore.
Sadly though even with these remedial therapies and the addition of CBD oil into his regime of treatments, Bluey began to lose his appetite and subsequently start losing weight. Over the next week he ate almost nothing and had dropped weight, causing him to start losing condition. Despite the next step being a CT scan organized through WA Wildlife and Animalius Vet we had to make the tough choice to say goodbye.
We would love to thank all the tagged businesses and people for coming on this journey with us and helping in so many ways, we struggled with the final decision but we knew that we had tried so many avenues to get him well, but at 23 years old, Bluey had made the choice for us.
Rest easy handsome boy, you will be dearly missed β€οΈβ€οΈ