Chloe the hand-reared wombat learns some wild skills

Chloe the wombat joey is learning to walk and dig burrows. Wombat joeys follow their mothers around for about two years. Image courtesy Paul Fahey at Taronga Zoo (beautiful photos, Paul!).

A few months ago SAT covered the plight of Chloe, a wombat joey rescued from her deceased mother’s pouch by a good Samaritan. She’s being cared for by staff at Taronga Zoo, and – we’re told – loving doing the morning rounds with keeper Evelyn Weston.

Chloe with Evelyn. Image courtesy Paul Fahey at Taronga Zoo.

As Evelyn cleans exhibits and prepares breakfast for some of the zoo’s residents, nine-month-old Chloe follows her around.

Of course wombat mothers don't have awesome hiking boots to nibble on. But Chloe is an opportunist. Image courtesy Paul Fahey at Taronga Zoo.

“It’s a natural behaviour and something Chloe would be doing with her real mother if she’d survived. Wombats stay with their mothers for up to two years, walking by their side until they’re old enough to fend for themselves,” said Evelyn.

Chloe "helps" on rounds. Image courtesy Paul Fahey at Taronga Zoo.

Chloe can now walk and explore without assistance, so keepers have built her an off-exhibit home where she can dig burrows and forage for food.

“She’s really learning how to be a wombat. Her paws are already toughening up and she’s quite happy digging about on her own,” said Evelyn.

I would do more gardening if I had a helper like this. Image courtesy Paul Fahey at Taronga Zoo.

The plan is to transfer Chloe, when she is ready, to a soft-release site where she can learn to survive in the wild before her official release.

Chloe checks out a seed pod. Image courtesy Paul Fahey at Taronga Zoo.

Meanwhile for those seeking up update on Hero, it is day 4 post-op and he is improving and weeing regularly without crying. Keeping him entertained is becoming increasingly challenging. While I was giving the guinea pigs a run this morning he tried to slip out and sneak in a bit of climbing. Fortunately I caught him before he had a chance to injure himself. 

The best Christmas present ever

Santa actually DID appear at our clinic on Christmas Eve, and said g'day to Tyro and Phil.

A Christmas wish was granted last night, although it may have had more to do with surgery than Santa. After a full day of watching, waiting, pretending not to watch (a watched cat never pees), and simulating digging in his litter tray so he got the idea, Hero waited until I was attending to another patient and then just quietly urinated voluntarily. It was a relief for all parties.

Hero isn't the easiest patient. When you are working with a cat that only has one forelimb, maintaining a patent intravenous catheter can be challenging, especially if that patient manages to remove the line again and again with his staggeringly compensatory hindlimbs. He's also not stupid. Anytime I wanted to pat him or show affection I was allowed. Anytime I wanted to do anything remotely vetty, he would become fiesty. He gave the nurses hell, much to my embarassment. 

A little "chillaxed" on analgesics, Hero decided the best use of the litter tray was to sleep in it.

Cat grass purchased fresh from the nursey this morning: check. Tempting wet food: check. Feliway (synthetic feline facial pheromone spray): you can't see it here but trust me, its there - check. Litter tray with fave litter: check. Multimodal analgesia: check. The conditions were right. But the urine was not forthcoming.

I’d be fibbing if I didn’t admit I wanted to do cartwheels up and down the street the moment I saw that patch in the litter tray. The phrases “rivers of gold” and “best Christmas present ever” may have passed my lips.

Not a bad patch. Its not exactly the Murray-Darling River but close enough for now.

And thus, still recovering from major surgery but with a patent urethra, Hero was discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve.

He remains on medication, he’s currently on an all-wet, urolith dissolution diet, and now that he smells like a vet hospital his sister-from-another-mister Michael is hissing and howling at him and generally acting like he’s an imposter. But we can deal with that. It’s the real imposters – those sharp little bladder stones that wreaked so much damage – that we need to remain vigilant about.

We’ll update you of course, but meantime SAT wants to wish everyone a fabulous festive season. And a healthy and functional urinary tract. 

Hero's Christmas surprise, or feline urological syndrome hits home

Hero when he feels okay.

Yesterday didn’t go exactly as planned at SAT HQ. There I was quietly reading about chondrosarcomas in ferrets when I heard noises. 

Hero was acting very strange. He was running around, couldn’t get settled, jumping on the desk and then began open-mouth breathing (not normal in cats). As I chased him up and down the hallway attempting to auscultate his heart, he began to howl. I suspected some sort of cardiac event or thromboembolism, but he decided to give me a hint, jumping on my desk and urinating – a tiny, painful, strained expulsion of a little bit of wee and mostly blood.

When I didn't get the hint, Hero tried to spell it out on my notes.

So I bundled him into his carrier and off we went to work, where x-rays revealed a bladder full of tiny uroliths, and - more concerningly - a few uroliths lurking in his urethra. If you have a urethra, you'll probably understand that passing stones through it is potentially agonising. Hence Hero's open mouth breathing. It was a sign of serious pain.

He was a bit more relaxed once the pain meds kicked in...

NOT what you want to see on a lateral radiograph of your own cat. A bunch of uroliths having a convention in the bladder, a couple waltzing around the trigone of the bladder (the bit where the bladder meets the urethra)...BUT...WORSE...on the far right you can see some uroliths and chunkettes of sludge in his DISTAL URETHRA. These were obstructing his urinary tract. Having an obstructed urinary tract is a) painful and b) not compatable with life.

Thing is, he's never had signs of urinary tract disease before. He just went from zero to obstructed in no time. On Christmas eve eve. And so it was that this evening I stayed back - with a very devoted team who agreed to assist despite Hero's ungracious in-clinic behaviour - anaesthetised him, catheterised his penis to flush the offending uroliths BACK into his bladder, and then performed a cystotomy to remove all of the evil blighters so his urethra could be once again patent.

You can see the catheter here, The bladder is more distended as I've flushed the uroliths back into it. Seems simple? It took an experienced nurse, an experienced vet (moi), a LOT of patience, and several rounds of gentle flushing before the catheter could be advanced at all. Good catheter technique is essential as urethral trauma predisposes to strictures and, you guessed it, greater risk of obstruction in the future.

The angry bladder inside of Hero. Not happy, Jan, as they say. Photo taken by Vivian Lang.

The stones that so traumatised Hero's urinary tract. 

Definitely an improvement. There is a smidge of urethral sludge just caudal to the pelvis, but a little diuresis and a dissolution diet should sort that.

The rest of the evening was spent watching Hero recover, organising a culture of his urine and submitting his uroliths for analysis to ascertain the best course for preventing further episodes.

So, Christmas plans have been thrown into disarray and probably scuttled, but at least for the night we've won the battle for Hero's urethra. 

UPDATE: despite having just three legs and an Elizabethan collar to contend with, Hero easily removed his drip last night, and I removed his urinary catheter this morning. The next step is to ensure that he can urinate voluntarily, which can be a bit of a waiting game with cats - especially ones with "shy bladder syndrome". So I'll be asking Santa for a big stream of healthy cat urine this Christmas.

When your best friends have best friends: the story of Harlow, Sage & Indiana

Sometimes the nicest thing about living with companion animals is watching them relate to their own companions, i.e. other dogs, cats, guinea pigs or birds in the house.

Heard of Harlow and Sage? Until Sage, a dachshund, passed away, she and Harlow (a Weimeraner) were best friends. Their bond, despite their significant size differential, was documented by their owners on Instagram and – like a good cat meme – went viral.

A publishing agent got in touch and plans for a book about their bond were underway. When Sage passed away, it wasn’t long before Indiana arrived – Harlow & Sage (& Indiana) was born.

SAT had the chance to chat with creator Brittni Vega about her canine companions and the bond between them.

What is your day job?

I work at a financial institution. Taking pictures of my pups has always just been a fun hobby. It has turned in to much more over the last few months though.

How did Harlow & Sage come into your life?

My family adopted Sage when I was thirteen. My mom grew up with Dachshunds and thought that one would make a great companion for me. She was right!  Sage was my best friend growing up. Harlow came along eight years later after my husband and I got married. We both loved Weimaraners and couldn't say no when we saw that a little Weimaraner puppy who was living on a farm needed a home.  

What gave you the idea for the book?

We were contacted last January by a publishing agent in New York who had fallen in love with our story. The two of us worked together on a proposal for a book and a few months later, it was published. The idea for Harlow narrate and tell the story in her own words made the most sense to me as Harlow was the link between Sage and Indiana. 

You lost little Sage last year. How did you cope and how did Harlow cope?

It was very difficult but we knew that it was coming. Sage had been having health problems for long time. Harlow probably took it the hardest. She had never been without Sage and so the first few days without Sage were very hard. Harlow would wait by the front door for Sage to come home or look out the window for her. When we brought Indiana home shortly after, Harlow seemed confused because she had never been around a puppy but the two of them connected quickly. They are inseparable now.

[Indiana’s arrival made world headlines – see for example here].

What's it like having a puppy again when you've been living with grown up dogs for a while?

A lot of work! But very rewarding. Indiana brings so much energy to our home. She keeps all of us very busy!

You captured Harlow, Sage and Indiana beautifully. Any tips for photographing pets?

Always have your camera close by. My favourite pictures of my dogs are the most candid ones. Treats and squeaky toys are also great to have around too!

Obviously Harlow & Sage had an incredible bond, as do Harlow & Indiana, but how would you describe your bond with these animals?

They are the most important part of our lives. My husband and I revolve everything that we do around them. They make us happy every single day, we try very hard to return the favour. They get lots of love and attention.

Finally do you have any tips for veterinarians and vet students?

No tips, just a huge thank you for all that they do.

Thank you Brittni. You can check out Harlow and Indiana on the Harlow & Sage facebook page here or buy the book from Penguin Australia.

What does the rise of cats online mean for real-life cats?

Michael's avatar has joined SAT, thanks to the very talented Lili Chin.

If you’ve got internet access – even if you avoid social media like the plague – there’s one thing you’re almost guaranteed to have seen a lot of. Cats. Cat videos. Cat memes. Cats withpoorly understood congenital abnormalities that are shopped around asclick-bait.

Look at any mainstream news site and in amongst the devastating news of the day there will be a link to a cat-related story. With photos.

Big news: tortoise "relentlessly headbutts cat", supposedly "proving" that "animals can be jerks".

The attraction of cats online has been credited with everything from selling products to, according to at least one article, bringing down totalitarian regimes (see here).

According to Radha O’Meara, quoted in the same article, clicking on cute cats is irresistible, yet has sinister implications – we “facilitate our own surveillance”. Willingly, it appears, if we get our kitty-fix.

Like selfie-studies, studying the rise of the cat online is now the domain of serious academics. And it seems like the fruits of their labour will benefit all of us. Virtual cats (and other animals) influence us in ways we are only beginning to understand.

RMIT Economics Professor Jason Potts claims that the reason "you consume so much internet animal hilarity and so little Shakespearean seriousness" online is a matter of economics (read his argument here).

The worry, of course, is that the appeal of virtual animals will win over the living, breathing kind. Professor Potts notes there has been a consumer drift to “more, different and lower quality: toward five minutes of internet animals, rather than a full day at the zoo.”

Aside from the political and economic implications of our online engagement with animals, the question is how this impacts the time we spend with them, the way we view them, and ultimately the welfare of animals.

Do you find yourself spending more time clicking virtual animals than engaging with animals in real-life?