I know, odd POV but this is the picture of koala health we don't see enough. Maxine, the young juvenile newly arrived must have decided to reassure me that she is in top shape. Chlamydia is the biggest disease threat here, and it affects the bladder causing them to leak all the time and have a wet dirty bottom. This is incredibly painful as urine burns. So koala spotters are always seeking to see their bottoms to be sure they are OK. Maxine is more than OK, sorry if it was too much information :)
If you read this far - it was fully engorged tick on Mist yesterday, under the chin.
@pyrrhula far worse impact! it gets in the eyes and they go blind. in the genitourinary system it causes issues everywhere in the whole system with cysts. Once there are cysts internally we cannot treat :( sadly nearly all the girls we get into care have cysts, so we hardly ever save the girls and this is one of the big reasons that in another 50 years there will probably be no more koalas in the wild anywhere :(
we have an antibiotic that is only safe for koalas so it is very hard to get as we rely on kindness of pharmaceutical companies to make some. it must be injected and the whole of Australia ran out of this antibiotic recently so for 3 months we had no treatment to use (we just got fresh stock of it last week hooray!)
we also use another antibiotic on the eyes as a cream
koalas are so precious as they are unique and they are dying out FAST
Does the Chlamydia have the same impact as on humans?(women). And is there a care for it.
we have an antibiotic that is only safe for koalas so it is very hard to get as we rely on kindness of pharmaceutical companies to make some. it must be injected and the whole of Australia ran out of this antibiotic recently so for 3 months we had no treatment to use (we just got fresh stock of it last week hooray!)
we also use another antibiotic on the eyes as a cream
koalas are so precious as they are unique and they are dying out FAST