{"id":449,"date":"2011-03-23T13:46:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T03:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=449"},"modified":"2011-03-16T14:07:53","modified_gmt":"2011-03-16T04:07:53","slug":"puggle-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=449","title":{"rendered":"Puggle in progress"},"content":{"rendered":"Australian veterinarians, nurses and wildlife carers are adept at hand-rearing orphaned native mammals. Various species of possum, wallaby, kangaroo, bat and glider have been successfully reared and released into thewild.\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nAny carer will tell you that once the novelty wears off, hand rearing is hard work. Often requiring feeds spaced one to two hours apart, their tiny charges require plenty of dedication and sleep deprivation.\r\n\r\nBut as Top End veterinary nurses Caroline Francis and Tess Cooper discovered, that\u2019s not quite the case when it comes to raising an orphaned short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus<\/em>).\r\n\r\nThe echidna in question, nicknamed Makka Pakka after a character from the ABC\u2019s In the Night Garden, <\/em>was found in the pouch of his injured mother who was rushed to the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, just out of Darwin. Initially Makka\u2019s mother received veterinary care, but it became clear that she was not responding.\r\n\r\n\u201cShe had suffered from trauma including major injuries to her digging toes and her condition was deteriorating,\u201d Francis said. \u201cShe was losing weight drastically and she reached a stage where she just unfolded her pouch and wouldn\u2019t or couldn\u2019t let him back in.\u201d\r\n\r\nMakka\u2019s mother was euthanased, but at around 160grams Makka was far too young to survive without intervention. Weaning weight for echidnas is around 800 to 1300grams \u2013 so Makka had a long way to go.\r\n\r\nAccording to published literature, juvenile echidnas or puggles have been successfully hand reared from less than 40 days of age and 150grams body weight. This stage is recognised by the presence of stubble or spines.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe could just see his spines under his skin,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t feel them all, he was podgy and pretty much pink all over \u2013 just a little ball of fat.\u201d\r\n\r\nCooper and Francis took charge of Makka\u2019s care.\r\n\r\nThe biggest challenge in hand-rearing an echidna is providing a diet that is as close to natural echidna milk as possible. Echidna milk is highly concentrated, high in fat and iron, but low in protein, carbohydrate and lactose. The nursing team chose Wombaroo Echidna Milk Replacer (Wombaroo Food Products). This comes in two varieties: the first is for puggles under 30 days old with less than 210grams, the second for those over 30 days and with a body weight of more than 360grams.\r\n\r\nFemale echidnas don\u2019t feed their young via nipples. Rather, milk is secreted from mammary tissue through pores in the skin in an area known as the milk patch. Feeding may take two to four hours. In the wild, the mother leaves the puggle in the burrow while she forages for food.\r\n\r\nUnlike mammals who require regular feeds to meet their energy requirements, puggles may initially feed once every five to ten days \u2013 usually when mum returns from foraging. During these feeds, the puggle ingests around 20 per cent of its body weight in milk, although Cooper knows of one instance in which a puggle guzzled more than double that amount.\r\n\r\nAnd unlike their mammalian counterparts, puggles are highly prone to heat stress. Adult echidnas have a staggeringly low core body temperature (around 32 degrees Celsius) and a metabolic rate of around 30% of an equivalent sized dog or cat. Thus they require a lower ambient temperature in captivity, although if it drops too low they can enter torpor, leading to reduced food intake, inadequate digestion, malnutrition and immunosuppression. According to the literature, they are thus best maintained between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius.\r\n\r\nMakka\u2019s feeding sessions, although infrequent, take time. Because the puggle won\u2019t accept a teat, carers have to syringe a small amount of milk onto the palm of their hand, simulating secretion from the mother\u2019s milk patch. In response, the puggle rubs its beak on the hand of the feeder, an action used to stimulate more milk secretion.\r\n\r\nMakka\u2019s appetite is variable. Some days the puggle will slurp down 30ml of milk without hesitation, other days only 5ml. On several occasions the carers have administered milk by a stomach tube to ensure adequate milk is ingested. Stomach tubing is a delicate operation as the soft beak can be injured in the process and there is the ever-present risk of aspiration.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen he had eaten more than 20 per cent in a feed he tended to be less interested at the next feed,\u201d Francis said.\r\n\r\nAt one stage Makka developed a mild case of diarrhoea but responded well to injections of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. In addition the milk was replaced by a small feed of Lectade to provide hydration but avoid over-filling him.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe was weak and wrinkled and struggling to propel himself forward \u2013 just not behaving the same way \u2013 but he perked up after that,\u201d Francis said.\r\n\r\n\u201cApparently as they get older they become really good at licking food out of a bowl,\u201d Francis said. \u201cAt the moment he tends to really burrow his beak into the milk and occasionally blows a bubble out of his nostrils but that hasn\u2019t caused any problems.\u201d\r\n\r\n\"\"<\/a>Francis labels Makka a \u201che\u201d tentatively. Initially his carers had spotted what they thought was a rudimentary pouch on Makka\u2019s abdomen.\r\n\r\n\u201cEveryone assumed it was a female because he had that pouch but apparently both males and females can contort their muscles in such a way to make a pouch \u2013 so at this stage we aren\u2019t sure what sex Makka is,\u201d Francis said. \u201cThat was certainly a surprise.\u201d\r\n\r\nSexing echidnas can be difficult as the proper female pouch is only present in adult echidnas when they are breeding. The penis may be palpated and even extruded, but this is done under general anaesthesia and subject to false negative results. Mature adult males have large hind-limb spurs, although small spurs have been found on some females, potentially confusing the issue. For the sake of convenience, Makka is therefore referred to as a male.\r\n\r\nRaising Makka has been a trial-and-error process. While he gained weight initially on every-second-day feeds he went through a period where he didn\u2019t do so well, failing to gain weight despite being fed around 20 per cent of his body weight every other day. His carers altered the amount and frequency of feeds without much improvement initially.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn the initial stages we really were in unchartered territory,\u201d Francis said. \u201cWe sought advice from a number of carers and people who had raised puggles including the Territory Wildlife Park. We didn\u2019t want to over-feed him but we had to make sure he was getting enough energy as during some of those early feeds he was so tired.\u201d\r\n\r\nFrancis took Makka home over the Christmas period, which is when he really began to drink.\r\n\r\nIn terms of housing, Makka is kept in an aerated esky in an air-conditioned room with a shredded-paper substrate.\r\n\r\n\u201cSome carers have made burrows with dirt but we weren\u2019t really comfortable doing that because of the risk of melioidosis from the soil up here,\u201d Francis said. \u201cInstead we\u2019ve provided a towel as a base and plenty of shredded paper so he can burrow. The paper also provides insulation. Around 23 or 24 degrees seems about the right temperature for him.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhile other mammals require the obligatory post-feed bottom wipe to stimulate defaecation, Makka is quite happy to toilet himself, defecating in an area well away from his burrow.\r\n\r\nMakka is currently gaining weight, albeit gram-by-gram, and his or her spines are slowly growing longer. Compared with other patients he is pretty silent, except for the slurpy sounds he makes when feeding.\r\n\r\nOnce he reaches weaning weight the carers will introduce solid foods including ants, termites and other insects.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a privilege to raise him, really, it\u2019s something special for us,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cIt has been a pretty intense time because we\u2019re always worried about getting it right. Echidnas are not an animal we see so often in the Territory because they tend to hide out in the Arnhem escarpment.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit unusual having to keep something cool all of the time and the huge spacing between feeds, especially when you\u2019re used to hand-rearing mammals. Its often tempting to wake him between feeds to check that he is alright, but we try to let him sleep as much as we can. There\u2019s a lot we don\u2019t know about what goes on in those little burrows.\u201d\r\n\r\nReference\r\n\r\nMiddleton D (2008) Echidna. <\/em>In Medicine of Australian Mammals, <\/em> L Vogelnest & R Woods (eds) CSIRO Publishing pp77-102.\r\n\r\nANNE FAWCETT","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian veterinarians, nurses and wildlife carers are adept at hand-rearing orphaned native mammals. Various species of possum, wallaby, kangaroo, bat and glider have been successfully reared and released into thewild. Any carer will tell you that once the novelty wears off, hand rearing is hard work. Often requiring feeds spaced one to two hours apart, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[196,208,210,1797,195,197,206,209,207,204,205,145,128],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clinical-zoo","tag-196","tag-ark-animal-hospital","tag-australia","tag-clinical-zoo","tag-february","tag-february-2011","tag-makka-pakka","tag-nt","tag-palmerston","tag-puggle","tag-recovery","tag-the-veterinarian","tag-zoo"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":29,"name":"Clinical Zoo","slug":"clinical-zoo","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":29,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":29,"category_count":13,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Clinical Zoo","category_nicename":"clinical-zoo","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Australian veterinarians, nurses and wildlife carers are adept at hand-rearing orphaned native mammals. Various species of possum, wallaby, kangaroo, bat and glider have been successfully reared and released into thewild. Any carer will tell you that once the novelty wears off, hand rearing is hard work. Often requiring feeds spaced one to two hours apart, their tiny charges require plenty..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"29":{"name":"Clinical Zoo","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=29"}},"tags_names":{"196":{"name":"2011","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=2011"},"208":{"name":"Ark Animal Hospital","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ark-animal-hospital"},"210":{"name":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=australia"},"1797":{"name":"Clinical Zoo","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=clinical-zoo"},"195":{"name":"February","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=february"},"197":{"name":"February 2011","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=february-2011"},"206":{"name":"Makka Pakka","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=makka-pakka"},"209":{"name":"NT","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=nt"},"207":{"name":"Palmerston","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=palmerston"},"204":{"name":"puggle","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=puggle"},"205":{"name":"recovery","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=recovery"},"145":{"name":"The Veterinarian","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=the-veterinarian"},"128":{"name":"Zoo","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=zoo"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}