Story of Ammy the Kangaroo
Ammy—bless her sweet soul. Her courage and will to live have touched the hearts of everyone who has been part of her journey.
Ammy’s feet and tail were severely burnt in a bushfire. Her first treatments involved the vet removing the smelly, burnt flesh from her feet and cleaning the wounds. Under the vet’s instruction, her ongoing treatment included soaking the wounds in Betadine daily, applying lots of burn cream, and fresh bandaging. It was a long process, but Ammy was an excellent patient. She was content with a nice clean pouch, warm bottles of nutritious Wombaroo marsupial milk formula (specifically for roos), some yummy bush browse, muesli, and—of course—plenty of love and cuddles.
Her wounds eventually healed—except for one stubborn spot on her heel. It would look like it was healing nicely, but then the scab would fall off and we’d be back to square one. Every suggested pharmaceutical, and even Manuka honey, was tried—with no success.
Ammy was then taken to a different vet for a second opinion and an X-ray to explore what we couldn’t see. We feared there might be an infection in the bone, but there wasn’t. The new vet suggested trying a cream made with natural ingredients. The overnight improvement was exciting, but again, progress soon plateaued.
Photos of her heel were sent to another brilliant vet, who diagnosed that it was unlikely there would ever be enough skin to cover the final area. A skin graft was considered, but after much discussion, it was decided not to go down that path. Roos don’t have a lot of spare skin, and we didn’t want to inflict any more trauma on her body.
With a better understanding of what was causing the recurring setbacks, we finally had a new plan, we needed to stop treating as a burn and help the wound grow skin We began applying nightly poultices made from yarrow, plantain, calendula, and comfrey, along with our WOUND HEAL cream applied at night. This meant bandaging her wound twice a day. During the day, memory foam was used for cushioning.
As you can see, we managed to grow the skin over beautifully.
Today, Ammy is free—living a happy ‘roo life among her mob, doing just what roos are meant to do.
Both yarrow and comfrey have the ability to “knit” or bring tissue together, which helped the skin form and grow. Among the ingredients in the cream were echinacea and extra hyaluronic acid—nature’s “skin glue”—which were key to the successful outcome.
Ammy
Burn Wound
Burn Wound
Raw and open wound
Burn Wound
Under Veterinarian Advice, Betadine was used here, it would scab and fall off leaving bone with not enough skin to cover, so was not healing properly
As you can see the skin is not covering and very dry.
So we used the wound healing poultice and wound healing cream.
The skin is more hydrated and moist, now the skin has started to cover nicely
Closing up Nicely
Still using the poultice and cream. Bone covered and starting to close up.
Closing up Nicely
Almost there.
About Helping Animals with Botanicals
Rue’s Story
Rue
This kangaroo, we call Rue.
She was found just before dark with a nasty gouge on the top of her foot—so deep the bone was visible. It would have been very unwise not to treat it immediately, as we’ve seen before how quickly infection can set in, sometimes in just a few short hours. Rue is a local adult kangaroo. Most vets won’t treat
Rue
This kangaroo, we call Rue.
She was found just before dark with a nasty gouge on the top of her foot—so deep the bone was visible. It would have been very unwise not to treat it immediately, as we’ve seen before how quickly infection can set in, sometimes in just a few short hours. Rue is a local adult kangaroo. Most vets won’t treat wild adult roos, and it’s not like you can simply pop one into the car and take it to the clinic. So most people under usual circumstances, such injuries are left untreated, becoming infected. The infection can reach the bone, turn septic, and leave the roo suffering in pain for a long time.
Foot injuries are especially problematic because roos lie down and throw dirt over themselves.
We assessed Rue’s condition , temperament and decided it was worth trying to help. Many soulless people care nothing for her life—but her life matters to her and her mob
Her injury made it slightly easier to catch her in a large bag, but it was still a challenge to safely hold her down. We gave her a super stress-relief tincture to ease her anxiety, along with a hawthorn/bilberry syrup to support her heart (kangaroos are highly prone to stress myopathy, a deadly condition affecting the heart). Rue handled the situation fairly well, all things considered.
We flushed the wound with colloidal silver and applied the wound healing poultice very thickly just in case we missed any dirt in the poor lighting. It’s also anti-inflammatory and helps prevent infection.
Calendula in the poultice has an anti-microbial, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties, as well as its ability to speed wound healing by increasing blood flow and oxygen. We used non-woven gauze to hold the poultice in place, then wrapped it with a conforming bandage and the vet wrap.
I didn’t get any photos of day one or the second bandage change—at times like that, taking a picture is the last thing on our minds. The focus is always on helping the animal as quickly as possible.
I couldn’t get help again for two days, which wasn’t ideal. A poultice should be changed every few hours, but that wasn’t something I could do alone or realistically every few hours on a medium-large roo . I worried that some of the herbs might get trapped under healing skin or infection but thankfully, that wasn’t the case. The herbal mix had formed a beautiful, soft yet firm pad, and the wound looked good.
We then applied our Wound Wonder Salve, used a non-stick pad, and re-bandaged her foot.
Not long after that, Rue began pulling out the padding beneath the bandage, exposing part of the wound. I tried using micropore tape to cover the gap, but she pulled that off too and my helper had gone home .
Then Rue disappeared for five days. We asked neighbours on surrounding properties to keep an eye out, but the paddock grasses were brown and over a metre and a half tall. Female roos usually don’t stray far from where they live, as they have strong, loving bonds with their family mobs so we knew she wouldn't be that far away .
When we finally found her again, we gave her the super stress tincture again before beginning treatment, we suspected the wound would have started to become infected.
We flushed it again with colloidal silver and applied a the drawing poultice made of plantain, calendula, St Johns wort, Comfrey, Camomile, Bentonite clay, and I added Hive Honey, which is excellent for its anti-bacterial and healing properties and plantain to pull out infection.
Two days later, to our great relief, we saw a big improvement. The infection was nearly gone, and the swelling was down. Another poultice was applied—though it was a smaller one, as Rue kicked her legs at the wrong moment, sending most of the herbs flying into the dirt!
At the next bandage change, the wound looked great. We returned to using the WOUND WONDER SALVE and two days later, the wound was ready to be left uncovered. We applied more salve, and that was our task completed.
The sad part is that some vets have euthanised juvenile roos for injuries far less severe than Rue’s, even refusing to X-ray them when there were no obvious signs of bone damage. What has the world come to, when the gift of life is no longer honoured—but destroyed? When people no longer choose to do the right thing: to live, to love, and to help whenever we can
About Helping Animals with Botanicals
Holly's Story
Holly
A tiny eyes closed pinky had been found by a kind person when her poor mum had died due to collision with a brick wall , she was taken on by loving carer , as the weeks went on and Holly was about at the 4 kilo mark it was noticed that her eyes where not normal and so she was taken to an eye specialist vet who concluded that she ha
Holly
A tiny eyes closed pinky had been found by a kind person when her poor mum had died due to collision with a brick wall , she was taken on by loving carer , as the weeks went on and Holly was about at the 4 kilo mark it was noticed that her eyes where not normal and so she was taken to an eye specialist vet who concluded that she had choroid eye disease and at this point had about 20-30% vision and will probably go totally blind , and if not would only be able to make out light and dark shapes and euthanasia was discussed , fortunatey this loving carer was not ready to take that step just yet and they looked for a safe home for her so she could at least have some life , to enjoy the feeling of warm caress from the sun , the feel of the earth beneath her toes and the grass cushioning her body as lay down to enjoy the wonders of life ,while tasting different grasses and fresh new growth forming on the shrubs and trees as well as the beautiful nectar filled bright flowers until it was time to release her spirit from her body .
And so Holly came to me .
Well our aim is to provide the best care possible and the best life for such critters and so , after some thought on how to give Holly a good life for what ever time the universe granted her and with the info given it was decided that as she could see dark and light shapes that the fences be made dark with shade cloth and lots solar lights used to light the pathways at night so when she was big enough she could see the light and dark and find her way around easier , she was still in pouch so we had a little time to sort that out . We also wanted to do every thing possible to prevent or at least slow the progress of the eye degeneration down and so vit E was added to her bottles twice a day ,a and drop in the morning and at night gently wiped on her eye lid and every day we showed her the path ways that she would need to use as she gained some independence and the same paths solar lights would be placed for her and that was now just apart of daily rountine
About 5 months later i had 2 animals to take to the vet and of course Holly came with us , while at the vet , he asked about Holly so i mentioned about her her chorid eye disease , he is an excellent vet and so he asked if he could have a look as he had only heard of it in dogs and even then rarely, so was quiet interested to check her out . He was looking at her and asked if i had the correct roo ( which I felt was a weird thing to be asked as of course i know which roo i had with me ) ,then he said "and you did say choriod eye disease right ?" I replied " yes" , well that is what i was told and that is what was told by the eye specialist vet to her previous carer whom he knew quiet well ", I. asked if he thought it was something different and he replied ," i cant see any thing wrong with her eyes they look healthy to me . .
And you can see for your self the pictures of her eyes before and after .
Holly didnt need all the solar lights or to be euthanized
I did not specifically take photos of her eyes , i had not actually set out to heal them as I hadn't thought it was possible , my aim had been to stop the progression and extend her life , i have zoomed in on the photos i had of her .
Thank goodness there are vets and carers with hearts bigger than egos and dont just euthanize , the universe often grants us miracles
