Maze is a subadult female Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who was rescued after being noticed hanging low on the trunk of a tree next to the swan pond in a large inner city parklands trust.
She had climbed about 5 metres from her original location by the time I arrived (typical), and was hanging out high in the tree but not being particularly obstructive. She really didn't want to be caught but she was unable to figure out how to get away, so I managed to net her (after a few technical issues).
In care she was relatively quiet, which indicates she'd hit her head somewhere during whatever brought her to the ground. She was trying to vaguely climb away from me, not particularly successfully or with any great enthusiasm. I put this down to a head injury or significant injury; her tongue was really pale (indicating maybe bleeding somewhere or just shock).
I put her to bed with analgesia, fluids and glucose. I tried her on some juice but she wasn't terribly enthusiastic about it.
In the morning, when I got up early to check on her she was still alive; when I finally got up and sorted out the early morning routine, I came back to the incubator to asses her and give her care, she was newly dead; she was limp, very warm and floppy, but dead.
I have to admit I was very surprised by her death (at that stage); I thought she was doing more or less OK at that moment but I wasn't sure she was going to survive over a few days.
I did a necropsy to see if I could figure out why she died; she had blood in her chest cavity which would explain why she had such pale gums and tongue. I don't think there was anything I could have done to avert this or fix it either short term or long term.
RIP Maze.
Tolga Bat Hospital takes donations for me. Tolga is an awesome place in Far North Queensland, which has charity status. By sending donations to them, they get a percentage (and deserve every cent) and they can allocate money to me for batty expenses without it becoming part of my income stream (which makes tax time difficult).
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Mention Megabattie or Meg in the PayPal message box and the money will find its way to me.
If no message box appears, please email Jenny to tell her that the money is for me.
IMPORTANT: If you pay through the PayPal Giving Fund, can you please email Jenny with the AMOUNT DONATED and the name under which you have donated, OR just forward along the PP receipt.
The Giving Fund doesn’t charge any fees (so the bats get more money) but PP doesn’t itemise out the amount, they just send a total every month, and we don’t know if the money is for Tolga or for Megabattie.
Here’s Jenny’s email.
jenny@tolgabathospital.org
