QLD:Possum, joey survive round with chainsaw

AAP General News (Australia)
08-05-2011
QLD:Possum, joey survive round with chainsaw

BRISBANE, Aug 5 AAP - A possum and her joey who survived a round with a chainsaw are
expected to make a full recovery to the astonishment of vets.

It was a terrible case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the hapless
pair, dubbed Chainsaw and Two-Stroke by carers at the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital.

The possum was asleep with her joey in her pouch, when workers began chopping down
a tree at Thornlands, southeast of Brisbane, on Tuesday.

But she was so well camouflaged they didn't see her and the chainsaw slashed her across
the chest, leaving a horrible wound.

Panicked workers rushed the critter to the wildlife hospital on the Gold Coast, where
staff soon discovered the joey tucked safety away in the pouch.

Senior vet Dr Michael Pyne said mum and bub were doing well, and Chainsaw had been
extremely lucky.

"She basically had a 20cm wound that extended from up near her spine to down the front
of her chest and that wound was about 8cm wide as well," Dr Pyne told AAP on Friday.

"She's just very fortunate it didn't actually get into her chest cavity at all. So
really it's just nasty external wounds and a heap of stitches."

As staff carefully stitched up Chainsaw, they found the joey.

"He's very lucky. If the wound was another 10cm further south towards (the mother's)
back, little joey would have been really chewed up," Dr Pyne said.

The possums will stay under observation for two weeks before they are released back
into the wild.

"Mum's eating well and producing plenty of milk, still a little stressed but that's
not surprising," Dr Pyne said.

"But the main thing is they're not stressed so much that they're not eating."

AAP mjf/tnf/jfm

KEYWORD: POSSUM WRAP (PIX TO COME)

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