Meet my possum - I have called him "Damn Lucky" as you will see. Damn Lucky or Lucky for short was bought to me by a North Side carer ( Mary -Jane). When she arrived, she appeared upset and on enquiry the reason quickly became evident, the possum that RSPCA had rung about had been dead for a number of days and was crawling with maggots, but after checking the pouch she had discovered a baby that was still alive.​
 

So, she bought the dead mother and the attached baby to me - complete with the maggot collection - "YUK"! It appeared that the mother had been dead for approx. five days.​
 

It took nearly 2 days to be rid of the maggots from the 100g male 's eyes and ears. The little fellow was very dehydrated, so when he was cleaned up, he was started with sub-cuts of 8mls then 2 mls of Spark every hour for 4 hours and there after every 2 hours, another sub-cut was administered that evening of 8mls, this being the first day.​
 

The question in most minds would be why has she not given the animal milk - simple answer, I had attended a Anne Fowler Workshop where she had taught that before you give any milk the animal should be hydrated enough that it will urinate first.

REASON, if you give it milk first it will overload the kidney and liver, which is the primary cause for them to crash and die.​
 

It took 24hours and another sub-cut of 8mls before he finally urinated.

Other issues the animal had were - Ulcers in the eyes

                                                 - A wound on his arm from bird attack

                                                 - A wound on his leg from bird attack

No Vets were available Saturday afternoon and Sunday, I had some Conoptal eye drops which I then administered immediately then twice a day.

Later the evening of the first day I increased the administration time of Spark to 3 hours until he urinated. When he finally urinated, I slowly introduced milk mixed with Spark until he was on full strength Divetelact/ Poly-aid and Critical Care, this was administered with a catheter and syringe, initially the animal had to be force fed, he then started to feed well until Tuesday night when I noticed a red rash on his neck and an infection under his chin, at this point he crashed again. Another sub-cut was called for, so I administered another 8mls.

His infection improved plus Tricia eye ointment, the feeding improved, the weight improved at about 2 gram's a day so that now he is up to 114 gram's and looking like proper little possum.  Wednesday - off to the Vet, the vet administered a 10ml Sub-cut plus gave me Clavulox for infection twice a day.

Damn Lucky was just that and was finally released as an adult possum back into the bush. 

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