Living on 82acres of land and being fully surrounded by King Lake National Park, we are blessed by the number of native Australian animals we get to cohabitate with. One particularly special animal is the wombat, on a recent spotlighting one night we found 5 wombats grazing across 5 acres of our back yard and vineyard.

 

Being mostly nocturnal animals, it’s rare to see wombats out during daylight hours, but in mid July we started getting a young wombat visit us every day. He/she was super cute and from face on looked like an Ewok from Star Wars, so our son Sebastian quickly named it Ewok. Coming out in daylight generally means there is something wrong and sure enough with a few days we noticed some scabs and sores on its body. Having come across this before on a wombat we quickly realised Ewok was suffering from Mange. Mange is a skin disease caused by parasitic mites and a threat to our beloved wombats if untreated. Since it is extremely itchy the wombat uses its very sharp claws or a tree trunk to scratch itself, often resulting in open wounds that can become infected and cause more suffering and death.

 

Through the help of mange management, a group of volunteers, we secured a manage treatment kit and got straight into treating Ewok. After 4 weeks of treatment we are seeing majority of scabs have dropped off and new hair is starting to grow back on Ewok’s side. Although we love seeing Ewok everyday, with a few more treatments we hope to not see them again, which means the treatment has worked and Ewok has returned to night time feeding as a healthy wombat.

 

Cute facts:

1. We came to within 1m of Ewok before being growled at

2. Our Kelpie Pippin usually politely asks wombats to depart our property when she comes across them, but Ewok has told her otherwise and so Pippin leaves Ewok to eat happily alone

3. Ewok has taken residence inside our dog kennel when tired between daytime feeding

4. Ewok hates storms as much as many people and pets!

 

If you have seen a wombat that has mange and need additional help, please contact Mange Management www.mangemanagement.org.au