Crikey! Animal health scanned

News source: Sunshine Coast Daily
29 November 2007
By Sam Benger and AAP

SICK and injured wildlife will soon benefit from the best in human ultrasound imaging after a donation of $470,000 worth of diagnostic equipment to Australia Zoo's Beerwah wildlife hospital.

Queensland Diagnostic Imaging yesterday donated the two ultrasound machines to the wildlife hospital after an upgrade of its equipment at its clinics.

The machines have been nicknamed Crikey 1 and Crikey 2, a favourite phrase used by the late Crocodile Hunger Steve Irwin, who founded the hospital with wife Terri through their charity, Wildlife Warriors.

Australian Wildlife Hospital senior veterinarian Jon Hanger yesterday said the machines would be used to diagnose injuries, diseases and the reproductive health of thousands of animals each year at the hospital.

He said its "patients" would include koalas, snakes, lizards and marine turtles.

"As long as we can put a probe onto soft tissue, then it will work," Dr Hanger said.

He said the donation of the non-invasive machines was a huge boost for the hospital, which did not have the budget for such precise equipment.

"The beauty of the machine that we've been donated by Queensland Diagnostic Imaging is that it's a very expensive human machine, so it's a very good piece of technology," he said.

"It gives us very good images and the quality of the ultrasound image has a large bearing on the diagnostic usefulness."

Dr Hanger said the scanners would be particularly useful for determining whether female koalas were suffering from chlamydia, a disease affecting more than 50% of female koalas, which can often result in them becoming sterile.

He said the wildlife hospital cared for between 5000 and 6000 animals every year.

"The best way to protect animals is to ensure their habitats are protected and allow them to live without interference from man," he said.