By Mitchell Clarke
A Pakenham vet nurse has returned to the clinic with a new lease on life after volunteering with wildlife affected in Australia’s bushfire crisis.
Makayla Iannuzzo, 26, spent a week at the Wandadian Kangaroo and Wallaby Sanctuary on the New South Wales south coast, where she worked in a makeshift clinic to rehabilitate injured kangaroos and wallabies.
She received a message from Vets Beyond Borders (VBB), an organisation which is playing a key role in coordinating the veterinary response to the Australian bushfires, who were on the hunt for veterinary nurses.
“When the fires began and news started to come in about the extent of it and the damage that it was doing to our wildlife and their habitats, I wanted to do anything I could to help – so when the chance arose to help, I jumped at it,” Ms Iannuzzo said.
Ms Iannuzzo, who has been a vet nurse at Our Vet Pakenham for three years, said the week long experience over January opened her eyes to the stark reality for wildlife as a result of natural and man-made disasters.
“The fires had already consumed most of the area with smoke and ash hanging in the air as a permanent feature of the environment,” she said.
“The sanctuary had made a makeshift clinic in a large shed on the property that acted as the home base for treating the injured wildlife that came in.”
Her first matter of business was to attend to a joey named Flame, who was suffering from deep burns to his feet, which he had received after standing on hot ash and coals.
Sadly, Flame’s story wasn’t an isolated case and like many young joeys in the sanctuary’s care, he had lost his mother in the fire and was found trying to fend for himself.
“The majority of patients that were brought in had excessive burns to a combination of their hands, feet, tail or ears,” Ms Iannuzzo added.
“Most of them were quite traumatised by everything they had gone through.
“The burns were severe and very painful, ranging from superficial partial thickness to full thickness burns and so the patients needed continual bandage changes and debridement with sufficient pain relief.”
Ms Iannuzzo’s role in the response required her to triage patients as they came in, administer first aid, apply and change bandages, assist with debriding the wounds, help medicate patients and do patient rounds.
“During the time that I had spent there, I saw improvement in the majority of our patients but some were not so lucky and not all animals that were brought in were viable to become patients,” she explained.
“It was a very confronting and harsh environment at times, but very rewarding at the same time.”
Ms Iannuzzo said the experience has opened her eyes to humanity and said she was “amazed” that amongst the chaos and sorrow, people from all around Australia came together to give all they could with the one goal to save animals.
“I decided to become a vet nurse because of my love for animals and I have always had a strong belief that every animal has the right to the five freedoms; from hunger or thirst, from discomfort, from pain, injury or disease, from fear and distress and freedom to express normal behaviour,” she said.
“Volunteering with VBB has been so rewarding, I have gained invaluable skills, made new friends and come away feeling as though I’ve helped make a difference.”
