A Vet Built a Custom Splint for Hillsby the Echidna's Broken Beak

An echidna named Hillsby, whose beak was fractured in several places when a vehicle hit him, spent a couple of months in care at Southern Koala and Echidna Rescue in South Australia with a custom splint before being released. Mish Simpson, the group’s chief executive officer, told Hooray News about him in an email interview on Nov. 9.⁵

Simpson brought Hillsby up when asked which rescue from this season had stuck with her. “Hillsby is one of the stand outs,” she wrote.⁵

How a broken echidna beak got fixed

The group’s vet, Dr Caitlin, made a splint specifically for Hillsby to keep his beak stable, Simpson said.⁵

“This was a special case as many vets don’t know fractures like this are fixable.”

“This was a special case as many vets don’t know fractures like this are fixable,” Simpson said.⁵ When it was time for him to go, Dr Caitlin came in to do the release herself. “It was so special that Dr Caitlin volunteered to come in on her day off to release him,” Simpson said.⁵

A cold winter for echidnas in care

Hillsby’s stay was not entirely smooth. This winter, Simpson said, every echidna in the group’s care, Hillsby included, kept going into and out of torpor, a sluggish, energy-saving state, and stopped eating the food the team offered. She described it as very stressful.⁵

Related: That Echidna Barging Through Your Adelaide Yard May Be Running Late for a Date

The team suspected it was too cold for the animals to eat, so they adapted their enclosures. Simpson said what the group really needs is an indoor space where echidnas can stay during the cooler months.⁵

A camera trap caught Hillsby finally eating. That footage has since been wiped, Simpson said, so the team’s record of a long-awaited meal now survives only as a story.⁵

Rescue calls so far this year

Simpson said the group has taken around 90 calls this year through the end of October. Most were about echidnas in urban areas or in backyards with dogs, and vehicle strikes were the next most common reason.⁵ She could not yet give an updated count of echidnas taken into care, because the group’s records fell behind during a busy stretch with birds.⁵

Hooray News earlier passed along Simpson’s advice from an ABC Adelaide report. Healthy suburban echidnas are usually headed somewhere specific, so people should not move them into scrub. Instead, give a yard echidna half an hour to an hour to leave on its own.¹² The exception, she told the ABC, is an echidna trying to cross a major arterial road or freeway.²

“I’m like, ‘This poor thing doesn’t want to be in the scrub. Stop taking it to the scrub. It’s trying to get somewhere,’” Simpson told the ABC.² The group has also warned that taking healthy echidnas to vet clinics can disrupt their natural behavior, and it runs a 24-hour hotline.⁴

A wildlife vet clinic with no paying clients

The group’s home base is a 9-hectare property at Onkaparinga Hills, about 30 kilometers south of Adelaide, owned by Mish and Wade Simpson.³ It also runs SA Wildlife Veterinary Services, which Simpson describes as South Australia’s only dedicated wildlife veterinary clinic. That means it carries the costs of a vet clinic without a single paying client.⁵

“We rely on the community to help us meet the costs of providing vet care to Echidnas and other wildlife,” Simpson said, and she thanked the group’s regular supporters.⁵