'Half Moon' Harry gets released after undergoing chlamydia treatment

After undergoing a few months of treatment and rehabilitation from chlamydia, on Saturday, April 2, Harry was let back into the wild by WIRES koala carer Morgan Philpott, who had brought the sick koala in for treatment.

Originally found by Hawkesbury City Council worker Tahmon Zenzmaier, Harry had obvious swelling around his eyes and was doing it tough.

"I saw that he had chlamydia," said Mr Zenzmaier. "He sort of walked away and bumped into a tree, then climbed the next one. So, I thought that I should just call WIRES and hopefully they can catch him and fix him up."

WIRES sent out Mr Philpott, who searched for Harry around the Lower Portland bushland, but after over an hour he couldn't find the sick koala.

It wasn't until he detected the distinct smell of the male koala's scent gland, which was active due to mating season.

"I knew that he was really close and It spurred me on to look a little bit further, and fortunately I found him," said Mr Philpott.

Harry was treated at the WIRES koala rehabilitation centre at Western Sydney University, Richmond, for chlamydia, a disease plaguing Australia's koala populations.

The treatment for chlamydia was completed back in February, but Harry's eyes had not completely healed and he had some significant corneal scarring.

So, he was seen by animal ophthalmologist, Dr Jeffrey Smith from Eye Clinic for Animals, who kept him for an extra month before giving the all clear.

Mr Philpott said that they took him back to Greens Road, Lower Portland, where they had originally found him.

"It's really nice to be able to get him back where he belongs and hopefully he'll go out there and make some more koalas," he said.

"When we released him, we picked a nice grey gum, which is one of their preferred food trees, and up he went ... it was almost like he had read the script for us, because they don't always do that when we release them.

"Sometimes they won't like the tree that was picked for whatever reason and they'll take off across the ground and find the tree that they choose. But fortunately for him, he had approved the tree that we picked, and he seemed to be quite happy."

Though there are hopes that Mr Philpott and WIRES will not have to see Harry again, there is always a chance for reinfection.

Mr Philpott said that it's something they have certainly seen before and often occurs when the animal becomes under severe physical stress.

"When we say they don't have chlamydia anymore, what we really mean is they're not shedding the chlamydia ... it will always sort of be locked up in the cells of the animal," he said.

"And what happens is under periods of extreme stress, it can be retriggered again and reactivated, or they can come in contact with another koala that has chlamydia and catch it again.

"So technically, I guess they're never truly chlamydia free."

Unfortunately, not all koalas that enter the rehabilitation center are released back into the wild.

Harry's neighbour and the first patient at the Hawkesbury centre, Monty 'Colo', who was also being treated for chlamydia, sadly took a turn for the worse.

Monty was doing well, but in March he started to get diarrhoea and WIRES were unable to work out why.

The sick koala was taken to the vets, but the tests take a long time and the weight was falling off him as he crashed quickly.

Mr Philpott said that on the subsequent post mortem they were able to locate a large wound on his gum line, but it was right up in the back of his jaw, which had looked like it had become infected.

He also mentioned that from the autopsy, there were some other unusual findings about his liver and pancreas, so they are still waiting for some clarification on what those findings meant.

"He was an old boy too, so that wouldn't have helped his cause either," said Mr Philpott.

"It was really disappointing, I'd had him in care for nearly six months."