All Creatures Great and Small Affected by Floods

Dragged from the mud, rescued after swimming for 36 hours in surging floodwaters or comatose and barely alive, animals rescued from the Lockyer Valley floods are slowly recovering.

Mia, a newborn foal, was saved from a property isolated by floodwaters near Helidon last week, barely alive.

Her mother died after being in labour for six days; her owner was unable to call for help.

She is now healing at the University of Queensland's Veterinary Medical Centre in nearby Gatton, along with other injured and rescued pets, including dogs, cats, cockatoos, bearded dragons and Siamese fighting fish.

Equine vet Susan Keane is nursing Mia, and several other horses, back to health.

All, remarkably, survived the flood that destroyed much of the valley, wrecking homes and lives.

"Mia, the foal, was comatose and on death's door (when she arrived)," Dr Keane said.

"We had six horses: four near drowning, some with pneumonia, one severe eye ulcer and the septic foal whose mare had died," Dr Keane said.

One of the amazing equine survivors was a Standardbred trapped in its racing stable that had to tread water for 30 hours.

While she believes the equine hospital will be able to save those six horses, Dr Keane said many more would have been killed in the flash flood last week.

Next door to where the horses are being cared for is the Small Animals Hospital, where the rest of the Lockyer Valley's found pets, which include up to 35 dogs and more than a dozen cats, are being nursed.

The hospital's Bob Doneley said many of the animals had already been reunited with their owners -- flood victims who had lost everything.

"It's very important," Dr Doneley said. "One lady said 'I've lost my house but I still have my pets: that's what matters'."

For others, the news is worse. Dr Doneley said one Grantham family visited the hospital twice daily to see whether their two wolfhounds had been found. Each time, they had left empty-handed and devastated.

Another family, rescued by helicopter from Grantham last Monday, was so desperate to save their two black kittens and their chihuahua, they stuffed the animals down their shirts as they were winched to safety.

Other pet survival stories are emerging from flattened Grantham.

In one low-set house, where the dirty water line marked the ceiling, animal control officer Darryl Simpson found two dogs sheltering amid thick sludge in a back bedroom.

Nearby, another house wrenched off its stumps came to rest at a 45-degree angle and waiting there on the jutting front porch were two old and tiny black chihuahuas.

"I know animals can survive extreme circumstances but some of these animals that have survived this incident, you just scratch your head and think 'how?'," he said.

Mr Simpson said more than 100 pets had so far been saved as council trucks became "travelling zoos", transporting muddy dogs and cats as well as parrots, rats, siamese fighting fish and chickens.

"You think if a chook can survive, there's still a lot of hope for those people that are missing," he said.

Floodwaters rendered the Lockyer Valley Council's Gatton pound useless, which is why the animals are at the University of Queensland small animal hospital.

Head vet Dr Bob Doneley said most new arrivals "ate ravenously" then curled up to sleep for a day.

 

Story: theaustralian.com.au and couriermail.com.au