Wallaby recovers from eye surgery

Little Big Foot was found in the pouch of a sick female

A one-year-old wallaby is recovering after vets operated to remove cataracts from its eyes.

Little Big Foot underwent surgery at The Animal Health Trust specialist hospital in Newmarket, Suffolk, after developing problems with its sight.

The animal was moved from Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Aylesbury, Bucks, to Newmarket for the operation which is usually performed on cats and dogs.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said the wallaby was making a good recovery.

Sick mother's pouch

"It's quite a common operation. We do it all the time on cats and dogs,"

"Performing the operation on a wallaby is very unusual but not unique," she said.

Little Big Foot was found in the pouch of an adult female wallaby.

His mother had contracted chronic mandibular osteomyelitis (commonly known as lumpy jaw) and did not survive.

Little Big Foot was then hand-reared by a foster mother.

However, his sight subsequently became severely impaired and, on examination, he was found to have cataracts in both eyes.

Jane Sansom, the Trust's head of opththalmology, performed surgery to remove the cataracts from both eyes.