Back to the Classroom...

It was back to the classroom for our animal Keepers this week, as they attended a training session with farm vets Rhys and Gina from Meadows Farm. This time we were learning how to carry out Worm Egg Counts to better monitor the health of our farm animals.

Preventative health is very important when caring for all animals, and this allows us to routinely screen for parasites rather than constantly treating them and risking resilience to medications in the future.

When an animal is showing signs of sickness, this is often one of the first places that we will look, as parasites are one of the most common causes of symptoms such as weight loss and poor condition. We can then treat the cause, or if ruled out can look further to get to the bottom of what is actually causing the problem with our vets’ help.

Being able to carry out simple tests like this will also save us money that can then be put towards other important veterinary treatments – emergency treatment for our larger animals can quickly run into their hundreds (and in a past case, thousands), so it is very important that we have these funds available.

We are always learning and very happy to be gaining new skills to better care for our animals. We have wonderful vets who are always happy to help us with this, and we have learned a lot from them over the years. This is just the first of several upcoming training sessions that we are looking forward to!

The Raccoons Move House

We are absolutely over the moon to announce that the Raccoons have moved out into their new home, and they love it! We are so very proud of this enclosure and we hope that you like it as much as we (and the raccoons) do too. It has taken months of hard work and a lot of kind donations to make it possible, but to see them so happy has made every day of work and each penny worth it!

Sophie and Fiona were seized from a private keeper by a Local Authority after being found in very poor conditions at a puppy farm. When we heard of their plight, we offered to foster them here at the sanctuary, and it soon became apparent that they were happy with us! They calmed right down and instantly bonded with some of our keepers. So rather than uproot them again, we decided to keep them here and give them the lives that they so deserve.

Following a crowdfunding campaign set up by one of our keepers and the very generous donations made by YOU, we were able to completely rebuild and re-purpose one of our old enclosures, to create this very happy home for them. We couldn’t have done this without the money that you helped us to raise, materials kindly donated, and the extremely hard work of John our maintenance manager!

Now for the first time in their lives, they can feel the sun on their backs, paddle in their own pool, climb, run, jump and play in what is our best accomplishment yet since we took on the mammoth task of trying to completely renovate this site. THANK YOU to all who have helped us, and we hope that you’ll come and see them soon!

Just some of the wonderful people who donated funding, materials and time to make our dream a reality - Chris Nock, Kym Pearce, Caroline Bell, Sian Westwood, Mitchell Payton, Katie Patrick, Carol Ravenhall, Jo Redhead, Helen Owen, Amy Taranaski, Zoe Westwood, Mike Davies, Eric Thompson, Annette Callear, Ann Parkes, Lydia Parker, Nicola Evill, Kieron Harper, Marie Cotton, Virginia Truslove, Lynn Grice, Vix Heyman, Rachel Gately, Claire Thompson, Steve Austin, Emma Powell (ThePunkyBunny), Laura Bulger (GreytFelties), Nick Powner (Rayton Electrical Wholesale Ltd), Carvers Building Supplies, Darlaston Builders Merchants, Asset Protection Team - West (Severn Trent), Selco Builders Warehouse, Dudley College Landbased Studies Students, and a number of anonymous supporters.

Little Grebe Release

We usually refer Wildlife cases to dedicated wildlife hospitals with the specialist knowledge and experience often needed for these animals, but when this Little Grebe was brought to us by a neighbour, we were very pleased to be able to help it ourselves! It had unfortunately been caught by a cat, but thankfully examination showed that it was not badly hurt.

We were then able to check whether it was able to perform all of the behaviours needed for release; such as swimming, catching it’s food, eating and preening. It passed with flying colours and so we were overjoyed to be able to find a suitable release site here.

We checked that it could swim properly and catch food in water.

We have several areas of the sanctuary that we have dedicated for the abundance of wildlife that visit or choose to live with us, and a large pond loved by various wild water birds, with lots of hiding/nesting spaces and food available.

The Grebe swam away slowly, then quickly dove underwater, zigzagging across the pond, catching tiny fishes and insects, popping up all over the place! A very happy little bird!

A big thank you to our kind neighbours for rescuing it and keeping it safe until we could take over.