June 2024

Hello everyone, Nadine, I'm back with news from Finca Noah.
First of all, I would like to report on what happened to the cat Snow and the little kittens from the street cat colony in the marina in Cala Dor. I reported in detail about the three cats in the May newsletter, but whether there was a happy ending was still pending....

Addendum to the May newsletter

The beautiful white cat with the bright green eyes had a broken hip. After the operation, Snow was still dragging his leg behind him instead of putting weight on it. The vet took a look at him and diagnosed an inflamed nerve. After two weeks of medical treatment it didn't get any better. We got a second opinion from our family vet because we were at a loss and we really wanted to help the cat to be able to walk on four legs again. After the vet looked at the x-ray and explained what he saw, we were shocked. The vet told us that the nerve was damaged and could no longer be operated on. We spent a long time discussing what we could do so that Snow the cat could jump, run, climb and play safely again. Without injuring himself again. The leg is hanging lifelessly from his little body and he will never be able to use it again. When climbing, there is a risk that his leg will get stuck somewhere and he won't be able to free himself because he has no feeling in his leg and therefore can't move it. We have to think for the animal in such situations. The decision was not easy for us, but our vets have assured us that it is best for Snow to have his leg amputated. Afterwards he will be a beautiful cat with bright green eyes and three legs. He will be able to run, jump and climb like any other cat. And he will certainly remain a cuddly cat who demands lots of love and cuddles.

Please keep your fingers crossed with us that the hopefully last operation for little Snow will go well and that his life story will have a happy ending. He soooo deserves it.

The two cute kittens whose mummy comes from the street colony in the marina in Cala Dor were allowed to move to their forever home. After mummy was discovered heavily pregnant on the street and her two babies were born at Finca Noah, they were allowed to pack their bags after enjoying a carefree life with mummy for 10 weeks. Mummy had been accepted for adoption when she was brought to us by the lovely Kirsten and her husband, but it was still unclear whether the babies would be placed so quickly. But then Julia and her boyfriend came to visit the animals at Finca Noah. They immediately took the two little ones to their hearts and were determined to give them a loving home. All three were picked up by their families on the same day. A big happy ending for animals and humans.
 

We are on the farm every day, really every day, for such beautiful animal welfare moments and are committed to 100% for every single animal.

A sick rabbit in the Mondragó Nature Park.

A young woman who spent her holidays here on Mallorca discovered a rabbit on the road during a visit to the beach in the Mondragó Nature Park.

The rabbit was very trusting, it was easy to touch, presumably this rabbit once had a home. It seems to be used to being close to people. We don't know why this rabbit ended up on the street. It was not in good health. And quite often in the past, we have found that many people put their animals on the street as soon as they get sick. Sick animals cause costs, need more attention, make work, and nowadays people have no patience for that. When the animal is no longer cute, and perhaps no longer "working", they are simply left to fend for themselves. This rabbit has probably been abandoned. The young woman took the rabbit home and cared for it. She is a veterinary assistant and knew what to do. She just couldn't keep the rabbit with her. On the last day of her holiday she found the rabbit, she didn't know where to take it, so she asked us for help. We advised her to have it examined by a vet. Before we take in an animal, we need to know what illness it has so as not to endanger our other animals. We have 26 rabbits in a 240 square metre enclosure, so the risk of them catching the disease from him is very high. The photos looked terrible, but we still help every animal. As we are acting in the animal's best interests, we also sought a second opinion this time. Our vet Jan Raap has his small animal practice in Switzerland, but is always available to give us advice and support. We can call him at any time, he answers all our questions and often has reassuring and comforting words when we don't know what to do. It is so valuable to have an experienced vet in the team.
It was obvious to everyone that the rabbit had a skin disease. The fur was missing in many places and the skin was very red. Both vets, both the vet here in Mallorca where the young woman was and our vet Jan Raap, independently advised us to keep the rabbit separately. When the young woman from the vet was on her way to us, we prepared the 15 square metre carantine house. My son Juan lovingly looked after the rabbit and gave him his medication in his food as prescribed by the vet. He was in constant dialogue with the young woman. She explained to him everything that could be done to make the rabbit feel better. The diagnosis was scabies and parasites. After 10 days of treatment with the medication, the rabbit was supposed to be better, but his condition worsened overnight. We had no chance of giving him a good life with our 26 rabbits. After just one day in our loving care, the rabbit died. We were so hopeful that we would be able to nurse him back to health. We hoped that he would get better as quickly as possible and be able to run around with like-minded people again. Now we can only hope that he hasn't been wandering around sick on the street for too long and that he hasn't suffered for too long.
Even if you were only with us for a few hours, little rabbit, we have taken you into our hearts and wish you a happy time where you are now.

The pony Rambo

Our little Shetland pony, Rambo, was not well at all. Rambo has been a great team in the enclosure with our 7 sheep and Coco the deer for a few years now. Rambo loves it when you give him his treats. He loves to eat for his life. He gets his apples and carrots every other day. However, he demands his horse treats every day. There are numerous almond and fig trees in his enclosure. If only he were big enough to get at the fruit. He would definitely eat all the trees bare. The perfect harvest helper.

That's why all our alarm bells ring when Rambo has no appetite and doesn't touch his food. He often lay down on the straw and simply did nothing. He drank much more than usual. We were very worried. We called our horse vet Claudia. Unfortunately, she told us that she was on holiday. Her vet colleague, Barbara, immediately agreed to come to us at the finca to examine Rambo, but we had to wait because Barbara has a journey time of 1.5 hours. Barbara took blood from Rambo's pony to have it analysed later in the laboratory. We had to assist her on site at the finca because Barbara had to rinse Rambo's stomach with a tube. This was the only way she could determine whether Rambo had eaten something he couldn't tolerate. The tube was passed through his nose to his stomach. With the help of a funnel, water was poured through the tube directly into the stomach and the contents of the stomach were flushed out. The fact that horses cannot vomit is not true at this moment. And I certainly don't need to mention at this point that Rambo didn't just let it happen to him. Rambo is just a pony, but he has the strength of a big horse....
The stomach contents were not much and fortunately there was nothing to indicate that he had eaten anything wrong. So we had to wait for the blood results. In the meantime, we tried to get him to get rid of his horse droppings with crushed apples and apple juice, i.e. to create a nice pile of manure. One possibility was that Rambo might be suffering from constipation. Taking a temperature was the least of his worries after the gastric lavage. But let's breathe a sigh of relief, Rambo didn't have a fever. The blood results the next day were unremarkable. One day after the examination, Rambo was already feeling better and had regained his appetite. Perhaps it was the bruised apples that worked wonders. Or Rambo was longing for the vet Barbara. We don't know. In any case, we are happy that he is well again and that we can take away his little piles of poo every day.

Every month, we look forward to telling you about our everyday life here at Finca Noah. We hope that we can give you a little insight and maybe you will feel like you were there when you read it.
We would like to thank you for reading and send you

animal greetings from Finca Noah.
Nadine