We're feeling very humbled by your kindness - we've raised the required funds for Chicory's desexing already, and even some extra which we will use towards a thorough veterinary health check and preventative care to ensure the little blind pig's ongoing wellbeing. Thank you again :-)
Last week we reached our fundraiser goal and we would like to say a huge THANK YOU from all of the humans and animals of the Black Sheep!!!! In addition to reaching our target on Givealittle, we received some extra donations via bank transfer as well as some cash donations, meaning in total we exceeded our goal! We are absolutely blown away by the support. Covid has been tough on all of us, but we are now heading into winter knowing everything will be just fine. The money raised will be used to make large purchases of hay and straw, and will help us cover our weekly costs of goat pellets, grain, horse feed and more. Making sure our animals are happy, fed, and warm is our first priority, and we thank you for making that possible
Nooch was severely malnourished when he arrived at the sanctuary as a tiny orphaned kid. We also realised that has a unique health challenge that we have not had to address with any of our other animals before. He has an overbite! While this may not seem like a big issue, the misalignment of his teeth prevents him from chewing his food adequately. In particular, he struggles to break down hay into small enough pieces. He has scared us a few times by choking on his regurgitated cud, so we switched him to food that poses less of a choking hazard and had our vet check him over. She suggested we try trimming his back teeth, which may not be wearing down properly due to the overbite. We gave it a shot and took him in to the vet clinic for the procedure, but sadly it has not fixed the problem. His jaw and teeth issues are something he was born with, and something we will just continue to manage and keep an eye on. The change in his food seems to have taken care of the issue, so we reckon he will be just fine with his best friend Toffee at the Black Sheep!
Many of you have met our cheeky pig Gherkin, who was found as a tiny piglet, alone and disoriented by the roadside in December 2017. A lively and mischievous soul, he quickly grew into a playful young adult.
Recently Gherkin started experiencing seizures, which is very distressing. Despite multiple vet visits, x-rays, and pain and anti-inflammatory medications, we still don’t have a definitive answer as to why he is unwell. We are determined to explore every avenue we can to protect his health, and thus we are planning to send him for a CT scan at Massey University. Unfortunately this comes with a significant cost at a time when winter feed bills are high.
You can help Gherkin by donating through Givealittle. Please just remember to reference ‘Gherkin’ when making a donation. Any contribution helps, no matter how small.
Thank you so much for your support. We'll be posting another update soon to let you know about Gherkin's progress. If you don't already receive our newsletter, please do sign up for it to get animal news, photographs, and invitations to sanctuary open days!
Thanks so much everyone who is donated to our fencing project, it is a great help! We have regular working bees in summer so we would love to see you if you are in the area and would like to meet the animals. We actually have one coming up this Saturday the 8th March, so please get in touch if you are interested (sorry about the short notice) - blacksheepotaki@gmail.com http://www.theblacksheep.org.nz/1/post/2014/02/black-sheep-animal-sanctuary-working-bee-thursday-8-march.html
Late last year, one of our caretakers discovered a flegdling magpie while at a gardening job. Pi had a severely deformed leg (probably from a birth defect), and it was obvious he couldn't fend for himself. So she took Pi home, where we fed him hourly until he learned to feed himself. He learned to perch, and then to fly. He can probably be never fully independent, but is relishing an indoor/outdoor life with food always at hand. He has loads of personality, and everyone falls in love with him.
