Halfpenny-Farm Animal Sanctuary

Boozy ( the dark ferret) may be elderly and suffer from low grade lymphoma, but he still likes to play with his buddy, Baggins.

Shamrock thought he would help with cleaning up. Video by Ellie.

I wish all the animals were as good at taking their meds as Slinky is, he’s such a good boy.

Danny trying to prepare for a roll, while Dillon was taking the mick! Video by Ellie.

We were donated some play pit balls, which we have used to entertain the ferrets, although there has been a mixed reaction. Boozy and Baggins seemed interested! Video by Cameron.

Many thanks to Caitlyn who came for a couple of weeks work experience, she was a great help and even managed to feed the healthy sheep without too much difficulty! We hope she enjoyed her visit.

It seems to have been a particularly bad year for ragwort, which is great for invertebrate wildlife but not so great for other types if eaten. We have spent weeks removing it for the fields. If you choose to volunteer, this is one of the jobs you could end up doing during the summer. Our fields are almost clear now, thanks to the volunteers!

We had to get the vet out to our big girl, Janet, yesterday. She’s an old lady now and has been slowing down due to arthritis, however she has been getting slower and yesterday didn’t want to get up for her breakfast, in fact she just would not get up at all. The vet came out and she was uncomfortable but we are not really sure what was wrong, although her droppings seemed quite dry. We have given her some lactulose, in case she is constipated, which is not uncommon in older pigs and have increased her dose of metacam because we may have been underdosing her. This morning she was up for breakfast, has passed softer droppings and this is her eating a fruit salad of apples, bananas and melon with a bit of oil to give fibre and fluids to help with the constipation. Janet is well loved and a favourite of many of the volunteers here due to her social and friendly nature. Fingers crossed she is now on the mend.

We’ve had a very busy week and got lots done. On top of the routine jobs, we had quite a few visits from potential volunteers and a visit from Brian, who is happy to do maintenance/ building jobs and started with fixing our digger, many thanks. We also had a good clean out of the feed store, by Mike H, and our horse rugs have had a through tidy up and organisation. We had Kirsty this week doing some work experience and she was a great help, on top of doing the routine jobs she was involved in sorting out the rugs. Everybody else cracked on with full cleans, health checks, poop picking and digging up ragwort. I did also mean to thank Jules, who wants to be a vet and came for a week’s work experience a few weeks ago. She also mucked in and helped us get so much further ahead. I have answered to quite a few emails requesting information on volunteering, but have not had replies. If you have messaged, please check your spam if you are waiting for a reply or call me on 07737653402 to discuss volunteering further.

Rhum and Iona do enjoy their morning treat!

Boozy is so happy to have his friend back.

A small update on Sienna, who came in with mobility problems and very thin. She has been to the vet and her front right leg has been x-rayed because she isn’t able to use it. Thankfully nothing is broken, although she has a chip of bone in her elbow, the vets are not sure if it is causing the issue, the other option is that she has neurological damage due to trauma. She also has osteoporosis, which along with muscle loss may be contributing to her weakness. She is now on supplements to try and help with the osteoporosis and eating like a horse. She has another week of treatment for E. cunniculi. She managed to get herself up once yesterday and stood on her back legs when I was giving her pellets. It’s only happened once, but it’s a step in the right direction, she is more active although hasn’t put on any weight yet. She is such a little sweetie and trying hard, we are trying hard with her and hope she makes it!