June 2024

Hello dear friends, it's Nadine here with news from Finca Noah.
First, I'd like to tell you what happened with the tomcat Snow and the little kittens from the stray cat colony at the marina in Cala Dor. In last month's newsletter, I reported in detail about the three cats, but whether there would be a happy ending was still uncertain….

Update to Last Month's Newsletter

The beautiful white tomcat with the gleaming 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 examined him and diagnosed an inflamed nerve. After two weeks of medical treatment, there was no improvement. We sought a second opinion from our house vet because we were at a loss and desperately wanted to help the tomcat walk on four legs again. After the vet looked at the X-ray and explained what he saw, we were shocked. The vet explained to us that the nerve is damaged and cannot be operated on again. We consulted at length about what we could do so that tomcat Snow could safely jump, run, climb, and play again without injuring himself further. Because the leg hangs lifeless on his little body, and he will never be able to use it again. When climbing, there's a risk that his leg could get caught somewhere and he wouldn't be able to free himself because he has no feeling in the leg and therefore can't move it. In such situations, we must think for the animal. The decision wasn't easy for us, but our vets assured us that it's best for tomcat Snow if the leg is amputated. After that, he'll be a beautiful tomcat with gleaming green eyes and three legs. He'll be able to walk, jump, and climb just like any other cat. And he'll certainly remain a very affectionate tomcat who demands lots of love and cuddles.

Please keep your fingers crossed with us that Snow's hopefully last operation goes well and his life story will have a happy ending. He deserves it so much.

The two sugar-sweet kitten babies, whose mother came from the stray cat colony at the marina in Cala Dor, were able to move into their forever home. After the mother was discovered on the street heavily pregnant, and her two babies were born here at Finca Noah, after enjoying 10 carefree weeks with mom, they were able to pack their little suitcases. Mom had already received an adoption approval when she was brought to us by the lovely Kirsten and her husband, but whether the babies would be placed so quickly was still unclear. But then Julia and her boyfriend came to visit us at Finca Noah. They immediately fell in love with the two little ones and wanted to give them a loving home. All three were picked up by their families on the same day. A huge happy ending for animals and humans.

We stand up every day, truly every day, on the farm for these beautiful animal welfare moments and give 100% effort for each individual animal.

A Sick Rabbit in Mondragó Nature Park

A young woman who was spending her vacation here on Mallorca found a rabbit on the street during a visit to the beach in Mondragó Nature Park.

The rabbit was very tame and let itself be picked up easily—it probably had a home once. It seemed accustomed to being near people. We don't know why this rabbit ended up on the street. It was in poor health. And very often, we've learned from experience that many people abandon their animals on the street as soon as they become sick. Sick animals cost money, need more attention, require work, and nowadays people have no desire or patience for that. When the animal is no longer cute and maybe doesn't "function" anymore, they're simply left to fend for themselves. This rabbit was probably abandoned. The young woman took the rabbit home and cared for it. She's a veterinary assistant and knew what to do. But she couldn't keep the rabbit with her. On her last day of vacation, she found the rabbit and didn't know what to do—didn't know where she could 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 disease it has so we don't endanger our other animals. We have 26 rabbits in an enclosure of about 240 square meters, so the risk of them catching something from it is very high. The photos looked bad, but we help every animal anyway. Because we act in the animal's best interest, we sought a second opinion this time too. Our vet Jan Raap runs a small animal practice in Switzerland, but he's always available to advise and help us. We can call him at any time, he answers all our questions, and he often has reassuring and comforting words when we don't know what to do. It's so valuable to have an experienced vet on the team.
It was obvious to everyone that the rabbit had a skin disease. In many places its fur was missing, and the skin was severely inflamed. Both vets—both the vet here on Mallorca that the young woman visited and our vet Jan Raap—independently advised us to keep the rabbit separate. As the young woman was on her way to us from the vet, we prepared the quarantine house of about 15 square meters. My son Juan lovingly cared for the rabbit, giving it its medications as prescribed by the vet mixed into its food. He was in constant contact with the young woman. She explained to him everything that could be done to help the rabbit feel more comfortable. The diagnosis was mange and parasites. After 10 days of treatment with medication, the rabbit should have started feeling better, but its condition deteriorated overnight. We had no chance of enabling it to have a nice life with our 26 rabbits. After just one day in our loving care, the rabbit passed away. We had such hope that we could nurse it back to health. We hoped so much that it would feel better as soon as possible and could run around with like-minded rabbits. Now we can only hope that it didn't wander sick on the street for too long and didn't suffer much.
Even though you were only with us for a few hours, little rabbit, we took you into our hearts and wish you a happy time wherever you are now.

The Pony Rambo

Our little Shetland pony, Rambo, was not doing well at all. For a few years, Rambo has been part of a super team in the enclosure with our 7 sheep and the deer Coco. Rambo loves it when we give him treats. He eats like his life depends on it. He gets his apples and carrots every other day. But he demands horse treats every single day. In his enclosure stand numerous almond and fig trees. If he were only tall enough to reach the fruit, he would definitely eat every tree bare. The perfect harvest helper.

So all the alarm bells ring when Rambo has no appetite and won't touch his food. He often lay down in the straw and just did nothing. He drank much more than usual. We were very worried. We called our horse vet Claudia. Unfortunately, she told us she was on vacation. Her colleague vet Barbara immediately agreed to come to the farm to examine Rambo, but we had to wait because Barbara had a 1.5-hour drive. Barbara took blood from the pony Rambo to have it examined in the lab later. On the farm, we had to assist her because Barbara needed to use a tube to flush Rambo's stomach. This was the only way to determine if Rambo had eaten something he couldn't tolerate. The tube was inserted through the nose down to the stomach. With the help of a funnel, water was poured through the tube directly into the stomach and the stomach contents were flushed out. The fact that horses can't vomit is not entirely accurate in this moment. And that Rambo didn't just let it happen without a fight, I probably shouldn't need to mention at this point. Rambo is just a pony, but he has the strength of a large horse….
There wasn't much in the stomach and thankfully nothing that suggested he had eaten something wrong. So we had to wait for the blood results. In the meantime, we tried to get him to produce droppings—a nice pile of manure—by giving him crushed apples and apple juice. It was possible that Rambo might be suffering from constipation. Measuring temperature was the least of the evils after the stomach flush. But we could breathe a sigh of relief—Rambo had no fever. The blood results the next day were unremarkable. A day after the examination, Rambo was already feeling better and had regained his appetite. Maybe it was the crushed apples that worked wonders. Or maybe Rambo missed vet Barbara. We don't know. We're just happy that he's well again and we get to remove his little manure piles daily.

We look forward each month to being able to tell you about our everyday life here at Finca Noah. We hope that we can give you a little insight this way and perhaps when you read it, you feel like you've been part of it.
We thank you for reading and send

furry greetings from Finca Noah.
Nadine