30 January 2010

Pet food appeal

It's January, the quietest month of the year at Vale, but we are getting through around 600 tins of dog & cat food every single week! 90 hedgehogs plus foxes, gulls & corvids are all responsible for devouring so many tins.
Our shelves are almost empty & having to buy so much food at a time of year when fundraising is the hardest is draining our meagre rescources. Please help by sending a donation or by bringing in a few tins if you live close enough to us. Donations can also be made by visiting our website at http://www.vwr.org.uk
Please help us out at this difficult time.
Thank-you.

7 January 2010

Winter wildlife

Give a thought to our poor wildlife in this freezing weather. We have had 2 call-outs so far today:
The first was to a cygnet in Pershore, sitting on ice looking decidedly unwell where it had been since at least the night before. I am surprised it survived the freezing night time temperatures. Our vet checked it over, its temperature was over 4 degrees lower than normal & it was very lethargic. Wildlife is having great difficulty finding food with everything covered in thick snow so please make sure that you are putting as much variety of food out as possible & don't forget the water too.
The cygnet was given 300mls of warmed fluids subcutaneously & is now in our nice warm brooder room where its temperature is gradually increasing.
The second call-out was to a muntjac deer fawn, a tiny little female aged about 3-4 days!! She weighs just over 1 kilo & had been caught by a dog. We cannot see any major injuries on her but she is in shock, one of the biggest killers of wildlife, especially deer. She has been tubed some milk replacer & is now in one of our intensive care brooders, slowly warming up. We will keep our fingers crossed for both of these winter casualties.