Help Us Save Ruth’s Life

Hi, my name is Jessica & I’m raising funds for Signal Hill Sanctuary Inc. to help save Ruth’s life.

Ruth, along with her sister Donna, were found on the side of a country road on a freezing, rainy night.

They were welcomed into Signal Hill Sanctuary, a NSW based Sanctuary that is a place of refuge for exploited, abused, neglected and abandoned animals generally regarded as ‘farm animals’. It is set on 200 acres of pasture and natural bushland near the Yass River in NSW.

It exists to provide refuge, safety and a voice to farmed animals suffering, or at risk from, exploitation, abuse, neglect or abandonment.

Signal Hill is currently providing a safe home to over 70 animals – consisting of pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, horses, chickens, ducks, Guinea fowl, roosters and geese.

This week, the Sanctuary received some bad news about Ruth. Ruth was suddenly unable to use her right hind leg, which resulted in an urgent visit to the vet. The vet was hopeful it was soft tissue damage and Ruth spent the weekend on anti inflammatory and pain relief medication.

The sore knee ended up not responding to medication so Ruth was taken back to the vet for scans.

She was sedated for this, and the vet, after explaining what her injury is, offered to euthanise her while she was still under anesthetic.

It's a bad, bad injury - the worst possible concern ended up being the truth.

She's only a baby, and she has a lot of growing to do.

But she's both dislocated and fractured her right knee, right through the growth plate. The worst possible outcome.

The scans are in the photos; I've put the clean scans and then I've drawn on them to clearly show what's happened. Left knee is normal, right knee is a complete mess.

I chose not to euthanise. Common sense said I should have, but my gut said wait.

So we waited, with the vet (shout out to Will at Yass Valley Veterinary) speaking to specialists about the case and whether it's possible to repair the damage.

In an average dog or cat there's no question. But a pig who's going to be at least 150kg really needs all of her legs so that they have to compensate for an extra quarter of her body weight.

But there's hope. We've found a specialist at Charles Sturt University in wagga who can and will do a repair, depending on further diagnostics.

We have an appointment on Monday morning, with surgery, if it's possible (and ethical, which will depend on the longer term consequences) booked for Tuesday.

But this is an $8000 surgery.

It will be long and difficult, and she'll have be be under anesthetic for hours, which is dangerous, but the hospital has an expert anesthesiologist who has a protocol for pigs so the risk doesn't appear much greater than it would be for a dog.

This surgery is the only chance she has to keep her life.

And it's far more money than we have.

We need $4000 by Monday, and another $4000 within 31 days of that.

She deserves a chance. She had a traumatic, frightening start to life and she and her sister are only just starting a new life of joy and safety.

I need your help.

Please, donate if you can and share, share, share.

We can't save her without you.

Direct Deposit:

Signal Hill Sanctuary Inc

Beyond Bank

BSB 325-185

Acc # 0354 8336

http://paypal.me/signalhillsanctuary