UPDATE 8/24/20
It is with a heavy heart we let you know that our darling Valentina passed away this weekend. As you know, Valentina was born this February premature and with a genetic deformity. Over the course of her short life she received expert medical care, dedicated care from our sanctuary team and a surgery that would give her the best shot at overcoming her deformity. After months of thriving, Valentina’s quality of life began to go downhill and she started to show signs of being in pain. After a thorough consultation with multiple vets, we made the terribly difficult decision to do what was best for Valentina. She passed away Sunday morning, surrounded by the love and comfort of her family.
Valentina spent her seven months on earth surrounded by happiness and love. She played with her adoring big sister Molly, was loved by her mother Pandora and even bonded with her “aunts” Addie & Dorothy llamas. She had a plethora of human friends who cared for her day in and day out, helping her eat, sleep, play and live a full happy life. We tried everything we could to give her the long life she deserved, and we know that it was all worth it to give her those seven months of jumping, playing, snuggling, feeling the sunshine and simply living.
Thank you for rooting for Valentina, and believing in her right to live. It’s because of your support of our work that she was given every chance at life. There will never be another quite like Valentina – she was a special spirit whose short time on this earth made each of our lives better. We will miss you sweet girl!
UPDATE 4/14/20
It’s been a long four weeks since we originally took her to OSU to have what we were hoping would be a lifesaving surgery for her. In that time we have gone back and forth with many vets, and we have been stopped by COVID-19 procedures and protocols. However, we are happy to report that we were able to get her in for surgery this week and it was a success! This surgery was Valentina’s only chance at life and the prognosis was extremely guarded, but thanks to the skill of the surgeons and medical team and the tenacity of our caregiving team, Valentina came out of the surgery with a much better chance at living a long healthy life. We are not out of the woods yet, since Valentina still needs to heal from the surgery so keep those positive thoughts coming her way. Valentina’s long road to a healthy life is just one of many challenges we take on as a sanctuary and we couldn’t do it without you. Thank you to all who have supported Valentina – we’ll keep you updated as she recovers.
UPDATE 3/18/20
We are still waiting to hear the final word about what we can do for Valentina. We brought her to OSU for a CT scan, which showed that she has more problems than we anticipated. Unfortunately, like the rest of the world, the coronavirus has caused OSU hospital to close so they’re not doing any surgeries right now. We are in close contact with the vets there – making sure that she is passing waste and remains pain free. We are hoping that we get some information soon and the doors can open back up so we can get her in for surgery. Please still keep her in your thoughts because she needs all those well wishes.
In October of 2019, we rescued Pandora and five other goats after their caretaker had to quickly leave town due to a domestic violence situation. We soon discovered that Pandora was pregnant, and have been monitoring her closely since.
On February 13, 2020, Pandora gave birth to two beautiful babies – Molly and Valentina. However soon after birth, our team knew something was seriously wrong with Valentina. She was premature, underdeveloped, and has a genetic deformity affecting her digestive system.
We have been cleaning and monitoring Valentina very closely as she faces a serious risk of going into sepsis if waste enters her body or bloodstream. In addition to her medical struggles, Valentina’s mom has sadly not accepted her yet. Mama is not allowing Valentina to nurse so our team has had to step in to help Valentina survive.
We have been working closely with our vet to establish a care plan that gives her the best chance at life including round-the-clock care to ensure she is nursing every few hours, as a normal baby would. This isn’t easy, but our team refuses to give up on little Valentina.
Valentina continues to defy odds and shows us daily that she’s a fighter as we work to get her stabilized and gaining weight.
This is the true meaning of sanctuary. We know Valentina’s life is precious and we want her to have the opportunity to live it! We don’t know what she faces long term, but we are hopeful. We will not give up on Valentina.
