Written by The Rabbit Hole Hay Team
At Rabbit Hole Hay, we believe that every pet, not just small pets, deserve to have a happy and healthy lifestyle.
We believe in making a difference in the lives of these animals in any way we can. Our team loves partnering with other like-minded organizations so that we can share our resources and better serve animals in need together.
When Music City Animal Rescue reached out to us on behalf of Philly, their 3 year old Nigerian Dwarf goat, we knew we wanted to join hands to help.
Their story is a unique one, and their love for animals is without limits. Read more to hear about our exciting partnership and how you can help!
At Rabbit Hole Hay, we believe that every pet, not just small pets, deserve to have a happy and healthy lifestyle.
We believe in making a difference in the lives of these animals in any way we can. Our team loves partnering with other like-minded organizations so that we can share our resources and better serve animals in need together.
When Music City Animal Rescue reached out to us on behalf of Philly, their 3 year old Nigerian Dwarf goat, we knew we wanted to join hands to help.
Their story is a unique one, and their love for animals is without limits. Read more to hear about our exciting partnership and how you can help!
Vickie Harris founded Music City Animal Rescue in 2013. They are a 501(c)3 volunteer foster home based rescue, meaning they don’t have an actual “rescue facility.” Any animal that comes into their program lives in a foster home where they are cared for, loved and socialized.
Music City Animal Rescue provides all vetting including spay/neuter, vaccinations, and microchipping. They are also an ALL animal rescue, meaning that they will rescue any animal for which they have a qualified foster home. Currently they have dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, chinchillas, horses, chickens, and goats.
In 2017, Philly, the Nigerian Dwarf goat, entered into the world at barely 2lbs with contracted tendons on his front legs and a slight selenium deficiency. He was abandoned by his mother and the family that had the goats knew nothing about feeding or caring for a newborn goat.
Music City Animal Rescue ended up taking in Philly, but without a mother goat they had no other option but to give him a bottle. Luckily, a local goat farmer provided them with previously frozen goat milk with colostrum, knowing they’d experience even more problems in the future if Philly didn’t get the important nutrients baby goats require. A qualified foster home was provided for Philly by Vickie Harris and her family. Unfortunately, Vickie lives in a subdivision and not a farm so her only option was to raise him indoors. Philly quickly bonded with the Harris’ deaf cat. Where the cat went Philly quickly followed.
The goal was to wean Philly from the bottle and for him to be adopted by a family with other goats. That goal was quickly dashed once Philly was weaned from the bottle and began wanting to graze. No matter what they provided him with (grass, hay or forage), he would become extremely sick with explosive diarrhea along with urinary tract issues.
After battling these issues and having a vet treat him for everything they could think of, the vet finally came to a conclusion. He said, “I believe he has digestive issues from not receiving enough of his mother’s milk at birth. He will always have trouble grazing and will always need to eat hay that has been purchased or quality controlled very well. The types and ratios need to be modified according to his eating habits or he will constantly have either rumen acidosis or bloat, both of which can be fatal.”
This meant that he could never be adopted and live as a normal goat, so he became an official member of Music City Animal Rescue and member of the Harris family.
Philly has since become the rescue’s ambassador, helping to educate on the importance of knowing the needs of the animals you bring into your family. Had Philly’s family known what caring for a baby goat entailed, they may have been able to help him remain a part of his herd.
Sadly, in the 3 years since Philly’s birth he has had numerous bouts of intestinal bloat, rumen acidosis, urinary calculi, etc...and 99% of the time, these issues were because the store bought hay was not the best quality.
They came across hay that was extremely dry, had too many tiny pieces, lots of dust, was brown, contained roots, and occasionally contained mold they were unaware of. When the hay was of obviously bad quality, Philly wouldn’t eat as much.
The tides seemed to be changing when Vickie stumbled upon Rabbit Hole Hay. She was extremely happy to see that Philly dove right in and didn’t look up for over an hour spending his time happily grazing and smacking his lips.
Unfortunately, Philly requires quite a lot of hay and Music City Animal Rescue isn’t large enough to completely fund the huge amount of hay that he eats. While Vickie and her family have tried to chip in, Covid-19 has had a huge impact on them as a family and their rescue.
Our team at Rabbit Hole Hay will be doing our part to contribute to providing Philly with the best quality hay, but we need your help too!
Here’s how it works: you purchase 10-pounds of hay at 50% off and we’ll match your donation, sending the Music City Animal Rescue the cut of their choice. Your donation will go to helping provide Philly with high quality hay that will keep him out of the vet’s office and living his happiest and healthiest lifestyle.
Donations will be accepted starting at 8 a.m. on Monday, December 7th through Midnight on Sunday, December 13th. To make it easier for you to donate we have added a banner at the top of our website that says “Donate Today - Help Philly Stay Healthy!” and it will take you directly to the page where you can purchase hay for Philly.
We can’t thank you enough for taking the time and funds to help Philly the Goat continue living a happy and healthy life.
Here are some questions we regularly get when we run these donations.
A. Because we want to only send them the hay that they really want and need we leave it up to the rescue to decide what hay they will receive. You are donating 10 pounds of whatever hay they say they want.
A. No, our website requires a shipping address to purchase, putting your address is fine, we will not ship any of the donated hay to an individual. The product has its own identification numbers; therefore we won't be confused.
At this time the rescue has asked us for Hay Only. Don't worry though we will be throwing in some of each of these products from us. So by helping out here, it will allow us to throw in those things on behalf of all of us.
A. We totally understand. If you put the person's name and or anonymous into the notes section of your order, we will get it and pass that information along as you see fit.
A. Of course, because we are using a unique number for these donations they will not get mixed up. So, if you want to place an order of Hay, Bedding, Pellets, or Apple Sticks for your small pet AND donate hay, you can do so at the same time. We will be able to keep it all straight.
