All Aboard Animal Rescue & Shelter: Emergency Medical Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

We used this grant to get specialized surgery for a little cattle dog/greyhound mix who came to us with a leg that had been fractured for a couple of weeks and was healing incorrectly. The vet thought that she probably got hit by a car and then was dumped/found by the shelter and they did not have the funds to care for her. When we brought her in, we immediately did x-rays and saw how bad the break was. We tried to put the bone back into place so that it could heal properly, but it was already starting to fuse since it had gone untreated for so long. We consulted with a specialist who said he could try just cutting the bone and fitting it back into place or he could amputate the leg, which was probably our best route to go in his opinion. We immediately booked the surgery and got the dog treated.

Without this grant we would not have been able to book the surgery and bring in a specialist to get the dog fixed up. Our vet did what he was able to, but the break was too bad and not healing correctly, so no longer in his scope. We had just treated three heartworm-positive dogs and removed a dog's toe within the last few weeks and our medical funds were completely depleted. This grant helped us get this dog the care that she needed quickly so she would not suffer any more pain or stress.

How many pets did this grant help?

1

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

We received a plea from a small Eastern Colorado shelter that does not do adoptions about a young cattle dog mix who was injured and needed rescue in order not to be euthanized. We immediately tagged her and arranged transport. When we received little Rachel, she was not bearing weight on her back leg and was clearly in pain. We x-rayed her leg to find that it had a pretty severe fracture and had most likely been broken for at least a few week.

Our vet tried to put the bone back into place, put a cast on her and she went into foster care. We redid the x-ray a week later to see no change in the leg, so we consulted a specialist. He said that he could remove part of the bone and she would just have a shorter leg or he could amputate the leg, which he recommended as the best treatment. This was out of our vet’s scope and we had to bring in the specialist to do it, which made the surgery much more expensive, but we wanted to make sure Rachel got the care she needed. The surgery was completed and Rachel went back into foster care to continue healing.

Not long after that, Vikki saw Rachel’s story online and was moved by it. She and her other dog came to meet Rachel and see if she would be a good fit for them. They immediately fell in love with her and took her home that day. Rachel has been thriving in her home and you wouldn’t even know she was missing a leg.

From Vikki: “I have renamed her Azelin, which is supposed to mean ‘saved by God.’ She seems happy and does well with her brother. She chewed through three harnesses before we realized that, at some point before I brought her home, she had a harness burn on her shoulder, so she now has a collar and many new chew toys. She jumps on the furniture and the amputation does not seem to affect her except on the leash.”

Without this grant it could have been weeks or months before we could raise the money needed to get Rachel/Azelin her surgery, but because of the Petfinder Foundation we were able to get her treated quickly and into her forever home!