Help Arlo Walk on All Four's Again: Fund Orthopedic Surgery

Help Arlo receive orthopedic surgery on his hind leg!

On Friday, June 27th, our 5-month-old Great Pyrenees mix was badly injured. He was attempting to climb a hog panel pen full of baby goats and got his leg caught before trying to clear the fence. One of the employees on the farm found him yelping out in pain, hanging from the fence, leg twisted. Luckily, he was rescued from the fence quickly thereafter.

That evening, our local vet took x-rays and performed an exam. He has a complete fracture in his calcaneus (heel bone) in his left hind leg and will need orthopedic surgery in order to use all four legs again. The surgery will involve reattaching the loose bone fragment using small orthopedic bone plates.

In the meantime, Arlo is limping around on 3 legs. We are giving him pain meds and monitoring the swelling. His calcaneus cannot hold the tension in his Achilles tendon, so his poor leg is all floppy, swollen, and jello-like. He's been a trooper, but we want to help fix this problem as soon as we can.

Arlo actually belongs to the goat farm where Greg and I work. He's not "our dog". He's a livestock guardian dog and his job is to protect the herd of goats. Because of the owner's financial situation being essentially ruinous, there are no funds available to properly care for this animal. The immediate solution that was presented was to simply put him down or perform a full amputation.

Arlo is an incredibly sweet, attentive, intelligent dog. He has a long life ahead of him and we, as his daily caregivers, feel we absolutely must get him the care he needs. Whether there's a future for him here on this farm, or he eventually ends up with a loving family, he deserves to be as mobile and healthy as possible.

We aren't sure of the exact cost of the surgery at this point. Hopefully, we can get him to Planned Pethood in Conifer, Colorado, where the surgery would maybe cost $2,500. However, other estimates from other vet offices are  $5,000-$7,000. We hope you will consider helping support this dog's surgery. He's really a cool dog (the vet even said so!) and we want to give him a good chance in life.