On September 16th I walked out to feed our horses and found our 7 year old thoroughbred, Harvey, with a severe open wound on his left front leg. He was kind enough to let me bandage it with saran wrap with the hope that we could repair the damage done. It quickly became clear that I wasn't able to get him on the trailer alone, and eventually 7 of us (the vet, the vet tech, myself, and 4 neighbors that were thankfully home on a Tuesday morning!) were able to get him on the trailer. I took him to Littleton Equine Medical Center where we discovered he sliced off a muscle in his leg that could not be saved. After removing the muscle, the wound was sutured and his leg was duct taped to a splint to decrease movement. He stayed at LEMC for 3 days on IV antibiotics before we moved him to Rocky Mountain Equine Rehabilitation. On the 21st, about 75% of his sutures dehisced (a fancy word for the sutures failed and exposed the injury). Due to this setback, we're still doing costly daily bandage changes.

Any amount will help with his ongoing expenses. Every day seems to be a new challenge, whether it's keeping the bandage from falling down or being concerned about an infection not responding to the current antibiotics.

Anyone that knows me is aware that I strongly consider quality of life for my horses, and Harvey has made it incredibly clear this whole time that he wants to be here. He has been a great patient and his happy self through all of this. If you've had the pleasure of meeting him, you know he has a huge personality and loves attention. My husband affectionately calls him "big dog". He is very special to my husband and myself, and our goal right now is just to get him back home.