Save The Brays Donkey Rescue

URGENT **
Lemon Needs Your Help

As little Lemon, the wry-nosed mule who is Save the Brays' mascot, enters her third year of life, she needs serious medical attention once again. Her right rear leg has been  "locked" (unable to bend while walking - commonly called locking stifle) for over three weeks now. This is not a new issue for her, but with movement, the leg has, until now, always unlocked itself. Lemon also has strangles, a highly contagious bacterial infection and has had be be quarantined in her stall to prevent the infection from spreading to the other animals at STBDR. Her confinement has made her leg issues much worse and she is scheduled to have surgery on both hind legs today, August 10, 2022.

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With Lemon, nothing is ever simple. Because of the strangles, she will have to be in isolation at the University of Minnesota Equine Hospital. That alone adds extra complexity to a prodcedure that's already complicated by her various physical challenges. And as we know extra complexity = extra expense. Please keep Lemon in your thoughts, and donate if you can. We don't know what her final hospital bill will be. We've already spent $2,000 on diagnostics. Thank you all for your support of Lemon and Save the Brays Donkey Rescue. There are several ways to donate:​

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• PayPal

• By Mail: 12788 - 115th Street, Milaca, MN 56353

• Phone in payment to Save the Brays' account at the University Equine Hospital: 612-625-6700 

** HAPPY UPDATE

It should come as no surprise (it's Lemon) that things didn't go as expected on our visit to the University yesterday.

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Lemon surprised everybody by bending her locked knee slightly. She did it herself somehow, possibly from a run-in with a small dead tree in her turnout area. She had a few scrapes and cuts near her inner thigh. So instead of surgery, she had X-rays and ultrasound done on both her rear legs. There was a lot of fluid on her left knee. The vet prescribed stall rest, cold hosing and anti-inflammatories until her recheck in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed that she stays "unlocked."

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Lemon also had her gutteral pouches scoped to seek out any strangles bacteria that may be hiding there. There was a miniscule amount of pus in one pouch that the medical team flushed away. So good news on the strangles front too!

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While we were spared costly surgery for the moment, Lemon's treatment has been plenty pricey already, with more to come. So thank you for your continued generosity. And please keep Lemon in your thoughts.​

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