What a crazy day. I headed to Birmingham for an 8 hour round trip drive to pick up four retired racers for adoption and Ken stayed behind to hold down the fort and handle calls from the vet. We debated cancelling the trip, but decided it was important to go. To help four dogs retire and take that first step to finding a forever home honors Harmony’s spirit and all of those volunteers who sacrificed things in their own lives to help Harmony find her way from the track to Ken’s heart and home.

After her first blood transfusion, Harmony developed a fever and mild jaundice. By the afternoon, the on-call vet called to report that her PCV had dropped from 24% to 16%. Harmony’s body had shredded all those red blood cells from the transfusion. Dr. Presley called to ask Ken if we wanted to move forward with an Imidocarb injection. Imidocarb is used to treat babesia, and the side effects can be pretty nasty – up to, and including, sudden death. So, it’s not a treatment you want to give unless you are sure you are dealing with babesia. With her not responding to other treatments, Ken and I felt we had no other good options to help her. If we wait for the tick panel results from NC State next week, we might be too far behind the curve for Imidocarb to help Harmony…if she was even still with us when the results came in.

With the approval from us to give the Imidocarb, Dr. Presley started calling around to local vets to find it. No one had it. He called the University of Georgia vet school and they refused to dispense it to him. So…he called Auburn University, where he did his Residency and still has connections. They said they had it and could FedEx it to him. Dr. Presley, knowing we didn’t have time to wait for FedEx, amazingly decided to drive the 8 hour round trip to Auburn to pick the meds up himself (even though I was in Alabama, they would not dispense it to me). Needless to say, Ken and I are completely blown away and overwhelmed at Dr. Presley’s dedication to Harmony. I just don’t even have words to express my appreciation for a vet who would spend his weekend day off driving to pick up medicine for our dog. If there is a Vet of the Year Award, I want to nominate Dr. Presley. He truly is Harmony’s guardian angel. We also owe a a huge thank you to Auburn University vet school for donating the Imidocarb, since Harmony is a retired racer.

They started her blood transfusion at 3pm and it was projected to take about 6 hours. Just enough time for me to get home, unload the track dogs and head to the hospital with Ken. We were able to see Harmony after the transfusion and she looked really good (all things considered, she looked great!). A testament not only to her spirit, but also to the wonderful care she has been receiving from Upstate Vet Specialists. We waited until she had received her Imidocarb injection to make sure she survived the procedure, and once she was stable we headed home for the night.

A long day, filled with difficult decisions. Witness to amazing dedication from her veterinary team. Amazing support and prayers from my online GreyTalk family. And finally ending with hope that she just might pull through this. No one is giving up on her while her tail is still wagging and she’s telling us she still wants to fight.

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