Big Dog Ranch needs donations to complete veterinary clinic

Big Dog Ranch Rescue founder and President Lauree Simmons wasn’t too worried about the approach of massive Hurricane Irma: The rescue’s new adoption facility in Loxahatchee Groves is rated for 185 mph winds, and she had 18 staff members to stay at the facility through the storm.

But her concern spiked as employees evacuated the rescue’s medical clinic, based out of a trailer toward the back of the property. The trailer would not be safe during what was forecast to be Category 4 winds, Simmons said, and while moving the veterinary equipment to the newer buildings, mold was found in the Want to donate to or volunteer at Big Dog Ranch Rescue? Call 561-7916465 or go to www.bdrr.org

floors and air filters.

“That trailer is unsafe to go back into,” Simmons said Wednesday as she walked through Big Dog Ranch’s makeshift medical quarters: two offices and a few quarantine cells in what usually is the intake building.

A veterinary clinic is partially constructed on the rescue’s 33-acre property in Loxahatchee Groves. The external walls are up, the roof is almost completed and plumbing is finished thanks to a $500,000 donation from supporter Lori Budin. But more needs to be done, and soon, Simmons said.

With another $500,000, Simmons said she can complete the clinic and begin providing care for high-risk dogs.

That includes dozens of dogs at Big Dog Ranch who have heartworm, a dangerous condition that requires multiple treatments of medication and the dog equivalent of bed rest.

Those dogs are in crates in hallways, where air conditioning is being kept running by two massive generators.

Irma’s winds knocked down “a massive amount of trees” at the rescue and brought down several fences around recently completed play areas. But volunteers were quick to arrive after the storm to clean up.