OSU vet program gets $1M donation

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Published: March 5, 2009

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State University will open a critical care unit for horses with a $1 million donation from the E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation.

A mare looks over a sick foal in a barn at Oklahoma State University. A new Equine Critical Care Unit will allow horses to be in a special area that allows for segregation. PHOTO PROVIDED BY OSU

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The gift launched a campaign to fund the $3 million project, said Michael Lorenz, professor and dean of the veterinary center. The 4,600-square-foot unit will be fully enclosed, climate-controlled and home to the latest in critical and intensive care equipment.

"The establishment of a specifically designated equine critical care unit will help us provide the most progressive care possible to all equine patients,” Lorenz said in a statement.

The Equine Critical Care Unit will be part of the Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

About 1,600 horses are treated each year in the hospital’s Large Animal Clinic, according to an OSU news release. The clinic is open to the public. Horses that need critical care are treated in barns. The new critical care unit will allow students and professors to treat the horses in a centralized location, and the horses can be isolated when needed.

"We have long recognized the excellence of OSU’s Veterinary Health Sciences Center,” Christy Gaylord Everest said in a statement. "The equine area is of particular interest to us because of our family’s love of horses and longtime involvement with the horse industry. We are very pleased that through the E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation, we can help make the critical care facility a reality for Oklahoma.”