A quarterly publication of the Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue
Fall 2001

Its been a great year and we've had a lot of changes. We'll talk about a lot of new things in this issue. There will be news from our Webmaster about our outstanding web page, a section from our veterinarian on GSD health issues, information on volunteer opportunities, future intentions of our rescue, and current events and needs of the rescue

Contents: Dr. Welle's Wisdom Events Volunteer Needs Goals Accomplishments: Greatest Stories this Year Thank you! If you cannot volunteer... Webside Chat

Dr. Welle's Wisdom:

"One who is constantly striving for a balance between personal, human values and scientific realities and the inevitabilities of God's will." -David Allman

This month we would like to cover a situation that we've had to deal with several times in the last couple of years and a situation that is 100% avoidable. Canine Heartworm Disease.

Those of you who have or have had dogs are hopefully familiar with the prevention of heartworm through preventative pills, but even in experienced pet owners, there seems to be a lot of confusion about the contraction, testing, prevention, and treatment of the disease.

CANINE HEARTWORM DISEASE

Heartworm disease is a debilitating and often fatal disease caused by a parasite, Dirofilaria immitis, which invades the dog's circulatory system causing damage to vital organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and blood vessels. Heartworm is primarily a disease of dogs but occasionally infections are seen in cats, ferrets and other mammals.

The heartworm's life cycle starts with transmission of the infective larvae from a mosquito to a dog via a bite. It takes approximately six months for a larvae to grow to an adult in the dog's heart. The adult heartworms breed and create the juvenile form, the microfilaria, which are seen in the blood.

Clinical signs of a heartworm infection occur when the disease is well advanced and considerable damage to the dog's body has probably already occurred. Common symptoms are a chronic cough, exercise intolerance, weight loss, episodes of fainting or collapse, and shortness of breath. If left untreated, the dog will die of heart failure.

Since this disease is so serious, the treatment is so difficult, and the symptoms are not seen until late in the disease, the best method of control is with heartworm preventative medication. Every spring, the dog should have a blood test, performed by a veterinarian to be sure that he is not already infected with heartworm. Once a negative heartworm test is obtained, the dog should be started on either a monthly preventative (Interceptor). In central Illinois, it is best to give the preventative from March or April thru December. An alternative we recommend is to keep the dog on preventative year round.

If a dog becomes infected with heartworms, he can be treated successfully, but the treatment is prolonged, expensive, and can involve some side effects.

1. The dog is treated with an arsenic compound (Thiacetarsamide) that kills the adults in the heart. This is a very critical time in the therapy since the dying worms can cause obstructions and because the drug is very toxic. Therefore, we hospitalize the dog for 3 days during this treatment.
   
   
2. After the dog goes home, it is very critical in the overall treatment that you strictly confine and carefully observe your dog for the next 4 weeks. Strict confinement means cage or kennel rest, leash walking only, no exercise or play. If you are to observe any of the following symptoms call your vet immediately: coughing, vomiting, decreased appetite, difficulty breathing, decreased activity.
   
   
3. Four weeks after the first treatment, the dog is treated with another drug (Ivermectin) that kills the microfilaria in the bloodstream.
   
   
4. One week later, the dog gets tested for microfilaria, and if it is negative, he is started on preventative medication.
   
   
5. A heartworm test for adults can be run 4 to 6 months later or the next spring.

All Parts of the therapy are necessary for a successful treatment!

Dr. Welle is a Veterinarian at All Creature's Animal Hospital in Urbana, Illinois. She is one of the wonderful doctors at this animal hospital that looks after our Shepherds.

Events

Visit Our Booth!
The Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue will have a booth at PetSmart and Animal Outfitters on the following days during the months of November and December. Please see our Events Calendar for directions to these locations.

Showings at Petsmart

• Saturday, November 3 from 10AM - 4PM
• Saturday, November 10 from 10AM - 4PM
• Sunday, November 11 from 1PM - 4PM
• Saturday, November 17 from 10AM - 4PM
• Sunday, November 18 from 1PM - 4PM
• Saturday, December 1 from noon - 3PM
• Sunday, December 2 from 1PM - 4PM
• Saturday, December 8 from noon - 3PM
• Sunday, December 9 from 1PM - 4PM
• Saturday, December 15 from noon - 3PM
• Sunday, December 16 from 1PM - 4PM
  

Showings at Animal Outfitters

• Saturday, November 10 from 10AM - 4PM
• Saturday, November 17 from 10AM - 4PM
• Saturday, December 1 from noon - 3PM
• Saturday, December 8 from noon - 3PM
• Saturday, December 15 from noon - 3PM

• Dependable volunteers for showing dogs (handing out information about the rescue) at Animal Outfiitters, Petsmart and other locations.
  
  
• An office assistant for filing, grant writing, etc…
  
  
• A Grant Writer
  
  
• Follow-up specialists: Telephone calling
  
  
• Obedience buddies (people who take and train the rescue dogs in obedience class)
  
  
• Grooming helpers (maintenance of the dogs at the rescue)

Goals

Short term:
I would like to implement a new education based program for animal welfare that can be used universally to both educate fellow rescue volunteers to help them maintain their rescues, and also be able to go into schools, clubs, etc… and educate the general population.

Other education projects include:
Medical protocols for rescues, many rescue depend on their veterinarians entirely for animal care advice. Basic care, such as cleanliness, quarantine, feeding protocols, aging, and decision making are difficult to maintain due to a lack of confidence in their own thought processes. A lot of money and time could be saved for all in rescue if basic health and medical care was understood.

Obedience manual with the why's not just how's. There are no major magic tricks or complexities to basic obedience and it has gotten WAY too complicated with all of the accessories and "training aids" that make a lot of money for other people. These "special techniques" have to go way back to the essentials for a dog to work with its owner, but additional complexities have been added to make it seem like you need to have a trainer or the "right" accessories. I would like to outline the simple essentials that make all of the difference. Wisdom passed down for decades from lifetime dog handlers. People that spend every day all of their life with more than one canine soon learn the basics that make all the difference, and they certainly don't have time for the frivolous stuff. We could charge a lot of money to fix the dogs that people have confused to the point of oblivion. Every dog deserves an educated human.

Therapy works with senior citizens in nursing homes. Anyone wishing to learn how to brush their dog up for this type of work, please contact us. We will be starting soon with visits.

Long Term:
We just visited a beautiful new shelter, which makes us itch for an opportunity to start one ourselves. Purchasing a plot of land and reviewing plans, as well as beginning a building fund are the first step. Secondly, we need to work to streamline the coordinated effort of shelters that will save us all money and resources to aid all animals in need.

Accomplishments:

This summer hosted another annual picnic. We will probably aim for fall next year, as summer weekends are apparently very busy with competition from local events. Thank you to all of those who attended, it was great to see our babies!!!

The web site is absolutely remarkable thanks to Deb Fuoss, Web goddess, who is a professional web designer during working hours and uses her vast skills to aid us in her off time. It is a great accomplishment and has resulted in rocketing our rescue efforts up to greater heights than we ever could have achieved before.

We have survived another year in rescue! The Shepherd Rescue is having its 4th anniversary this November. I'm working on 16 years in canine rescue, Rick is still here after 3 years of nonstop effort, Rachel Beard is past her 1 year anniversary, and we've added Deb, Carol, Peter, Ellen, Bea, and Mike to our consistent roster. We look forward to another year. Please join our volunteer staff and help us celebrate our upcoming anniversary!

Greatest Stories this Year

Sally
Our dear Sally. She arrived in April with heartworm disease. This meant she had at least 6 months with us. She was successfully treated and was waiting to be spayed so she could go to a new home. She could be spayed in October and during Prairieland Feeds Pet Fair, September 22nd, 2001, Sally's new owners wandered in. We were thrilled for Sally that the timing worked out so well. Three days after being spayed, Sally was in her new, beautiful home, with wonderful owners. She is now spoiled and happy. This is a great story, especially since heartworm positive dogs in animal controls usually do not get this kind of chance, and instead, lose their lives. Thank you to the animal control for letting us take and treat her, and a huge thanks to her new parents for spoiling her!!!

Bernie
Our sweet, old farm dog has moved on to greener pastures. He is living in the lap of canine luxury and enjoying every minute of it. He reports that his new mommy's cooking is spectacular, her yard meticulous, her home beautiful, and the play dates and walks keep him slim, trim, and radiantly healthy. Thank you so much to Bernie's mommy for seeing what a great dog he is and giving him the chance to love her, even if he isn't a spring chicken.

Mister & Queenie
(now named Luke & Lea) These twins had had an extremely rough life from day one. Mostly fending for themselves, but as a pair, this brother and sister had been starved, neglected, left out and attacked by other dogs. The contracted unusual afflictions from scrapping for food and had to undergo an extensive rehabilitation to achieve their current state of health. We cannot thank their new mommy, daddy, and sister enough for inviting this two dog family into their beautiful home. We were not about to separate the pair and were thrilled that a family came along with enough love for two. They are spoiled and thanks to extensive TLC from their families' great cooking, have been well-nourished to good weights and fluffy coats. Thank you sooooooo… much!

Thank you to those that made these and other rescue and adoptions possible!

Below are some of these wonderful people

Christopher Farris and Target Stores for working hard for our German Shepherd friends and feeding them a lot of good food and treats!

Those at Prairieland Feeds for inviting us again to their annual Pet Fair, which was very successful. We thank them for at least one adoption, many volunteers, and other very helpful contacts. We also thank them for an adoption from the previous year that came to visit us this year on his one-year anniversary with his loving family!

Richard Riddle for 24 hour care of our rugrats. Head cuddler of doggies, Head Chef, Head Maintenance Engineer, Head Sanitary Engineer, Head Groomer, and every other little thing that could possibly need to be done.

Ashley Riddle for putting up with both of us running around for the puppies. Often leading to long road trips, long showings, and barking puppers.

Terri and Amanda Farris for their help throughout the year at many events!

Rachel Beard, Carol and Peter Maloney, and Ellen Dee for their many hours of volunteering for events and daily tasks.

Deborah Fuoss for her countless hours with her camera and computer savy to create the best website ever and for walking the puppers. She is our Computer Goddess.

Bea & Mike Hughes for taking one of our rescued puppies in as their own, volunteering countless hours of computer work, and any other volunteer need that we could ask.

The Albright family now consisting of two "fur children" from our family and their generous donations to the friends they left behind. Thank You!

The Stout family (fondly referred to as CI GSD Rescue South), consisting of three of our rescue children! Their house is a shepherds' dream and they are wonderful pet owner's! Thank you!

As usual, the Leifer family for the Shepherds' vacation resort and continued support through the years for saving our puppies!

Thank you to our colleagues in rescue for a lot of mental support, because we all understand what its like to be a 24-hour-a-day mommy and daddy to the needs of several homeless animals in addition to normal lives of family, friends, full time jobs, etc… Without each other, fewer animals would be saved, but together a huge impact is made every year.

Please support all rescue. It matters to this one and that one and that one….. We all save a handful each year, and in the larger scheme of things, we barely make a dent despite the tremendous amount of work put in. But we all find love and satisfaction watching the sweet eyes of our Shepherds say 'thank you' as they climb into a car that will take them to their new home and family. This and the radiance of our alumni when they come to visit us at events or we receive their pictures in the mail makes it all worthwhile..

If you cannot volunteer...

If you cannot volunteer for the daily grunt work, please get involved in education programs for spay/neuter or no-bite programs, if there isn't one in your area, start one. Over 23 million animals are put to sleep every year due to overpopulation of pet animals. No matter how many dogs the combined rescues save each year, that number continues to rise. Our mission is to spay/neuter as many pets as we can and to choose the best animals to save. But we cannot change the overall numbers, because there is essentially a finite number of homes and way too many animals. Rescuers cannot begin to explain the people and situations we have to deal with everyday. And every year that make us sick. We get grief for doing the selfless acts only a handful are willing to sacrifice themselves to do. We also have little support from government. We receive verbal abuses if not physical threats from animal mistreaters, neglectors, and abusers. This is then combined with the daily frustrations of a strategically placed doggy pile, a soiled "just mopped" floor, muddy pawprints on a favorite pair of pants, broken personal items, barking at 5 am, barking at 11 pm, barking in between, and so much more.

We are the grunts, but we really wish for more people to get involved in the prevention. Government animal investigators need to have greater abilities to follow through and convict animal offenders. Penalties need to be increased, privileges need to be extended to those investigators in the field, reinforcement and follow through needs to be mandatory, and penalties need to be stricter.

Private party Humane Investigators need financial support and government backing. These people serve as the circulatory system for animal cruelty investigations, but often have to wait weeks or months to save one group of animals. They then may watch the offender get off scott free.

Animals are bottom of the totem pole for support. we are all aware that the priorities and money are directed toward human safety issues. There isn't even enough money for that. This being the case, let your local police officers know that you appreciate them, and ask them if they would keep an eye out for animal cruelty offenses. Be active in your community. Offer to help out, and educate!!! If we could avoid the creation of animal cruelty offenders, we could avoid animal cruelty offenses. Thank you to my personal friends and rescue colleagues:

All Creature's Animal Hospital - Dr. Mary Welle DVM, Dr. Ken Welle, and associates and employees that truly love their work and all of the animals that they treat like their own children. They fight for the lives of these animals and suffer losses right next to us with a love and compassion that is rare to find. Our appreciation cannot possibly be expressed in words, but there is no doubt these people are listed as family and cherished as friends.

All of the veterinarians that provide care and donate care to rescue groups

All of the tolerant family members, husbands, and wives of rescuers:

• Christina Delgado-Reed
• Quad Cities Pure Breed Rescue
• McDonough County Animal Control
• Midwest Akita Rescue
• State of IL Agriculture- Animal Investigators
• Keeshond Rescue
• Prairie Anti-Cruelty Society
• Chicagoland German Shepherd Rescue
• St Louis Corgi (Shepherd wanna-bees) Rescue
• St Louis Breed Rescue
• Dewitt County/ Second Chance Adoptions
• Joliet Animal Control
• Crawford County Humane Society

Please forgive me if I left anyone out specifically. You are loved and appreciated. Gently remind me and I'd be happy to add you to the list.

Webside Chat
by the Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue's Webmaster

As Webmaster, I have been busy these last several months trying to create a website for the rescue that would serve the best interests of the dogs and those interested in adopting them. I eventually gave up testing the website on the dogs at the rescue (since they aren't as into technology as the rest of us) and moved on to human subjects. People were much more helpful in this endeavor. Listed below are some of the additions that have been made to the website based on the feedback I received.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
We found that those that use the site tended to e-mailed the rescue with very similar questions. We decided to answer those questions on the FAQ page. This doesn't mean we don't want to hear from those who have questions. Elizabeth Leifer [Note: as of May 2002, Elizabeth Leifer is now Elizabeth Riddle] is more than happy to answer questions that you may have about the rescue and the dogs, but know that the FAQ page is a resource that is designed for you. If you think of a question that should be on the FAQ page and isn't there, contact [email protected] and let us know. We'll see if we can't add it!

Community Dogs
Our interest at the rescue is to find "forever homes" for German Shepherd Dogs. We may not have the exact dog you are looking for on our Males to Adopt or Females to Adopt pages at a given time, so we work with other rescues and individuals by allowing them to place information and a photo on the Community Dogs page of German Shepherd and German Shepherd mix dogs that they have for adoption. The Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue will not be involved or responsible for the animals listed on the Community Dogs page, their temperament, or any arrangement made by the owners regarding the placement of them. Remember that, if you decide to adopt a dog from the Community Dog's page, you must use the contact information provided for each dog.

Events Calendar
Our Events Calendar is the place to go to find out where and when the Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue is going to have its next event and your next chance to see some of the dogs and learn about the rescue and the adoption process. It is also a chance to come out and talk to us about how you can volunteer!

Suggestions?
If you have any suggestions about the design of the website, please contact the Webmaster.