Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue’s 10th Anniversary Have A Heart Calendar contest. The fundraising from our last 9 contests have helped us raise much needed funds for so many dogs struggling with heartworms and tick-borne disease infections, besides other special needs dogs and seniors. Here are our cover dogs from the last 9 years. This year’s contest is dedicated to helping a few more dogs fighting heartworms, tick borne disease and other serious health problems.
The photos that receive the most votes during the contest will win PAWSOME prizes, and the top 12 vote-getters will be featured in our Have A Heart 10- 2026 calendar. The rest of the photo submissions will be inserted into the date boxes.
We encourage you to enter the contest with your favorite photo of your dog/dogs/cat and write a few words about why your dog is so special as I use that in the text of the winning calendar pages. Check out last year's Special Winning Calendar Pages, featuring Pointers, Setters, Mutts and Seniors. Then invite your family and friends to vote for your photo! The contest is open to anyone, and it is only $10 to enter your photo.
Voting is easy and fun. Votes are $1 each with a $5 minimum donation. Each dollar donated equals an equivalent number of votes. (A $5 donation equals 5 votes, a $10 donation equals 10 votes, etc.) A minimum donation of $5 is required. The proceeds will benefit Illinois Birddog Rescue and fund the medical expenses for many of our heartworm positive and special needs dogs. You can vote as often as you like during the contest, and you can apply all your votes to one photo or vote for multiple photos too and with so many lovely dogs- we encourage that!
For the best chance to win, be sure to spread the word about your dog's entry into the contest on Facebook, Instagram, email and other socials. Also ask family and friends to go online and support your entry. You can use the sharing buttons that appear on your dog's photo page to share your photo entry with your Facebook friends, and you can email links to family and friends to encourage voting for your dog's photo.
All have heartworm disease and tick-borne disease and 3 dogs also fighting an added horrendous fungal infection called Blastomycosis. Heartworms and tick-borne disease is challenging enough, but an added infection of Blastomycosis has been a difficult diagnosis—but we are doing our best to help Daisy, Hazel and Queenie recover. Blastomycosis often looks like a snowstorm in the lungs on a chest x-ray. We are treating our girls with an extra medication called Itraconazole and that expense is an extra $90 a month and it could take up to a year or longer for them to recover. So far, the girls are doing well and are in foster homes dedicated to helping them get better.
The cost to medicate 1 heartworm dog for 1 year through our slow-kill program can be in the hundreds and thousands especially if there are additional medical procedures needed like x-rays, dentals, tumor removal, etc. Many dogs take longer to become heartworm negative with slow- kill, but it is an ideal treatment plan as the dogs don't need months of cage confinement and can have normal low-key exercise and play. Finding homes for these dogs can be challenging but so far GSP -Hank, and Beagles Jed and Markus have found Foster to Adopt homes already and thanks to last year’s contest, I had supplies for all on hand to get them started.
Ten Years Of Have A Heart
It’s hard to believe we are starting our 10th Have A Heart Calendar Contest fundraiser. I have personally helped quite a few dogs in foster care recover from heartworms—promoting the Slow-Kill program as a less harsh treatment method and we have had so many successes the last 10 years. As this is our 22nd year as an official 501c3 Charity- we really hope we can raise some much-needed donations to help our current 10 heartworms positive dogs and many more dogs and puppies in 2026. Our heartworm slow-kill program and high standards of testing for underlying tick-borne disease is the best in the country. We hope we can get a lot of support again this year as every dog we brought in this past year was infected. Here is last year’s HAVE A HEART 9 CONTEST & PREVIOUS WINNERS What a contest it was too!!
GRAND PRIZE WINNER- the photo entry with the most votes/donations:
This year we have a lovely prize set that includes a Bissell PET HAIR ERASER Vacuum, a Guidesman Safari Club Chair (featuring Cinders), Flavors of Fall Coffee, pair of Illinois Birddog Rescue Anniversary mugs and an ALL FOR PAWS Pheasant toy. The winning photo will also be the cover of the Have a Heart 9 Calendar Contest and an insert into the calendar.
2nd - 12th place Dogs:
• Second through twelfth place winners win the eleven other coveted monthly calendar cover pages and a new Have A Heart 10 Calendar.
Bonus Prizes
• TOP POINTER, TOP ENGLISH SETTER, TOP GSP, TOP BRITTANY and TOP BEAGLE will also win the great prizes featured below.
• We are also offering prizes for TOP Senior (dogs 7 or older) or in Memorium, TOP Kitty *new*and TOP Mutt.
• **Also NEW for this year is TOP Pointing photo featuring these special Pheasant themed prizes, and if the winner is local- 1 of IBR’s President’s homemade pumpkin pies! YUM!!
Boomer- Our Newest Beagle Needs Donations For A Dental
Boomer was found as a stray in Northern Mississippi. When the rescuer brought him home, the spouse threatened to shoot him! Thankfully a family member and dog lover took him home, got his vetting done and then reached out for help to find him a new home. I saw that post, reached out and with the help of Pilot Billy, Boomer flew to Illinois Birddog Rescue a few weeks later.
Boomer is a joyful little Beagle although a little timid. The bad news is his teeth are in horrible shape. He has dental disease and will need to have them cleaned prior to adoption. My vet has quoted me around $800, but I am hopeful we can use our friends at ADOPT. It's unclear if he will lose any teeth, but he is on oral antibiotics to help with the infected gums. If you've ever had a sore tooth, you can imagine that Boomer might be in a little pain and we would like to raise funds to help him get his dental soon. If you can donate to help our new sweet Mississippi Beagle get his much needed dental, we would really appreciate it!
My Summer FUNdraising raffle has some really great prizes this year-- things that will bring a lot of joy to your home and garden. I am lucky to find a few of the items before they all sell out and we have such a nice donation from the Beagle Coffee Company too. The raffle will go through July 31st at 7pm. As in previous raffles, we do ask that any items that are shipped that the winner reimburses the rescue for that cost. Winners will be announced on Facebook and via email. Good luck and thanks for your help!
DONATIONS NEEDED FOR 4 DOGS NEEDING DENTAL SURGERY
We have 3- NOW 4 new rescue dogs that need some dental care and surgery. I don't have Elvis' teeth pictured yet, but I will soon as he comes to town. Much thanks to donations raised, Rowdy and Rocky's dentals are done and only 3 teeth were pulled between the both of them.Rowdy the Beagle came to us as an owner surrender from Kentucky in November of 2024. He had been fed a poor quality diet and he will need several teeth pulled. Rocky the Beagle came to us as an owner surrender from central Illinois but thankfully moved to a new forever home just before Christmas. Unfortunately, he was also fed a poor quality diet and his teeth are in bad shape and he may also need some teeth pulled. Lulu the Pointer was saved from a terrible life in west Texas by a hunter after seeing her owner at the same hunting preserve throwing food on the ground for her meals. Her owner didn't really want her any longer and after I was contacted we worked on a plan to get her out of Texas to Georgia and eventually to Chicago. Lulu's neglect includes her also needing a dental. She also only weighs 22lbs- about 20lbs smaller than a typical field bred Pointer. My vet quoted me $600- $800- maybe with a rescue discount for each procedure so we are fundraising to help these 3 sweet dogs get the medical dental surgery they need. Any donation would be appreciated for their care.
Lulu our little pocket Pointer is doing well in temporary foster care. As she originally weighed a teesy 21lbs, she is now up to 26lbs and looking so much better. She did get diagnosed with Rocky Mountain spotted fever and treatment for that and a nasty intestinal bug has helped her gain some much needed weight. Lulu has done well meeting new dog friends and she is cat safe. We are working on house training, but she loves her safe warm crate which is good. Confidence buiding is what we are working on now but it would be great if she could find a foster or foster to adopt home that can help her get more confident every day. She is such a cute little dog. Next step in her medical care is a spay, microchip and dental.
Two More Rescues with Lyme Disease & Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Winston is a handsome English Setter we saved from an over-crowded shelter in Easter Tennessee. You can see his Facebook Recovery album HERE. Ingrid is a young German Shorthaired Pointer that was saved from an over-crowded shelter in Southern Illinois. You can see her Facebook Recovery album HERE. Both came into IBR's program in October. Sadly both are infected with Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Additionally, Winston also has heartworms and has some inflammation around his heart and lungs besides an intestinal parasite-- giardia. Ingrid has 2 very infected inflamed eyes we are also treating. It takes hundreds of dollars to help special rescue dogs like our newbies to get better in an effort to find their forever homes. We sure could use a lot of support for their care.
Libby is our new Lemon and White English Setter rescue. You can see her Facebook Recovery album HERE. I was contacted about her needing a rescue on May 30th and luckily we were able to move her to foster care the following Sunday. Libby was confiscated by the local animal control when a neighbor noticed she was being starved in an outdoor kennel. In spite of her neglect, Libby is a very loving Setter. We started her on a 3 time a day feeding routine, and we also did some worming and got her started on antibiotics for suspicion of tick borne disease and possible heart worms. She also had a bladder infection that is so much better. Blood work did confirm heart worms and she is now in our slow-kill treatment program. Libby will also need a dental in a few months when we do her spay. She is gaining weight slowly and learning how to be a proper house dog. Cage and house training is much better after a few weeks and she is especially loving with her foster daddy. We are looking for a Foster to Adopt home in the Chicago area so that we can get her full blood panel done and supervise her care. As Libby has a pair of suspicious mammary lumps, we will need to have those removed and biopsied too. 7-4-2024: Libby is doing amazingly well. She's gained about 8lbs and her energy level has also increased exponentially. Libby is learning to be a proper house dog and she loves cuddling with her foster dad. She will be in town on Friday the 12th for an exam, x-rays and blood work. We are still looking for a local foster home or a foster to adopt home would also be ideal. I will be taking new photos of her as well.
Another trip around the sun- wow that went fast. I am happy to report Olivia is still with me after bringing her into our program close to 7 years ago, but now she is 16 and struggling. My sweet girl- her original Facebook recovery album. This year's birthday is a biggie as I am going to be 60 on Valentine's day. That means I started this little rescue when I was about 36 years old-- nearly 24 years ago. I wish we had done more, I wish we had our own Pointer Plantation with acres of land for our homeless pets to run on and vetting facilities on site, but that dream hasn't come true-- yet. A girl can dream. I am proud of all the efforts we have made to help make a little difference in the world. The past 24 years I have met so many amazing volunteers and adopters and its because of thoughtful donations that we can help any at all. It's so early in the year and we already have our first 2 heartworm positive dogs and I'm sure as always it will get bumpy from here. Please consider helping us again.
We had an amazing Have A Heart 9 Calendar Contest raising much needed funds. This year's grand prize winner is Mersey, a 3-legged special rescue we brought into our program about 6 years ago. Mersey was found on the side of the road and sadly had a broken hip and a paralyzed front leg that eventually needed to be amputated. She is living her best life in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mersey makes a beautiful calendar cover!!
MORE CALENDARS FEATURING POINTERS, SETTERS & GSP'S
Out of necessity, I had to become the official photographer for IBR. While I found I had a little amateur talent to take pictures of the new rescue dogs, when Cinders and I were on the road, I also found that I had a knack for capturing a lot of beautiful dogs while we were competing at field trial events. This year I also captured images of some dogs at our training events. In an effort to help fundraise for the rescue, I have edited and compiled a few of these images in a few more calendars I hope folks will enjoy.
I suppose you could call Snoopy a bird dog. We at Illinois Birddog Rescue have much to be thankful for and we want to thank all the volunteers, foster homes, transport drivers and pilots that have helped us save so many more dogs this year. We are also truly grateful for all the donations that have helped so many dogs get the best medical care they need on the way to finding their forever homes.
HAVE A HEART 9- OUR BIGGEST FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR!!
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Have A Heart 9 Calendar contest. This contest is dedicated to all the dogs we bring into the program that are struggling with heartworms, tick-borne disease and other serious health problems. The photos that receive the most votes during the contest will win PAWSOME prizes, and the top 12 vote-getters will be featured in our Have A Heart 9- 2025 calendar. The rest of the photo submissions will be inserted into the date boxes. We encourage you to enter the contest with your favorite photo of your dog/dogs and write a few words about why your dog is so special as I use that in the text of the winning calendar pages. Check out last year's Special Winning Calendar Pages. Then invite your family and friends to vote for your photo! The contest is open to anyone, and it is only $10 to enter your photo. Voting is easy and fun. Votes are $1 each with a $5 minimum donation. Each dollar donated equals an equivalent number of votes. (A $5 donation equals 5 votes, a $10 donation equals 10 votes, etc.) A minimum donation of $5 is required. The proceeds will benefit Illinois Birddog Rescue and fund the medical expenses for many of our heartworm positive and special needs dogs. You can vote as often as you like during the contest, and you can apply all your votes to one photo or vote for multiple photos too and with so many lovely dogs- we encourage that! For the best chance to win, be sure to spread the word about your dog's entry into the contest on Facebook, Instagram and via email. Also ask family and friends to go online and support your entry. You can use the sharing buttons that appear on your dog's photo page to share your photo entry with your Facebook friends, and you can email links to family and friends to encourage voting for your dog's photo. Each year we bring in many dogs that need extra care due to neglect and this year has brought us many new dogs and puppies in need. Our cover dogs all have heartworm disease and tick borne disease, but are doing well in our program.
SO MANY GREAT PRIZES THIS YEAR!!
Foster Homes Needed For Opie and Rowdy
Opie is a 7 year old GSP that has lived with his current family since he was a puppy and sleeps in the 7 year old daughter's bed at night. After their year and 1/2 old son tested positive this fall for several things including dog allergies, Opie's family has had the very difficult decision to find him a new home. They are heartbroken over it but I promised I would find him a great new family. Unfortunately his vetting has been a bit neglected- he isn't up to date on his vaccinations and he hasn't had a heartworm test nor preventative in over 6 years. I am looking for a foster or foster to adopt family in the Chicago area that has a safe fenced in yard. Once we have his blood work in, Opie will be neutered and microchipped. Opie is cage and house trained. GSP experience would be an added bonus. He has been hunted over and has been trained with an electronic collar. If you'd like to help, reach out to Lisa at 630-694-1359 or submit and online application.
Rowdy is a 4 year old Beagle that has lived his whole life outdoors outside of Louisville, Kentucky. We hope to find him a new forever home in the Chicago area but right now we need a foster home. He will need work on cage and house training. We do know he is great with other dogs and he loves kids. He has some dental disease, so we'll be doing a good teeth cleaning when he has his neuter. If you'd like to help, reach out to Lisa at 630-694-1359 or submit and online application.
This past year we have brought in quite a few dogs that have special medical needs. That includes our precious Alabama Beagle Gigi-- read her story below. To help off set the cost of her 3rd $2500+ surgery, I put together a fall raffle with items from our latest garage sale and a few other donations, and a few other things I bought to tie them all together. This raffle will go through November 1st at 7pm. Most prizes are shippable and I must request that the winners reimburse the rescue for any shipping costs. Alcohol winners must provide proof of being 21. Winners will be announced on Facebook and via email. Good luck and thanks for your help!
Gigi Needs Surgery Donations
Gigi is a sweet Beagle that we brought in from Alabama in July. You can see her Facebook Recovery album HERE. She had a suspiscious mass under her abdomen that turned out to be an Inguinal Hernia. Sadly Gigi is also fighting Rocky Mountain spotted fever so after a few weeks on antibiotics we scheduled her spay and hernia surgery. Sadly the hernia surgery and a 2nd wasn't successful. We then found a surgern that specializes in this procedure and on October 18th, Gigi had her 3rd procedure. Unfortunately, that cost over $2500 on top of the other surgeries. While we fundraised for her care, we still need a lot of help otherwise we can't bring in any more new rescues. If you would like to help, here is GIGI'S GOFUNDME
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Rue Needs Medical Help Donations
Baby Ruth aka Rue, came into Illinois Birddog Rescue's program in July of 2022. She was a 6-7 month old puppy saved from certain death after being dumped by a local Pointer breeder in Tennessee. While in foster care, Rue grew to be a beautiful long-legged athletic Pointer. Sadly we couldn't find the perfect adopter for many months. For fun and to maybe find a working adoptive home, Rue was registered with the AKC and ran in a sport called Fast CAT becoming the fastest female Pointer in that sport in 2023. Her training in 2 other sports- Barn Hunt and Agility continued in her last foster home and then the perfect family applied to adopt her in April of 2024.
Everything was going well in her new adoptive home until Rue became very ill a month later. Our beautiful, barely 3 year old magnificent Pointer Rue, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Addison's. The new adopters have been faced with thousands of dollars in vet bills and will face more in the future. Unfortunately, Illinois Birddog Rescue does not have thousands for emergencies to assist, so I am creating this fundraiser to see if we can help raise some vetting funds for her new family. Plus if you donate to help with Rue's medical care, you can write off your contribution. We'd appreciate any donations to help her new family with her care.
Rue LOVES Fast CAT-- and with recent AKC confirmation, she is ranked 6th in the country for Pointers competing in this sport and TOP FEMALE!!! She also completed her BCAT-- Beginner's title.
Rue has been in IBR's Foster care program for over 15 months and I can't understand it. She's a fun, athletic happy-go-lucky Pointer that sadly came into our program with Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but she is feeling great now. She is amazing to watch in the yard, running and leaping over 2 to 3 foot fencing just for fun. She's also quite pretty and she loves to snuggle on the couch. While she is in foster care, I feel her talents are being wasted and she really should be training in Agility and maybe Dock Diving. My hope is if I get her out there doing some competitive sports, that I can find the best adopter that can continue her training. Paws crossed.
CONGRATULATIONS to Rue for completing her AKC BCAT title!!
Welcome Our New Lemon Pointer-- Cody!
Here is our newest Pointer rescue-- Cody. WHAT A NICE DOG!!!! Cody is the sweetest dog, super friendly and affectionate. He is happy to give Pointer hugs to anyone that will let him. Someone loved on him at sometime in his life, but my guess is he was dumped because he wasn't hunting. I tried some "whoa" training and techniques on his back and tail and he did not seem to know any of that.
He was found as an emaciated stray in early January and we pulled him from the kind folks at the Shelbyville, shelter in southern, IL. We do know that he has 2 tick borne diseases- Anaplasma and Lyme disease via 4DX snap, but sadly we also found Rocky Mountain spotted fever too. He is on antibiotics and he was treated for intestinal parasites but we are doing a little more Panacur just in case. He also started heartworm prevention.
He looks to be out of Elhew field bred Pointer lines but we'll never know. Cody also has a chunk of his ear missing and a little calcification on his front paw from a previous broken bone, but that doesn't seem to bother him. He is learning about house manners now and has already shown himself to be a proper Pointer couch potato. We are super happy Penny in Shelbyville, reached out to us and that we were able to line up a safe foster home for him quickly.
Donations for his care can be made via Paypal at the link to the left but we also accept donations via VENMO with @illinoisbirddogrescue and ZELLE with info@illinoisbirddogrescue.org
Xuma came into IBR's program BROKEN last May, covered in kennel sores and suffering from old injuries after being hit by a car. She'll never have the perfect gait and she still favors her right rear leg even after months of chiropractic care. She is also fighting horrible Lyme disease, that she'll have to fight the rest of her life. I've been saving Pointers for over 20 years-- helping many get back into the field, and doing what they love. Xuma is a special girl and it's been great seeing her do well in foster care.
September 23/24 2023: Xuma had the best time at the Fort Dearborn GSP and LaSalle Brittany combined hunt tests at Des Plaines Conservation area. She ran hard and pointed a few birds to pass 3/4 times. She had the time of her life and I even needed help catching her after her last run as she didn't want to stop.
CONGRATULATIONS to Xuma for completing her AKC Junior Hunter title!!
Welcome to IBR's annual July 4th weekend 75/25 fundraising raffle. This raffle is dedicated to the dogs in IBR's program, especially our newest English Setter- Libby. A month into our program she is doing so much better after being confiscated from a family that was starving her. Libby is also being treated for heartworms and tick borne disease. She may also need surgery for some suspicious mammary tumors, but that is something we will address once she is stronger. Tickets are $10 each and the hope is we sell a few for the 75/25 pot besides some of the other prizes I was able to pull together. Winners will be announced on Facebook and via email. Good luck and thanks for your help!
Dog Days Of Summer- Mini Photography Event With Anna
Please join friend and adopter Anna Stolecka on July 13th for her annual DOG DAYS of SUMMER mini portrait photography session event! Each 20 minute session includes 5 images of your beloved pup from an online gallery. The cost is $80 with 25% of the session fee to support Illinois Birddog Rescue. Please call/text Anna 708.945.2104 to reserve your spot!
In the summer of 2020, a very handsome tri-color and white field bred English Setter Nick came into IBR's program. He was fostered by a wonderful family that also have a side business called DRIFT ROASTERS and they have come up with a special fundraising coffee called BIRDDOG BLEND. A small portion of every sale of Birddog Blend coffee will be donated to Illinois Birddog Rescue. It is available in whole bean or medium roast. It smells amazing!!! Thanks to the Tanzer family for their thoughtfulness in helping IBR and also for their care of Nick who did find a wonderful forever home.
From Pam- IBR adopter, "My kitchen smells amazing! My Bird-Dog Blend arrived a few days ago!!"
IBR's Annual Mother's Day Raffle-- Through May 5th
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's annual Mother's Day Raffle. I asked our friends, fosters and adopters if they had anything they would like to contribute-- and WOW did we get a lot of nice stuff to help us raise much needed funds. Thanks to all that contributed, I hope we sell a lot of tickets!! This raffle will go through May 5th at 3pm. Winners will be announced on Facebook and via email. If things need to be shipped in time for Mother's Day gifts, the rescue will need to be reimbursed. Many things will need to be picked up at IBR HQ or I can meet some winners too. Any alcohol winners will need to show proof of being over 21. Thanks and good luck!!
Our Have A Heart 8 fundraising calendar contest helped us raise over $13,000 in much needed vetting donations. We celebrate another win for Princess Shelby and she made a beautiful cover dog. We hope we can sell a few as the TOP 12 entries are beautiful!!
Ever since we started this contest 7 years ago, Shelby, our Kentucky rescued English Setter and her adopter and IBR Board of Director- Eddie, were a huge part of our fundraising success. Shelby won 6 out of the last 7 contests while raising close to $11,000 as the most special fundraising team. Eddie had never owned an English Setter before, but together they walked thousands of miles around the city of Chicago over the years, while meeting so many friends and promoting IBR's mission- especially since Shelby was saved from an over-crowded shelter.
I will never forget the pride on Eddie's face the first time Shelby pointed pheasant at one of our photoshoots and some of those photos are featured in her collage. Sadly, we lost Shelby to cancer on November 4th. Shelby was over 16 years old, and we are heartbroken at her loss. This year's calendar contest is dedicated to Eddie and his Princess Shelby.
HAVE A HEART 8 Fundraising Calendar Contest- Through December 3rd.
It's that special time of year-- our Have A Heart 8 fundraising calendar contest is ready for some beautiful dog photo entries and this year we hope to raise another $10,000 or more in much needed vetting donations. As we are in our 20th year as a 501c3 not for profit charity, we need donations now more than ever. I never thought we would still be here after 20 years, but I never thought it would be so much more difficult to get donations for the pets in our program. Adoptions are also so slow-- nobody wants a sick dog, but with our better testing, we are still finding so much tick borne disease in our adoptables. If you have followed many of our success stories all these many years, dogs that were so sick and have gotten back into the field like my Cinders, this testing is so critical to helping our adoptables live long and happy lives.
We have some amazing prizes again this year including a great pet set for the Grand Prize, but also additional prizes for TOP POINTER, TOP SETTER, TOP SUPER MUTT and new this year-- TOP BEAGLE!!
Ever since we started this contest 7 years ago, Shelby, our Kentucky rescued English Setter and her adopter and IBR Board of Director- Eddie, were a huge part of our fundraising success. Shelby won 6 out of the last 7 contests while raising close to $11,000 as the most special fundraising team. Eddie had never owned an English Setter before, but together they walked thousands of miles around the city of Chicago over the years, while meeting so many friends and promoting IBR's mission- especially since Shelby was saved from an over-crowded shelter.
I will never forget the pride on Eddie's face the first time Shelby pointed pheasant at one of our photoshoots and some of those photos are featured in her collage. Sadly, we lost Shelby to cancer on November 4th. Shelby was over 16 years old, and we are heartbroken at her loss. This year's calendar contest is dedicated to Eddie and his Princess Shelby.
Meg, Cliff, Norm, Jake & Duke- Wisconsin Family and Lyme Disease
When I was bit and infected with Lyme disease over 21 years ago, I never knew how that incident would shape my life. Right after I was bit I lost my 6 year old dog Nasa knowing what know now-- surely from tick borne disease complications. When I started Illinois Birddog Rescue- it was because of the need to help homeless, abused and neglected American Field Bred English Pointers. My journey in helping these dogs led me to meet Dr. Hanover at the Animal Hospital of Gurnee who helped me learn about better tick borne disease screening. Today we test each and every incoming rescue dog, puppy, cat and kitten and our infection rate is nearly at 100%. My instincts to help these infected pets is uncanny and with all the research I have done and noting certain behavior issues, I have helped many friends and volunteers find the help they needed when there is a suspicion of Lyme disease. HERE is the story of one of my special friends and adopters-- Meg Hoffman. Please read and share- it may offer you and your family some hope.
We have 3 new dogs in our program-- English Setter-Alivia , Pointer-Xuma and Beagle puppy- Marigold. All 3 girls, sadly tested positive for Lyme disease. Alivia had bleeding gums upon arrival from a shelter in southern Illinois. She was dumped because she wouldn't hunt. Alivia moved to Foster to Adopt upon arrival to a family that recently lost their last IBR adopted English Setter and she is helping them mend their broken hearts.
Xuma, (pronounced Zuma), is a petite Pointer originally from Canada, bred from French Pointer lines. She was purchased 4 years ago by a man in the northern suburbs, who surrendered her to the rescue in June. She lived a life outdoors and had a history of being hit by a car. She has some mobility issues and some lameness in her back end, but she has been going to the local doggie chiropractor and she seems a lot better. Xuma also came in with sores all over her body and she also had intestinal parasites. Xuma also has a bad underbite and she also needs a dental. She is a joyful sweet Pointer and is doing great in foster care. She has tons of personality.
Little Marigold came into our program the last week in July. She was going to be put to sleep when Animal Control was running out of options because they could not find a rescue to help her locally. My vet called me as she was found in his town and we luckily found her a foster home quickly. Marigold is only 12lbs and she is a sickly camper due to her Lyme disease infection. She was also loaded with worms and we think she may have a growth spurt now that we are addressing her health issues. Marigold also has something called Cherry Eye-- inflammation in the third eyelid and she will need surgery to help that get better.
Vetting expenses add up quickly when we bring in new dogs with health issues. Bloodwork and vaccinations cost $350 each. Spays will be $90 each and dentals for Alivia and Xuma will cost approximately $200 each. Cherry eye surgery for Marigold will cost $150 and each chiropractic adjustment for Xuma is $50. Additional medication for Lyme disease treatment will cost approximately $200 each dog to start. We could sure use some donations to help with their care!
Happy Halloween From Olivia and Gavin
Olivia and Gavin are ready to Trick or Treat! Both English Setters are IBR Alumni- Gavin is my deaf English Setter that came into our program in 2010 from Southern Illinois as a 5 month old puppy and Olivia came into our program in early 2018 from North Carolina with heartworms and terrible mange. Gavin is 13 now and best guess Olivia is at least 14. Both have long term chronic tick borne disease but with daily antibiotics, they are doing well. Sadly, Olivia also has a little heart condition but she is hanging in there. These 2 have been buddies from the day they met and I hope to give them their best lives in their golden years.
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Fall Fundraising Raffle. I love the fall-- and my dogs are so much happier with the cooler temperatures after a very hot summer. Being a hunting dog rescue and having competed in hunt tests and field trials-- I am a huge fan of the color orange, which will be featured quite a bit in this raffle. This raffle is dedicated to the continued care of all our foster dogs fighting underlying tick borne disease-- which is nearly all of them. Thankfully we do find many amazing homes for our affected dogs, and we are grateful for that.
I started running one of these special dogs- Xuma, a show bred Pointer (originally from Canada), that came into our program with Lyme disease. She is also suffered from the damage of being hit by a car a few years ago. Xuma aka "IBR's Life Of The Party", has been my special project since May when she was surrendered to the rescue by her original owner. Xuma was BROKEN, covered in kennel sores and so sickly. As she is feeling so much better, I decided to get her registered with the AKC and so far she has 3 out of 4 legs to complete her Junior Hunter title. I also hope to run her in a new AKC event called Fast CAT the end of October. The cost to help her recover with blood work, medications and chiropractic care and just the food expense while she waits for her forever home can run into the thousands. She's a special girl with such a joyful disposition and I am very happy to help her on her journey to her new forever home.
This raffle will run through October 22nd. By then, I hope to have good news about Xuma finishing her Junior Hunter title, and additionally some Fast CAT passes by her and also her buddy Rue- rescue another Pointer in our program, that has waited over a year to find her forever home. Ticket prices are $10 each and I will mail ticket purchases as they come in. I will post things that are shippable and not shippable with pick up needed at IBR HQ. Each winner is responsible for the cost to ship. Any alcohol winners will need to show proof of being over 21. Thanks to those that donated to help our little rescue and GOOD LUCK to all who buy a ticket. This ends October 22nd at 6pm and winners will be announced on Facebook and via email.
Many of these beautiful pieces have been donated to the rescue. Robert K. Abbett prints sell for hundreds and the 3 Setter pup print is incredibly rare, I was lucky to get it from a gallery in Wisconsin. All of the Abbett framed art has acid free matting and backing and is under glass. My cost alone for some if the framing was about $150 each. Starting bid for each item is $200. I do have a reserve I would like to meet and remember-- this is a fundraiser!!! Please increase your bid by $10 each in the comments section and the auctions end October 22nd. If my reserve isn't met- I will extent. The Setter sculpture can be shipped, however any of the framed art would have to re-framed with plexiglass to ship at the winner's expense. I am willing to drive an hour or so if the winner is in IA, WI, IN and MI.
We need some donations to help the heartworm positive dogs in our program. Two of our positive Setters from last June- Lizzie and Grimm still need extra blood work and Dottie will be having surgery for a tumor on her neck. We also have 4 new heartworm positive dogs for 2023 including Pointer- Loralyn, Treeing Walker Coonhound- Shailene, Beagle- Sophia, and our newest rescue, Pointer- Dansby, our coverdog.
Heartworm slow kill is a kinder treatment plan but with our blood work protocols-- especially to look for underlying tick borne disease, long term care can be costly. Loralyn was recently diagnosed with Rocky Mountain spotted fever and sweet Beagle Sophia is also fighting Lyme disease. We are certain Dansby will also be infected. It can take 8 months to a year or longer for a dog to be heartworm free and but sometimes we do find Foster to Adopt homes to help these special dogs to recover, but not always. We could sure use your help with a donation to help these dogs get better and find their forever homes.
Welcome, pretty Loralyn, our newest Pointer rescue for 2023. She's a bit rough, having sores on her legs and an infected tail aka happy tail. Her eyes are a bit blood shot too. Unfortunately, blood work revealed she does have heartworms but she is doing well in our slow-kill program so far. The beauty of slow kill is she can run around the yard and act like a normal dog during treatment. It may take a year for the treatment to be successful- but I refuse to pump arsenic-based poisons through any IBR dogs.
Treatment for her infected tail is going very well and the wound around her feet and legs is also so much better. Loralyn is a super happy girl, loves playing with other dogs and is cat safe. She will need a Foster to Adopt home in the Chicago area that has a safe fenced-in yard. She will be higher energy so will need lots of room to run in the safety of a yard. .
The cost to help a dog like Loralyn get through heartworm slow-kill including blood work, medications and supplements can cost close to $1,000. Lora will need repeated bloodwork throughout to check her progress. We hope we can get some donations to help with her care.
To help off set the vetting expense for Alivia, Xuma and Marigold, I have been bargain hunting since last year and this raffle has a lot of stuff to brighten up your yard. There are additional things donated and it wouldn't be a Lisa raffle without a little alcohol. Bird Dog Whiskey is always a favorite of my raffles. I'm also really happy with the Bird Dog weathervane that was donated-- it is a collector's item as they are no longer available through the manufacturer. I have also added some Christmas in July items, including the centerpiece I crafted last year. Tickets are $10 each and you can buy as many as you want! This raffle will go through July 31st. For any prizes that are mailed-- we must be reimbursed for shipping cost. Winners will be notified on Facebook and also via email. Good luck!! ***WINNER MUST PROVIDE PROOF OF BEING OVER TWENTY ONE YEARS OF AGE ANY ALCOHOL PRIZE***
Mother's Day is just around the corner and whether you are a human mom or a doggie mom or a foster mom, we have a few former mommy dogs that need some support-- especially precious Beagle- Sophia. We don't know how many litters she has had in her life, but she has suffered neglect and sadly has heartworms and Lyme disease. She is going to need a lot of extra care in the coming months and we hope to generate some raffle ticket sales to help with her medical bills and her medical supplies. Here is Sophia's Facebook Photo Album that includes her original shelter photo.
We have 2 great gift certificates included in our raffle-- a portrait package by Anna Stolecka, adopter and friend of the rescue and a great gift certificate from Homestead Animal Hospital where we get all of our life saving blood work done. Tickets are $10 each and you can buy as many as you want! This raffle will go through May 9th and I can ship some items the next day if it is for a Mother's Day gift. Winners will be notified on Facebook and also via email. Good luck!!
***WINNER MUST PROVIDE PROOF OF BEING OVER TWENTY ONE YEARS OF AGE FOR BIRD DOG WHISKEY PRIZES***
01-14-2023: Gladys is still struggling with very painful ears, but her feet look so much better. While we did a culture to find out what could be the cause of the infections, the new medications aren't helping as we had hoped. She is getting a second opinion soon. Her dental and chest x-ray is scheduled for 01-24-2023. In spite of her health issues, she is a happy sweet beagle. We've got hundreds invested in her care, but need more help for her upcoming dental surgery. We hope we can raise some much needed funds for her continued care.
October 2022-- Gladys (formerly Daisy) came into our rescue on the 22nd with her buddy Stetson the Lab mix. Both had been dumped by their owners and wound up in Animal Control in Newton County, Indiana. Gladys' ear infections were so bad her ear canal was hardly visible. She also had inflamed, infected paws. Blood work revealed Rocky Mountain spotted fever- a terrible tick-borne disease. She is starting to feel better but has a long way to go. We aren't sure how old she is-- perhaps 5-7 and weighs around 30 lbs. We are looking for a foster to adopt as she will need a dental when she is ready for her spay, but she needs a few months before we move forward with surgery. RMSF is a tricky disease, and we are lucky we have a vet that helps us look for it, as we find it a lot in our rescue population.
ACTION PROJECT--Illinois Birddog Rescue
Logan Daniels is one of our great kids helping in Illinois Birddog Rescue's foster care program. In the spring of 2014, his 4th grade class at Center School in Freeport, Il, were involved in an action project to get the kids more involved in their community. Logan decided to focus on IBR's Tick Borne Disease program because his first foster Setter Genevieve came in with 3 diseases and his current foster buddy Hudson is fighting at least 2. Hudson has had his ups and downs and his foster mommy Jessica is keeping a journal of his behavior in their home. Logan got an A! Read more about Logan's Action Project HERE .
The Feline Tick Borne Disease Project
IBR Rescue kitties Nathaniel and Jameson
In April of this year, I lost my beloved 15 year old Brown Tabbie, Indiana Cat, to complications of Lyme disease when he died. As my focus has been on testing dogs and puppies, I tested my own cat too late and I was devastated. So begins IBR's research and testing into our feline friends and we have already been amazed at all the positive lab results so far.
In October of last year, Jameson was found as a stray in Nappanee, Indiana and he did not have any fleas or ticks on him. For grins we did an IDEXX 371 serology to look for evidence of Ehrlichia, Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) infections. He was about 7-8 months old and acting somewhat normal. We were surprised to see he had a titer for Ehrlichia at 1:25 and Lyme disease at 1:100. Our vet supplied us with doxycycline and amoxicillin and we treated him for three months and retested in January where we found that his titer for Ehrlichia rose to 1:100, his Lyme titer rose to 1:800 and an additional co infection of RMSF showed up at 1:25. During treatment Jameson did seem to sleep a lot. In March we retested again after another couple months of doxy and amoxi and BOTH Ehrlichia and RMSF titers went <1:25 and his Lyme titer went down to 1:100 and we were advised to stop treating. Sadly, we retested Jameson the end of September and his Ehrlichia titer is now up back up to 1:100 and his Lyme titer is again on the rise at 1:400. Jameson is an indoor kitty so there is no possibility of reinfection. He was not treated long enough and he is still fighting the original diseases. He did have a kitty rage episode so that really confirmed that he was still struggling and now that he is back on his antibiotics, he seems much happier and his stools which would clear a room are not as stinky. THANK GOODNESS. Here are his labs Jameson 2011/2012 labs,and Jameson Sept 2012.
The cost per test on average runs about $100 each. I prefer the IDEXX 371 because of the lower starting titers for disease, especially for Ehrlichia and RMSF. I have no doubt we have stumbled upon something major here and having chatted with several Veterinarians on the subject, there is A LOT of misinformation and ignorance on this issue- one vet told me cats can't be infected as they groom themselves too well (has he never seen a flea and tick infested stray?) and another stated the lab can't possibly be accurate for cats. I also had a vet absolutely refuse to treat even though the kitten's CBC/Chem had many red flags for infection. Thankfully I found a more open minded caring vet.
I have no doubt most cats and kittens are at risk and the infection rate has to be close to 90% or more in our cat population based on the percentage we are finding in random testing and I am sure most of these infections are being transmitting from infected mother to kitten as we are finding in our dog and puppy rescue testing.
In order to keep going with this very important project, we will need donations. I will work on Grant money too, but if you are a cat lover and want to help us with our new kitties, please donate to the Feline TBD Project.
The Marshmallow Fluff Litter
YES BABIES- sadly you ALL got infected by your momma Marshmallow. After testing all our cats and a few volunteer's cats we are at 100% for infection rate. Thanks to Dr. Hanover and Dr. Miller for your help testing and treating all our cats and kittens.
Much thanks to all those that entered, voted and promoted our Have A Heart 7 Calendar Contest!! We raised much needed funds and this year's calendar is so beautiful and we hope we sell a few more to help with our vetting expenses. Congratulations to all our winners-- especially Eddie and Princess Shelby.
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Have A Heart 7 Calendar contest. This contest is dedicated to all the dogs and puppies we bring into the program that are struggling with heartworms, tick-borne disease, and other serious health problems. The photos that receive the most votes during the contest will win PAWSOME prizes, and the top 12 vote-getters will be featured in our Have A heart 7- 2023 calendar. The rest of the photo submissions will be inserted into the date boxes.
We encourage you to enter the contest with your favorite photo of your dog/dogs and write a few words about why your dog is so special as I use that in the text of the winning calendar pages. Check out last year's Special Winning Calendar Pages. Then invite your family and friends to vote for your photo! The contest is open to anyone, and it is only $10 to enter your photo. Voting is easy and fun. Votes are $1 each with a $5 minimum donation. Each dollar donated equals an equivalent number of votes. (A $5 donation equals 5 votes, a $10 donation equals 10 votes, etc.) A minimum donation of $5 is required. Proceeds will benefit Illinois Birddog Rescue and fund the medical expenses for many of our heartworm positive and special needs dogs. You can vote as often as you like during the contest, and you can apply all your votes to one photo or vote for multiple photos too and with so many lovely dogs- we encourage that!
For the best chance to win, be sure to spread the word about your dog's entry into the contest on Facebook, Instagram and via email. Also ask family and friends to go online and support your entry. You can use the sharing buttons that appear on your dog's photo page to share your photo entry with your Facebook friends, and you can email links to family and friends to encourage voting for your dog's photo.
Each year we bring in many dogs that need extra care due to neglect and this year has brought us many new dogs and puppies in need. The last 4 months we have brought in 7 new heartworm positive dogs- 6 from the same neglectful home where they were tied to chains or kept in horrible cages. Our cover dogs all have heart worm disease, and several have other health problems.
The cost to medicate 1 heartworm dog for 1 year through our slow-kill program can be in the hundreds and thousands especially if there are additional medical procedures needed like x-rays, dentals, tumor removal, etc. Mamasita needed to have surgery to remove 2 huge mammary tumors and Dottie will be having surgery in early January to remove some suspicious tumors on her neck. Many dogs take longer to become heartworm negative with slow- kill, but it is an ideal treatment plan as the dogs do not need months of cage confinement and can have normal low-key exercise and play. Finding homes for these dogs can be challenging and as of the start of this contest, all the Setters pictured are waiting for Foster to Adopt homes.
Funds raised from Have A Heart 7 will help us with the continued care of these dogs and many of our new dogs in this picture collage including Edelweiss- a sweet Brittany/ Pointer mix that came in from an over-crowded shelter in Arkansas with mange, and Lucky, a young Beagle/ German Shepherd mix that was found as a stray in southern Illinois- also recovering from a terrible case of mange, Daisy- a middle aged Beagle that was dumped due to a divorce and also pulled from an over-crowded shelter in Indiana, but being for severe ear infections and terrible inflammation on her feet and lastly Leeroy, a Hurricane Ian survivor that has suffered some terrible neglect including out of control mange and starvation. Edelweiss and Lucky have recovered from their mange, but Daisy and Leeroy have a long road to recovery.
In the past few contests- we have had many amazing photo submissions and are so grateful for the support. We would love to get 100 entries and raise $10,000 this year or more. Here is last year's HAVE A HEART 6 CONTEST & PREVIOUS WINNERS
GRAND PRIZE WINNER- the photo entry with the most votes/donations:
A $250 Amazon Gift Certificates, Birddog Blend Coffee Birddog Blend Coffee and our 20th anniversary Pointer/ Setter mug. The winning photo will also be the cover of the Have a Heart 7 Calendar Contest and an insert into the calendar.
2nd - 12th place Dogs:
The 2nd through 12th place winners win the 11 other coveted monthly calendar cover pages, and our 20th anniversary Pointer/Setter mug.
Bonus Prizes:
The top winning Pointer, Setter and Super Mutt/ other breed will have their photo placed on a wine label with the choice of 2 bottles of the same wine varietal: BRUT Sparkling, Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay.
Additionally, the top winning senior dog will also have their choice of 1 of our beautiful Foggy Mountain dog coats. We need to keep our sweet seniors warm!!
We've got 4 new Pointers in our program-- Michelle, Disney, Pete and Baby Ruth. All were pulled from certain death in over- crowded shelters in Illinois and Tennessee. Michelle was so scary thin but is thriving in her new Foster to Adopt home. She is being treated for Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
PETE
In June I was told about an orange and white male Pointer that was going to be put to sleep in an overcrowded shelter in western Illinois. Pete, sadly, came in with heartworms and also with Rocky Mountain spotted fever. He was a little ornery but now he gets along great with all the dogs and he loves to play. A heartworm diagnosis can cost $1,000 or more with blood work and supplies-- but so far he is doing well with treatment.
Baby Ruth is a sweet Pointer puppy that needed to be pulled from an overcrowded shelter in Tennessee. We were lucky to line up a foster and get a volunteer Pilot to fly her and another sweet beagle/bassett mix in just a few days. Ruthie was another Pointer with a tatoo in her ear from a local breeder that dumps his dogs when they don't sell. She is a complete joy and we are hopeful she finds the best home. She'll be needing blood work to look for any hiding tick borne disease prior to being spayed.
Disney is approximately 8-9 months old and was saved from an over-crowded shelter in Mt. Vernon, IL. She was an owner surrender and is just the epitome of what a field bred Pointer should be. She is friendly, silly, zany, goofy and just full of life. Disney will need an adopter familiar with field bred Pointers. They are NOT like Continental breeds like GSP's, Weims and Vizslas. Pointers are not clingy and are more independent-- especially if they ever get off leash. These dogs were bred to run in field trials and on plantations in the south and handlers followed them on horseback or on ATV's. They need safe fenced in yards and are very trainable. Pointers also benefit from running at the local fenced in dog park- but don't expect to see them the whole time you are there as they will hunt instead of play with other dogs. Most Pointers do make great walking or running companions and after their daily quota of exercise-- they are extremely cuddily and are genetically predisposed to sleeping on the couch or in bed with their people.
Disney seemed weak to me the first couple of days believe it or not. She would run around with a burst of energy and then lay down compared to Cinders. She was having some worm die off issues but thankfully she had a good appetite. She got stronger the longer she was on the antibiotics as 5 days into treatment for suspected tick borne disease, she was running around like a nut-ball. She also got birdier as the days progressed. She clearly had never been in a home before, but she is adjusting well. Really good in her crate too. What a nice pup!!
05-22-2022: Much thanks to Fred (morning radio personality for Chicago's Kiss FM and an all around rock star!!) for flying Miss Disney from Gary International to Spirit of St. Louis today. Northwestern Journalism student- Lauren helped with today's transport- keeping our special little Pointer safe in her arms on the flight. We have been so lucky to have Fred's support flying some special dogs the pasts few years.
On September 13th, 2022. Cinders turned a year old. She's had her ups and downs since she came into our program as a breeder surrender- due to her spine defect. We had no idea what the future would hold for this precious puppy, but the idea of running her in field competitions was not anything I could have dreamed of. She has shown in the past few months- that in spite of her birth defect, she has a desire to hunt and she also has a great nose for upland birds. Last December, she was dragging her back legs due to her neck being out of alignment- but chiropractic care every 5-6 weeks had helped her become stronger and has also helped her grow properly. I had actually bought wheels for her because I thought she might not be able to walk or run. As she was also infected with Rocky Mountain spotted fever from her mama, she's also fought hard to get that disease under control.
We did not get papers for her when she came into Illinois Birddog Rescue's program, but when she started sight pointing birds in the Spring, I had a wild idea to see if I could get her breeder to give them to me so I could enter her in field events in the fall. Thankfully he agreed, and after I got her registered with the Field Dog Stud Book, I pursued getting her dual registered with the American Kennel Club. That proved to be difficult as her FDSB papers were delayed several weeks and the AKC stopped taking those papers in July 2022, and her papers arrived the middle of July. I was contacted in late July that her papers arrived too late, but I pleaded with the AKC, especially due to the FDSB/UKC 5 week backlog and my persistence paid off and she was granted her papers. Most of the trialing I wanted to do was AKC, so I was thrilled with the opportunity we were given.
We have done some work in the field and she has had some training off leash at the local dog parks, and given the opportunity she will hunt independently, but she also has a really nice recall off leash. I was not worried about letting her go at an event. Next step was to get her on birds and we were able to get some pheasant in July. It didn't take her long for her natural instincts to come out and the picture above was taken after she scent pointing her 6th bird in a row. She was ready!! We entered an AKC field trial the middle of September and while she didn't place, she did learn about judges on horses and she sight pointed her first quail. The following weekend she was entered into an AKC Hunt test and she scent pointed many quail in the bird field and passed 3 out of 4 attempts in Junior Hunter.
I haven't campaigned a rescue dog in over 10 years. I never thought I would be gifted with such a special pup, that would help promote English Setter rescue, but Cinders' recovery is a miracle . With that in mind, Cinders and I need some special sponsors to help us in the next few weeks. She is entered in another AKC hunt test and with 1 more qualifier- she could finish her Junior Hunter title. After that we will be field trialing and the last 2 will be in Virginia and these will be especially fun because she will be competing against other Setters, and only English Setters at the English Setter Association of America's trial on October 24th. There will be a lot of costs associated with helping us on our quest and I have created 3 wine labels with the help of Windsor Vineyards. The varietals include a Brut Sparking wine which will be perfect for upcoming celebrations and gift giving. There are 6 other wines available including 3 reds and 3 whites. Additionally, I have come up with a shopping list of travel and entry expenses if you would like to help with that too. As we have so many Setters in the program that have complicated health problems-- much of this fundraiser will help with the care of those special dogs too. Here is Cinders' original Cinders' GOFUNDME as we would appreciate any donation to help with her continued care.
Please meet 10 week old orange and white American Field bred English Setter- Cinders. She is an Indiana breeder/ field trialer owner surrender because has a strange lump in her back. In foster care, we had xrays done that showed an issue with one of her vertebrae. It was also suggested by the breeder that if my rescue didn't have the resources to help her, he would explore other options for her so we acted quickly. We have gotten 3 puppies from this breeder the past few years, the last 2 both had Lyme disease and one had hip dysplasia that needed surgery. Cinders is on doxycycline in case she is also infected from her mother. I sent the xray to an orthopedic friend in the area and he felt it was a congenital birth defect and was surprised to read she can walk and run but the concern is what happens when she grows and when the soft bones harden when she becomes an adult.
His suggestion was to take her to a neurologist and we were also told that chiropractic care and perhaps water tread mill therapy would be a good idea. This is all new territory for us since so much about her care but will do the best we can to keep her from having any nerve damage or paralysis. She is a brilliant puppy in spite of her birth defect. She already comes when called and is stalking the dogs in her foster home. We are hopeful for her future and we hope we can get some funding for her care.
I was sent a link to some German Wirehair Pointer mix puppies on Craigslist at the end of January. I reached out to the person that listed the litter and asked if they would surrender the puppies to Illinois Birddog Rescue. It's dangerous for any dog or puppy to be listed on Craigslist for free, as so many of these animals get sold for research or are used for pitbull training bait. Thankfully we got the puppies moved to a short-term foster in St. Louis but were alarmed as none had any puppy vaccinations or wormer. We got them to the vet two days later for their 1st parvo/distemper vaccine, but a fecal on one of the puppies revealed a nasty intestinal parasite called hookworm. The next day, the puppies moved to a longer-term foster in the Chicago area and continued their Panacur wormer and started on proactive doxycycline just in case of any underlying tick-borne disease.
The puppies also had some bite wounds from each other, needed some oral cephalexin and topical medication, some had ear infections, and Fannie Mae has a displaced tooth under her tongue. The puppies were doing well, but on Sunday, February 20th, Godiva became lethargic, had some diarrhea and was vomiting. The biggest concern was if we were too late with their puppy vaccinations, and Godiva was breaking with parvovirus. We found an emergency vet and rushed her over. My worst nightmare-- a sick puppy on a Sunday night and emergency vet costs... The parvo test was thankfully negative, but we still had a sick puppy on our hands. She was given fluids, a Cerenia injection for nausea and some metronidazole to help with her upset tummy.
The next day Godiva went to see Dr. Rimkunas at Homestead Animal Hospital as she still was a little weak. She was given more fluids and Cerenia, and she was to continue her Metronidazole. We also got new fecals for her and sister Fannie Mae to see if that offered some answers. ARRGGGHHH both puppies were infected with protozoa called Giardia. We could also assume the whole litter was infected as they may have had it when they came in from Missouri, and the first fecal missed it. Usually, Panacur helps treat Giardia- but the whole litter also needs to start on the Metronidazole. Giardiafest-- BOO!!!!!!
With the cost of ER bills, extra medication, and new blood work to start soon, our adoption donation for each puppy will not cover the cost of our expenses. It never does, especially as we assume every puppy we bring in may already be infected from an infected mother for tick-borne disease. Every litter we have ever brought in from Missouri has been infected, but because we test a few puppies and require lab work at 8 months old before spays and neuters, we catch most of it. As Dr. Rimkunas whelped a litter puppies from an infected beagle he eventually adopted- he is supportive of our extra efforts to help our litters get the best care before adoption.
As frustrating as the hookworms and Giardia is, we are relieved we are not dealing with parvovirus and puppies fighting for their lives. No one wants to adopt a sick puppy- but we are doing our best to help these babies get better and find loving forever homes. All of this extra care adds up fast, so we would like to see if we can get some support from the IBR family for this precious litter because we have a lot of dogs and puppies in our program that also need expensive vetting care.
In November, I was contacted about a Lemon Pointer that was in danger of being put to sleep in an overcrowded shelter near Champaign, IL. We made arrangements for Joshua to come into our program and were very dismayed at his condition-- skin and bones and sadly infected with Lyme disease. Joshua's Recovery Page
At the beginning of January, I was contacted about two more Lemon Pointers in Southern Illinois that were also in danger of being put to sleep in an overcrowded shelter. We scrambled to find foster homes and were able to fly Tim, aka Quick Draw McGraw and Faith, into our program a few days later. The story was both dogs were rescued by a man in Illinois from another man in Kentucky that was starving them. Then when he was done, he dumped them in the local shelter. Tim and Faith were very thin and have been treated for roundworms. Sadly both also have tick-borne disease. Tim- especially is such a fun Pointer pup. Our vet aged him at 3-4 years old, but he acts like a puppy. He is the sweetest and is doing so well in his foster home. Tim and Faith's Recovery Page
Also, in January, I was contacted about a Pointer in need in Tennessee. Starbuck was part of a large Pointer/Breeder program and wasn't measuring up in competition. The breeder's kennels had also blown down in a December tornado. Starbuck flew to town mid-January and was also a bag of bones. He is being fed three meals a day and is starting to adjust to indoor living. He's also starting to show his silly Pointer personality. Starbuck's Recovery Page
The cost to medicate 1 heartworm dog for 1 year through our slow-kill program can be in the hundreds and thousands especially if there are additional medical procedures needed like x-rays, dentals, tumor removal, etc. Often we need to repeat blood work throughout treatment. Many dogs take longer with slow- kill but it is an ideal treatment plan especially for senior dogs that have suffered terrible neglect. Dogs like Charlie, Clemmie and Ranger.
Charlie could be 13 years old and was also 20lbs underweight and he had a terrible smelly skin infection, and both his ears were infected. He was found under a house in central Illinois in early spring and flew north on Easter. Charlie has been recovering at the home of IBR's Founder and President. Clemmie was found in northern Mississippi with a 4-inch gaping wound in his back and subsequent x-rays showed a shattered bullet in his back and birdshot spray all over his body. Clem also has some bad hips and knees that bend like Gumby. He recently had hernia surgery too. He's a happy little guy considering. Ranger was in a Kentucky shelter for over a year without any extra medical care so we are very concerned with his heartworm load. He also has 2 tumors that will need to be surgically removed and a dental when we build him up the next 2 months. Ranger moved to Foster to Adopt on 11-6.
Funds raised from Have A Heart 6 will help us with the continued care of these dogs and many of our new heart worm positive dogs and some of our new special needs dogs like Abraham- a little Cattle dog mixed breed puppy that has a badly healed broken back leg and new Beagle- like Kacey, that just came in with a badly dislocated hip and also a badly healed broken back leg.
In the past few contests- we have had many amazing photo submissions and are so grateful for the support. We would love to get 100 entries and raise $10,000 this year or more. Here is last year's HAVE A HEART 4 CONTEST & PREVIOUS WINNERS
GRAND PRIZE WINNER- the photo entry with the most votes/donations:
A $250 Amazon Gift Certificates, Birddog Blend Coffee Birddog Blend Coffee and our 20th anniversary Pointer/ Setter mug. The winning photo will also be the cover of the Have a Heart 6 Calendar Contest and an insert into the calendar.
2nd - 12th place Dogs:
2nd through 12th place winners win the 11 other coveted monthly calendar cover pages, and our 20th anniversary Pointer/Setter mug.
Bonus Prizes:
The top winning Pointer and top winning Setter receive these beautiful hunting platters and mugs. Additionally, the top winning Super Mutt and the top winning senior dog will also have their choice of 1 of our beautiful Foggy Mountain dog coats.
When I started the Have A Heart 6 Fundraising Calendar contest-- we had 8 dogs in our Heart Worm Slow Kill program. Now we only have 7 because Charlie is now heart worm negative as of 11-13 and in a little over 7 months. When he came into our program on Easter Sunday, April 4th, I thought to myself, will Charlie even live long enough to have a negative test. He was so sickly, I was worried, but having fostered so many dogs in horrendous conditions, including my Olivia-- I was hopeful. We started a modified slow kill program after consulting with professor from the University of Illinois a couple of years ago. Our program included still using heartguard and we also treated with antibiotics much longer- especially with the concern of underlying tick borne disease. Most folks don't know the fast kill treatment uses arsenic and steroids as ALL of the adult worms are killed, and the dogs need complete rest so that they don't throw blood clots or have other health complications. I will never do that treatment again and Charlie is the reason why what we do with our special heart worm positive dogs is so important. It's longer, but it's so much easier on the dogs-- especially senior dogs. I keep telling Charlie I am so proud of us. YAY TEAM CHARLIE!! :) Sadly- we did find Rocky Mountain spotted fever on his latest blood work, but I am not surprised-- I've been treating him for it all along anyways.
In the last 14 years since Illinois Birddog Rescue has been doing better tick-borne screening on our incoming dogs, we have found most of our Setter population is infected needing treatment. The last 3 Setters we have brought into our program have Lyme disease and will be needing additional blood work.
Albus is our newest Setter rescue as of 10-21 this past week. He is a 5 month old sweetheart that was originally bred in Tennessee, but then when he was returned to the breeder, thereafter his cousin in Indiana took him in. He proved to be a little rambunctious for that family and we were lucky to get him into our program. He should be moving to foster to adopt locally soon as we need to get his important tick borne disease screening too and we might need to repeat his blood work twice. He's had nearly zero vetting and will need all his vaccinations and a fecal once we get him to Illinois. Albus looks like the little Setter puppies in the Robert Abbett framed art in the raffle,
Riley is a young female tricolor and white English Setter that came into our program from an over- crowded shelter in Madisonville, Kentucky. She was found as a stray and had ticks on her upon arrival. When she came into IBR's care, she seemed feverish and didn't have a lot of energy. She slept all the time in her foster home. Bloodwork revealed she was very sick with Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Thankfully she started to recover as she was treated with antibiotics. She will need additional blood work before her spay to see how she is doing internally.
Remi is a handsome tricolor and white Llewellyn (English) Setter that was an owner surrender from the Illinois suburbs originally purchased from a breeder in Kentucky. He was bought to be a hunting companion but became gun shy. His owner said he was never right and had some quirky personality issue. While he was vaccinated for Lyme disease, his blood work also revealed he was fighting Rocky Mountain spotted fever so we can assume he has Lyme disease too. Antibiotic treatment has already helped with his anxiety, and he is now in a low stress Foster to Adopt home. We will need to do further blood work to see where his titers for infection go as many vets are vaccinating already infected dogs.
Champ is a 12+ year old senior orange and white English Setter that came to us from northern Wisconsin. His 88-year-old owner needed to move to assisted living and we were very happy to help him get into a new home. Champ also had a Lyme vaccination history but was a sick dog upon arrival. He had a touch of pancreatitis, and he also was suffering from anxiety. His blood work showed a few other issues and while he is being treated for the pancreatitis, he will need new blood work to see where his Lyme titer goes and to check his health before surgery. As a senior dog, Champ will also need a dental and proactive x-ray during his neuter surgery.
In an effort to help fundraise for these dogs we welcome you to participate in the Fall Fundraising Setter Lover's Raffle. My hope is to raise some much-needed funds to help offset the cost of additional bloodwork and Champ's extra vetting procedures.
Tickets are $10 each and will be mailed for your records. The raffle will end on November 1st at 5pm and winners will be announced on IBR Facebook and via email. Many items are not shippable and will need to be picked up at IBR HQ. For things that can be shipped the rescue would appreciate being reimbursed for any shipping expense. We hope you like some of our special prizes and good luck!!
09-2021: Geralt now Geddy has moved to his forever home in Wisconsin with the best couple. We wish him well!!
04-27-2021: Geralt is doing great in such a short time. Rocky Mountain spotted fever was confirmed but we were treating him proactively and he has already gained 5+ pounds. He is such a great dog and I will be updating his progress on his Facebook Recovery Page.
04-13-2021: Geralt is a handsome Lemon and White American Field Bred Pointer that was found as a stray in northern, Arkansas. He was on his own for a while as there were sightings of him in December. He has a nasty case of demodex mange with some infected skin including his body, front feet and ears. He had some old tick bite wounds too so we can assume he is infected and that would also cause his immune system to struggle. It will take a few months of medications and TLC, but he will start to feel and look a lot better soon.
In an effort to help raise funds for Illinois Birddog Rescue, I started making face masks with my Singer sewing machine. With adoption events put on hold, I found a pattern that could help me use some of the doggie bandana material I had on hand- including many Chicago sports teams. The pattern requires cutting out 6 pieces which was ideal for my smaller bandana pieces. The finished face mask allows for the insertion of a hepa filter if desired, and the double layer is a recommended safe option. With the demand for elastic, I have tried a few different products and find the current thin and medium white elastic works nicely and I also have used some gray and black hair ties that are soft and made from spandex material.
My face masks can fit snuggly so that they don't slide down from the nose like some of the disposable ones. I can send with the white elastic so that it can be made adjustable. I am not a fast sewer but I do pride myself on the extra stitching to help them last longer. I have hand washed my own personal face mask in cold temps and air dried to avoid shrinking. I have also let mine sterilize in the heat of my car.
The $20 price includes shipping (USPS with tracking) and Ebay/Paypal fees so your purchase helps us raise about $14 per face mask sold after the cost of materials. Every little bit helps with the cost of medical supplies and vetting for our rescue dog population.
TWENTY YEARS IN DOG RESCUE and it never gets easier when you hear the puppy you are so anxious to save out of state DIES. He deserved better.
I was sent pictures of a very cute little Pointer mix puppy on 4-27 and the pictures were taken by an old friend of the rescue in Princeton, KY. Remington is a 4-6 mo old male pup that was posted on Craigslist as "free to good home". Judy contacted the folks who had him and offered to find him a rescue. They got him from another person who was giving him away. The morning I was working with Judy to commit to taking him into Illinois Birddog Rescue, she was contacted by the family that he had diarrhea and was vomiting. Poor Remington had not seen a vet for his puppy vaccinations and our greatest fear that he had terrible Parvovirus was confirmed. Parvo attacks the digestive tract and while Remington is at the vet hospital getting IV fluids and anti nausea meds, he is still vomiting and has had some bloody diarrhea. We are hopeful he will pull through and that the quick actions of Judy has helped him get the supportive care to save his life. He is a precious little boy and we are hoping for the best. He will need thoughtful blood work once he recovers and we get him into foster care. We have no idea what the cost of his emergency vetting will be but hope we can get some donations to help with his expenses. Hang in there little guy!!!
Albus Dumbledore- Our New 13 Year Old Senior English Setter Rescue
I saw a petfinder post with the saddest looking Setter in the listing. I called the shelter and was told this sweet boy was dumped after his owner passed away apparently because he was too old to hunt. We were so happy to get him into our program and he is doing well with his Lyme disease treatment and also learning to be a happy house dog.
03:2021: Nearly 4 months after I brought Harvey into IBR's program, he moved to a new forever home. He gained 20lbs in my care and learned to be a proper house dog. Honestly I didn't think I would ever get him house trained- but he learned with a lot of consistent training and the use of a belly band which he didn't need the last 2 weeks in February. Harvey has a new Setter brother and Setter sister and a Golden Retriever sister and a few new kitty friends. His new mommy is going to continue to spoil him and help him through his Slow Kill Heartworm treatment. YAY!!
02-2021: I added a whole bunch of photos I have taken of Harvey from Dec, Jan and February to his Facebook Recovery Album. It's been great seeing him doing so well, gaining weight, eating well and fully recovered from his surgery and dental. He is pretty reliably house trained now- but I make sure he goes out a lot. My guess is he really had to struggle to find food as he is a walking Setter disposal and will eat anything including sweet potato skins and cheetos. He is such a sweet fella and I hope finds the bestest forever home for the rest of his golden years.
11-27-2020: It's Harvey's 3 weekaversary in IBR's care. He's gained 6lbs and his heart sounds normal now :) He also trots and gallops in the yard and is feeling so much better. He has a long way to go still- needs to gain another 10lbs, but his future is much brighter now. I'd like him to put on another 5 and then we will see if he is ready for his neuter- especially since he might have testicular cancer. With the heart-worms and Rocky Mountain spotted fever we'll need to be careful. Donations have helped us get Harvey on the road to recovery. 11-6-2020: I was contacted about a Setter in a shelter in Southern Illinois the end of October. Thanks to my old rescue friend Kathy, we got Harvey on a transport to Chicago on 11-5. I thought perhaps he was a senior in the first photos I saw of him and I knew he was thin. Upon arrival hew was weak, emaciated and defeated looking. Thankfully my vet had booked an appointment for us with his arrival and started him on IV fluids right away. They also shaved off most of the terrible matting all over his body. Harvey was also covered in fleas and he had a very low heart beat called Bradycardia. Dr. John and I both agreed we would be shocked if he didn't have heart-worms. After his blood was drawn and a B12 injection, Harvey and I headed home for his spa treatment. After the flea shampoo, I got him started on intestinal dewormer and gave him a good meal that also included heartguard and antibiotics. He ate very well thankfully. Blood work the next day showed he was indeed heartworm positive and he also had hookworms and had elevated white blood cells, neutrophils and lymphocytes-- his immune system was fighting for him. The next morning Harvey was feeling so much better. He was holding his head up and his eyes weren't so sunken in. He continued to eat better and also stated trotting around my yard. Later that morning he moved to foster care and spent the weekend at their lake home with more TLC and lots more food. Harvey is currently being treated with our heart-worm slow kill program and we will take our time building him up before he is neutered. He came in weighing 37lbs and needs to gain at least 15-20lbs. We aren't sure of his age- but estimate he could be 10- 12 years old and is partially deaf. I will add new updates as they come in.
4-2021: Oliver moved to Foster to Adopt!! YAY!! 2-2021: Oliver continues to do well in foster care. He is now cage and house trained and is doing amazingly well with heartworm slow kill. We are still looking for the perfect Foster to Adopt home.
11-21-2020: Please meet Oliver- IBR rescue #1403 :) He is our new handsome black and white Pointer coming to us via the Newton County AC in Morocco, Indiana. He was found as a stray and was nearly starved. He is in a loving foster home starting on some good meals 3X's a day plus hearguard, panacur wormer and antibiotics in case he has underlying tick borne disease. He will be having blood work soon. Oliver is a sweet dog with lots of personality and it doesn't seem that he has suffered much abuse as he wasn't fearful of his new foster mom or dad or me. He is great with other dogs but has never been in a home and will need work on cage and house training. He will be neutered in a month once he gains weight and also in case of the tick borne disease and heartworms.
Update January 2021: after 5 short months in our care, Bailey was diagnosed with spleen cancer and had to be humanely let go. Her adoring foster mom Maggie was with her when she passed and we are grateful for that.
Bailey is a partially blind 11+ year old Pointer that was found as a stray in early August from Indiana. When her owner was found he didn't even notice she was gone for 2 days. He was happy to surrender her to the local shelter because he stated he couldn't hunt over her anyways. After we pulled her from the shelter, we were able to get some blood work done and she has low white blood and red blood cells. She also has the start of kidney disease. We are treating her for suspected Lyme disease and no doubt that has contributed to her health issues and blindness. Bailey hadn't been to a vet in years and we also did a heart worm test which was thankfully negative and she also needed all her vaccinations to cross state lines. On Saturday, August 8th, with the help of many thoughtful volunteers, Bailey was transported via car and plane to Minnesota. She was a bit nervous at first but is adjusting to life indoors. She has to learn to use some stairs but while she is a bit afraid, she is still wagging her tail and thankfully she is eating well. Bailey's initial vetting expenses are over $400 and we anticipate she may have additional expenses as we look into a dental and proactive x-rays. We appreciated any support you can give our new senior gal.
Please meet Hoss- he is a 9+ year old Lemon Pointer that was dumped at a southern Illinois Shelter the week of June 15th. He is partially blind and has some storm anxiety but thankfully is doing well in his new foster home. He's probably never been indoors in his life. Besides his blindness, he also has worn down teeth and sadly a grade 3.5 out of 6 heart murmur. We are waiting for his blood results but can assume he has Lyme disease and at least Rocky Mountain spotted fever and we are treating him proactively with our vet's blessing. I did speak to his old owner and he bought Hoss 2 years ago and he already was blind in one eye, but he did hunt over him in the fall. While he wasn't gun shy, fireworks would cause him to have some PTSD and my guess is someone thought that would be a good way to help him not be gun-shy. He hasn't shown any terrible anxiety in his foster home and he is wearing a Thunder Shirt just in case during storms and with the 4th of July coming up. So far he is happy as a clam and content to lay in his cage listening to classical music. If he does have Lyme disease, which can also cause anxiety, treating that will help too. We hope to find him a new loving home and hope we can get some more support for his care.
UPDATE 7-3-2020: As suspected, Hoss is indeed positive for Lyme disease. Thank goodness we found it and with long term antibiotics, he should be feeling a lot better. The damage is done however, but we are hopeful we can find a loving home for him for his golden years. At least his other eye is protected and my hope is the heart murmur won't get any worse. We have had dogs with Lyme disease and similar issues live into their teens.
To help with the new vetting expenses of our senior Brittany/houndie mix Joey, we are having a St. Patrick's Day Bird Dog Whiskey raffle. I was lucky to find the bottle with the Irish Setter on the label. CLICK HERE for all the ticket details!!
Ever wonder how we bring in dogs from shelters all over the Midwest? Well back in the early days, IBR would work hard on ground transport finding volunteers to drive 70-100 miles and meeting a new driver on the way north. The past few years we have been using a wonderful organization called Pilots N Paws where many pilots that need their monthly hourly flight time, volunteer to move at risk animals from point A to point B. The past few years Captain Dave has been helping us out a bunch and we could not be more grateful!!
Star & Lily- 2 More Senior Dogs Looking for Forever Homes
Star and Lily are 9 year old Pointer/ Labrador mix sisters that were surrendered to a Southern Illinois shelter in September. I found about their plight and was lucky to find foster homes for both and brought them into our program in early January. Sadly both are fighting tick borne disease- but otherwise are in good health and are loving the TLC they are getting as I was told they lived outdoors their whole lives. We are lucky to find wonderful homes for many senior dogs and are hopeful we can find their girls new forever homes for their Golden Years. Our current raffle is to help these special girls.
UPDATE 02-21-2021 Happy news- Lilykins had been adopted by a wonderful couple in Palatine, IL. She will be an only dog and will be spoiled rotten.
Have A Heart 5 Update- COVID and my Heartfelt Thanks
In early October, new foster dad Mike and his daughters Clara and Fabi, drove from Milwaukee, WI to southern Illinois to meet a transport that was driving Pointer mix Patsy north from Tennessee. At the transfer location, a Pointer named Buckley was also meeting him- being surrendered by his owner. Both were coming into Illinois Birddog Rescue's program and Mike was hoping to Foster to Adopt. Mike then met me at my vets in Burbank, IL where both dogs had blood work, exams and vaccinations and I gave him supplies for heartworm and potential tick-borne disease and dewormer, collars and leashes. Mike and his girls then drove home after an exceptionally long day on the road.
Thankfully, Patsy and Buckley got along great and the next few days started on their meds. We knew Patsy was heartworm positive, but sadly, Buckley also tested positive for heartworms, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Mike and his family were already falling in love and happy to get them through our slow kill treatment. This program allows the dogs to play with each other and let both run off some puppy energy at the local dog park. Due to their long-term treatment plan and expense- I told Mike that I did not want to ask for any deposits on the dogs just yet.
About the time I was setting up my Have A Heart 5 Calendar Contest fundraiser, we found out Mike had contracted COVID 19 and a week later he was having serious health complications and was hospitalized. He had COVID pneumonia, blood clots in his lungs and was in serious condition. The rest of his family tested positive and while his daughters had mild symptoms, his wife Maurita struggled as well. As a family, however, they were able to visit Mike outside his hospital room which was on the first floor so that they could also bring the dogs to try and lift his spirits from his window. When I found out Mike was in the hospital, I decided to enter Patsy (now Iris) and Buckley (now Ewan) into the calendar contest because funds raised could help with their care. I edited the photo of them together on the couch and was ecstatic that folks donated to help them stay in the top 12. More good news, after about a week on blood thinners, remdesivir, and dexamethasone (steroids), Mike was able to go home. He is still on a regimen of steroids and oxygen to help him sleep and will be for many months as he continues to recover. He has also lost about 40 lbs.
Mike and I had a very candid chat recently and he is understandably very emotional about his experience. On a follow up appointment with his health care professional recently, the doctor stated he did not give him a lot of hope of surviving the virus as sick as he was. Had he delayed getting admitted to the hospital one more day, he probably would not have made it. Mike is in his 50's. Throughout his recovery, Iris and Ewan have been a huge part of quality snuggling and the best therapy. Ewan especially loves to lay on his new daddy's lap and now that Mike can handle a walk at the dog park, he is happy to continue taking both dogs for a good romp a few times a week. Mike might have some substantial hospital bills and the last thing I want him to worry about is the extra expenses for 2 heartworm positive dogs. This is especially why I want to give a huge heartfelt THANK YOU to all that participated and donated in the Have a Heart 5 Calendar Contest to help us raise close to $9,000 to help offset the care of Mike's Foster to Adopt dogs and the other 4 heartworm positive dogs we brought in the last 2 months. With all the extra vetting and supplies these dogs need, cost to help these dogs can run into the thousands.
Buckwheat's Memorial Raffle- Through 2-7-2021
Welcome to Buckwheat's Memorial Winter Fundraising Raffle. Buckwheat was the heart of Illinois Birddog Rescue from 2002 to his passing in 2019. He was a Pointer mix that survived Parvo as a puppy and was adopted by Lisa (me) IBR's Founder & President. BW was a fixture at all adoption events and at all the IBR garage sales and helped with foster care for hundreds of dogs and puppies. BW also fought Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever most of his life and I attribute his long life to all the thoughtful blood work and long term treatment we do for all our incoming dogs. His raffle is dedicated to all our senior rescues and helping them find loving homes in the golden years of their lives.
More images of the items featured in this raffle can be viewed on IBR Facebook- Click Here I made all the face masks and have been shipping them all over the country for fundraising. They are 2 layer cotton and are meant to fit snuggly. This raffle will go through February 7th at noon and tickets are $6 each. Some items can be shipped but most will need to be picked up at IBR HQ in Wood Dale, IL- especially the framed art. I am happy to drive an hour in any direction to meet some of my out of state and southern IL winners. The cost to ship will need to be paid by the winners and I can send an invoice via PayPal to cover USPS or UPS expenses. Raffle tickets will be mailed to each participant during the event-- last minute ticket purchases will be emailed. Winners will be notified on Facebook and via email. I hope we can raise $2,000 to help with the vet bills for seniors Harvey, Starlette and Lilykins and that we have many winners. Good luck and thanks!!
A Plethora of Calendars
My rescue is blessed with a few adopters that are also professional photographers and I have taken many of their donated images and turned out beautiful calendars over the past years. I've brought back many favorites with so many of our rescued Pointers, Setters and other special mixed breed dogs. and you can shop for a new 2021 calendar at The IBR Calendar Store.
I have completed this year's HAVE A HEART 5 compilation winners calendar and a few others. Here is the link to our CALENDARS if you want to take a look.
All the best to you and your family this howliday season.
Lisa Spakowski- IBR Founder and President
Fundraising Facemasks
In an effort to help raise funds for Illinois Birddog Rescue, I started making face masks with my Singer sewing machine. With adoption events put on hold, I found a pattern that could help me use some of the doggie bandana material I had on hand- including many Chicago sports teams. The pattern requires cutting out 6 pieces which was ideal for my smaller bandana pieces. The finished face mask allows for the insertion of a hepa filter if desired, and the double layer is a recommended safe option. With the demand for elastic, I have tried a few different products and find the current thin and medium white elastic works nicely and I also have used some gray and black hair ties that are soft and made from spandex material.
My face masks can fit snuggly so that they don't slide down from the nose like some of the disposable ones. I can send with the white elastic so that it can be made adjustable. I am not a fast sewer but I do pride myself on the extra stitching to help them last longer. I have hand washed my own personal face mask in cold temps and air dried to avoid shrinking. I have also let mine sterilize in the heat of my car.
The $20 price includes shipping (USPS with tracking) and Ebay/Paypal fees so your purchase helps us raise about $14 per face mask sold after the cost of materials. Every little bit helps with the cost of medical supplies and vetting for our rescue dog population.
Have A Heart 5- Our Biggest Bestest Fundraiser of the YEAR!!!
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Have A Heart 5 Calendar contest. This contest is dedicated to all the dogs we bring into the program that are struggling with heartworms, tick-borne disease and other serious health problems. Each year we bring in many dogs that need extra care due to neglect and this year has brought us many new dogs and puppies in need and the last 6 weeks we have brought in 5 new heartworm positive dogs. Our cover dogs English Pointer- Tenna, English Setter- Harvey, and English Pointer- Ewan all have heartworm disease and tick borne disease. Tenna came into our program from Tennessee last April after being found as a stray and very emaciated. She is also being treated for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Harvey came into our program the first week of November from Southern Illinois, found as a stray covered in terrible matts, fleas and extremely thin. Upon arrival to our vet, he needed fluids for dehydration, and he had a low heartbeat. He was so defeated looking and weak. Ewan also came into our program as an owner surrender from Southern Illinois. His neglect included heartworms and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. All are currently in our Heartworm Slow Kill program and doing well.
Funds raised from Have A Heart 5 will help us with the continued care of these dogs and many of our new heartworm positive dogs including Patsy , and new Tennessee Pointer brothers Beaumont and Gerett. and some of our senior cost to help any of these dogs can be in the hundreds and we have a few more special needs dog in our program including senior dogs including senior Pointers Hoss and Bailey . In the past few contests- we have had many amazing photo submissions and are so grateful for the support. As this is our 16th year as an official 501c3 Charity- I set our goal at $13,067 with the hopes that we can reach the amount we raised last year plus $1 so that we can continue to help these special dogs and also so many more dogs. We hope we can get a lot of support again this year. Here is last year's HAVE A HEART 4 CONTEST & PREVIOUS WINNERS
Like many of you, I am afraid. I am worried about how I am going to keep my foster homes safe and continue to find great homes and foster homes for dogs and puppies while we are dealing with this pandemic. This photo was taken of me and my foster girls Sydney and newbie Darla back when I could visit with my great friend Jenni to get some photos of my foster dogs to help find them wonderful homes. Darla is now a year old and still waiting for the perfect home- but she is fully recovered from her Parvo and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. She is also a hefty 60lbs of solid happy doggie. Sydney was afraid of her when she came to my home, but now the girls are besties. Sydney also had her health challenges as an emaciated sickly 8 month old Pointer when she came into my care a year ago. She has blossomed into a gorgeous 55lb solid girl, but at her 1 year rescue anniversary is also still waiting for her forever home. She has come a long way since April of 2019 and has settled into her daily activity of playing with Darla, but also hunting squirrels in the yard, chewing on dog bones and in the evening settling down on a dog bed or on the couch.
With so many folks working from home- it was a pleasant surprise seeing so many applications come in to help foster and adopt so that gives me hope that many homeless pets across the country are finding great new homes and getting out of the shelters. Hopefully the perfect match will come in for my girls, but I am very happy that our Walmart puppies are nearly all in their forever homes, plus their Auntie Kris, her buddy puppy Gilbert and also many wonderful adoptions including our handsome Setter Hank. With Social Distancing, home visits and meet and greets are very challenging, and transports are also going to be difficult. We'll just take all of this day by day. I want to thank all that have been supportive of our efforts to help some very special dogs and puppies and like you I pray for our country and our precious little planet.
PUPDATE August 2020 I am very happy to report that both Darla and Sydney found the homes I had been waiting for.
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Fall Fundraising Raffle. This raffle combines things that would have been used in other events that were cancelled due to COVID 19. This raffle has items from our Ice Hogs/ Chicago Blackhawks Meet and Greet that didn't happen in March. I also have some Cubs' jerseys that would have been used in our annual Cubs Baseball ticket raffle. I am a crafter and without any craft shows happening and also with the cancellation of the DuPage County Fair that I enter some wreaths in every year, they are featured here. We also had to cancel our fall Pheasant Photo shoot so we have a few items here that would have been in that raffle. Many items were donated and a few other things I held back from this summer's raffle. I made the Pointer pillows and also all the face-masks. We have another heart-worm positive Pointer coming in so we hope to raise some much needed funds for her care and a few others. More images of the items featured in this raffle can be viewed on IBR Facebook CLICK HERE.
This raffle will go through October 3rd at 5pm and tickets are $6 each. Some items can be shipped but most will need to be picked up at IBR HQ in Wood Dale, IL- especially the framed art. I am happy to drive an hour in any direction to meet some of my out of state and southern IL winners. The cost to ship will need to be paid by the winners and I can send an invoice via PayPal to cover USPS or UPS expenses. Raffle tickets will be mailed to each participant during the event-- last minute ticket purchases will be emailed. Winners will be notified on Facebook and via email. I hope we can raise $3,000 and that we have many winners. Good luck and thanks!!
Talk To The Paw
This fundraiser originally came out in the Spring of 2017 and I often see many of our volunteers wearing this shirt whenever they post on social media. I've been thinking about bringing it back for a while-- especially due to the climate of hope and change going on in our country. I suppose it is kind of a protest T-shirt but in a whimsy way and of course because its all about dogs!
Due to COVID 19- fundraising has been a challenge, but maybe this fundraiser will help bring in some much needed funds for the rescue. Our new rescue Pointers will definitely need some support-- especially Miss Pam who has heart-worms.
It's been a while since we had a fundraising raffle and the World has changed so much since we had our year end raffle in 2019, but we have 2 special Lemon Pointers that need some extra care until we can find their forever homes. Jack and Jill both have heartworms and tick borne disease, but are doing well with our Slow Kill treatment. Jack has been in the program for several months and Jill came into our program in late April. She was also in terrible shape having suffered some serious malnutrition. In an effort to help raise funds to cover their medications, and additional vetting, we have our Jack and Jill raffle that is full of fun dog and Pointer related items- many that have been donated. Tickets are $6 each and the raffle will go through May 30th with the winners being announced May 31st at noon via Facebook and by email. Some of the items are shippable, but cost of shipping will need to be the responsibility of the winner and some will need to be picked up at IBR HQ in Wood Dale, IL. I will note that on their ticket info. Purchased tickets will either be mailed or emailed.
I am glad we are still able to help some dogs in need and hope we can get these beautiful dogs some support during this difficult time. All our best to you and your family.
In an effort to help promote creativity with our kids while we are staying at home, I thought maybe we could do a little coloring contest. Rules: Subject matter should be your foster dog, adopted dog, family dog, any dog.
Submissions can be made in any media using pencil, colored pencil, markers, watercolors, acrylics etc. Computer art is also acceptable.
Scanned images would be preferred, but copies can be emailed to Lisa@illinoisbirddogrescue.org as a .jpg, pdf, etc. If submitting a digital photo of the image, please consider using the best lighting. Include the artist’s name and age, the size of the artwork and the name of the pet if possible. @ILbirddog Voting/Likes will start May 1st and end May 4th and as they say MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!
The artwork that gets the most Likes wins and we will announce the winner on May 5th.
The top 12- 16 images will be considered for a fundraising calendar and other entries for other items such as mugs, phone covers, T-shirts etc via createphotocalendars.com
Three Special Birddogs Need Some Support
Precious- Tri-Color & White English Setter
UPDATE January 2020: Precious was adopted!!UPDATE November 3, 2019: Precious had her nipple removal and dental surgery on October 26th. She lost 3 teeth but Dr. John said her heart was strong through the procedure. She is still undergoing wound care with her foster home, but she is doing amazingly well. Next step will be her spay in a couple of months and then she will be ready to find her forever family.
Our vetting bills to help Precious- including 3 sets of blood work due to her anemia and also to look for any tick borne complications plus x-rays to make sure the anemia wasn't due to anything suspicious in her abdomen, plus medications and surgery is close to $1500. On the 3rd 371 tick serology we finally found the Rocky Mountain spotted fever that was causing some of her blood work irregularities. We could sure use more support for her care.
Precious is a cute tricolor and white field bred English Setter that was found as a stray eating out of garbage cans in northwest Missouri. She wound up at the local shelter and IBR made arrangements to get her flown via Pilots N Paws to her new foster home in Minnesota. After fighting a nasty case of kennel cough and going through a heat cycle, with the help of 2 more pilots, we moved her to the Chicago area to get her blood work done for her upcoming spay and mammary surgery. Miss Precious has suffered terrible neglect besides having too many litters. We also found a very small mass in one of her mammaries we need to remove and test. The dental disease is so bad, and I can't imagine how many puppies she had over the years. During her exam, it was discovered she has a grade 3 out of 6 heart murmur too. We hope to raise the much-needed funds to get her feeling better. Any donation no matter what size would be appreciated.
Here is her Facebook Album that we will update while she is in foster care. We hope we can raise some much needed $$ for her care.
Magdalena- Liver and White German Shorthair Pointer
UPDATE March 2020: Maggie's first surgery went well. We have one more to go, but she is in her forever home. In October we heard about a solid liver German Shorthaired Pointer in Alabama that was in danger of being put to sleep due to over crowded conditions. I was lucky to line up a foster home quickly and then even luckier when I found a volunteer from Pilots N Paws that could bring her from Alabama to Indiana as he and his family was coming home from a vacation on the Gulf Shores. We knew Magdalena was in rough shape with her terrible eye issue, but she has also suffered from being over-bred and has some inflamed mammary glands called mastitis. She also had some wounds on her body and a terrible long scar on her back besides nasty flaky skin from being fed a poor diet. So far she is adjusting to life of TLC in foster care and we hope to find her a good home eventually. We could sure use some donations for her care. Here is her Facebook Album that we will update while she is in foster care. We hope we can raise some much needed $$ for her care.
Christina- Liver & White Pointer Mix With Serious Injuries
UPDATE 11-05-2019: Christina had her hip surgery. Hopefully she will start to put some weight on that leg soon. We think the injury is about a month old. We are still not sure if her front leg will come back.
I had a call the end of October from a lady in Canton, IL that had found a terribly injured dog near her home- she thinks was dumped out of a car after being hit by a car. She had tried to catch this dog for a few days and noticed she had some bad injuries to her legs. When she caught her, she brought her to her vet who happens to be the local dog pound and her chances of finding a rescue based on her injuries were very bleak. I was able to call the vet and get photos of Christina our Pointer mix and x-rays showed a crushed hip and also a wound on her front leg that could be a permanent radial nerve paralysis. I posted for help on Facebook and donations started to come in. I was also contacted by a good Pointer friend in Michigan and she and her husband offered to take her in and help with her wounds and her hip surgery. We found a wonderful volunteer from Pilots N Paws and this poor sweet dog moved to the Grand Rapids Michigan area where she will have hip surgery in early November. We can only hope that the front leg gains some mobility otherwise it will have to be amputated. Christina is a sweet dog in spite of the terrible pain she must be in. She really only walks on 2 legs. We hope we can help her get a little better and also find a wonderful forever family that won't mind a dog that isn't perfect. Here is her Facebook Album that we will update while she is in foster care. We hope we can raise some much needed $$ for her care.
Lottie & Louis- 2 New Lemon Pointer Puppies
Little Lottie and Louis are owner surrender Lemon and White Field bred Pointers that needed to get out of an over- crowded shelter in Gibson County, TN. These puppies were dumped by the same breeder that also dumped adopted Lemon girls Morwenna and Debbie from about this time last year. Lottie is about 6 months old and weighs around 28lbs and little Louis is about 3 months old and weighs around 18lbs. Both puppies are skin and bones but are safe in foster care where they are getting great care and lots of food! Both will be available for foster to adopt as soon as we move them to the Chicago area.
1st Prize-- $500 Paintyourlife.com Gift Certificate!!
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Have A Heart 4 Calendar contest. This contest is dedicated to all the dogs we bring into the program that are struggling with heartworms, tick-borne disease and other serious health problems. Each year we bring in many dogs that need extra care due to neglect and this year has brought us many new dogs and puppies in need. Our cover dogs English Setter Lord Palmerston, Senior Pointer Madison and mixed breed Cosette all have heartworm disease and tick borne disease. Lord came in from an over-crowded shelter in Kentucky as did Madison. He also has a heart murmur which made his surgery for some serious dental disease scary and complicated. Little Cosette was on death row in an over-crowded shelter in Southern Illinois and she came in cover in ticks and sadly with a broken leg that caused her much pain. All are currently in our Heartworm Slow Kill program and doing well.
GRAND PRIZE WINNER- the photo entry with the most votes/donation
A $500 Gift Certificate to PaintYourLife.com for a custom portrait. This is the best prize ever, so many talented artists through this site take your photo submission of your pet or family and create a beautiful portrait. Winning photo will also be the cover of the Have a Heart 4 Calendar Contest and an insert into the calendar.
2nd - 12th place Dogs
Second through twelfth place winners win the eleven other coveted monthly calendar cover pages and a squeaky toy.
10-18-2018: Look at this poor sweet ol guy- he has suffered terrible neglect. Thankfully we found a temp foster home and Erin was able to pull him out of the shelter today. He was dumped in Morocco, Indiana so we'll need some Hoosier help!!! Dr. John had an opening this afternoon and Bernie was dehydrated and is being treated for eye and ear infections. He has a serious heart murmur and seemed feverish to me when I met him. He has started on heartworm slow kill just in case and the antibiotics will surely help. It looks like he suffered an injury to the right side of his face. He needs a lot of TLC and his vet bill was $289 so we can sure use some help with his care.
Fundraising Raffle for Precious and Madison- Ends June 9th
We have a "Precious" new little senior pocket English Setter in need of a lot of specialized vetting to help her to feel better and also to help her get ready for her forever home. Precious was found as a stray and was reportedly eating out of garbage cans before she was moved to Animal Control in Missouri. We lined up a foster home in Minnesota in February and she started on proactive meds to help with her Lyme disease, and kennel cough. Precious moved to foster care in the Chicago area in early May and is now getting ready for her spay and a much-needed dental. We also found a small suspicious lump in one of her mammaries and we are also consulting with our vet to see if it would be beneficial to remove her oversized nipples from the countless litters she has nursed. With blood work and surgery, Precious' medical bills could go over $1,000. Madison is a senior Pointer that has also suffered neglect and he came in fighting heartworms, anemia and will need some dental surgery. His vet bills over the long run will be over $1,000 with our Heartworm Slow Kill program. This raffle will go through June 9th. The winners will be announced by 1pm. Arrangements will have to be made to pick up the dog bed, but the rest of the items can be shipped. Ticket prices are $5 each and we hope we have a great fundraiser!
For over 10 years we have been doing better IFA Serology for tick borne screening to look for at least Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Most rescues - if they do any tick borne screening- use a 3DX or 4DX snap test or Accuplex screening which we have found so unreliable due to different strains of disease across the country. Even more troubling than that is none of those tests look for Rocky Mountain spotted fever- the most common co-infection we find and the most misunderstood disease that tends to linger and hide in the dog's body for years causing all kinds of health issues including vision and hearing problems, allergy issues, and if left untreated- liver, kidney and spleen issues including cancer. The IBR dogs have a step up from most dogs coming into rescue and especially most Setters that find their way to rescue. Our hope is because we do the IFA Serology combined with a Complete Blood Count and Chemistry by our licensed vet/adopter, that our dogs will not suffer from terrible chronic health conditions- later in life. We are lucky that we can get discounted services- but even with that, medications and the rest of the vetting needed to help a dog get ready to find their forever home can be costly- especially if there is an additional issue of heartworm disease. Here are 3 English Setters that we can really use some extra support for.
Lord Palmerston- Our First Heartworm Positive Dog of 2019
Lord Palmerston is our first heartworm positive rescue dog for 2019. He is a tri-color and white American Field bred English Setter. Thanks to Pilots N Paws volunteer Kerry, and Anne and Sissy in Kentucky, he was flown into the Chicago area on 2-18-2019. We can assume he also has tick borne disease and we are raising money to help get his blood work done to confirm. He has already started treatment in our heartworm slow kill program and so far is starting to feel better in foster care. Palmer came in about 7lbs underweight so he has also suffered from additional neglect but we are hopeful now that he will put on weight slowly now that he is being cared for properly. With our new heartworm slow kill program --he may be clear of adult heartworms in 6-8 months but surely under a year. If he has tick borne disease, he will need an educated committed adopter as that is a lifelong issue.
He is such a beautiful dog with so much potential and we are very hopeful he will make a great recovery. Here is his Facebook Album that we will update while he is in foster care. We hope we can raise some much needed $$ for his care.
We've always enjoyed our meet and greets at the BMO Harris Bank Center with the Rockford IceHogs. This year we were invited to their Pucks & Paws event on Saturday night- March 30th from 6-8pm. This event is especially fun as folks can bring their dog to the game. A few other pet rescues will be in attendance and we will have a pair of dogs to meet and pet, plus we will bring our special leashes, dog coats and will also have a few fundraising raffles. If you want to come to the game- you can preorder specially priced $15 tickets by calling Ryan at 815-847-6383 and for $2 more if you want to bring your dog. The rescue receives $5 per ticket so please spread the word! We are hopeful to see some of our adopters, volunteers and some of our special furry friends.
If you are a Chicago Blackhawks fan- this season has been an emotional roller coaster for sure. The Hawks are fighting to get into the playoffs and there are only a handful of games left and the tickets we are raffling off are for a must win game for sure with 2 to play until the season ends. The 2 donated tickets we are raffling off are for April 1st at the United Center in Section 221 and we also have a parking pass. This is a $300- $500 value. In addition to our ticket raffle we are also selling tickets for an adorable Patrick Kane custom stitched Foggy Mountain Snuggler dog coat size 20, and we also have a comfy small sized Orvis washable dog bed and custom Blackhawks fleece cover. We also have a men's size XL old style Blackhawks Reebok jersey and a Patrick Kane 100% cotton XL T-shirt. Lastly we have a 3 piece Blackhawks set including a bottle opener and 2 ornaments. Funds raised from the ticket sales will help the vetting costs for Genevieve and Sebastian. The raffle goes through March 31st with the winners being pulled at 2pm. Game tickets will be emailed to the winner and the additional winners will be notified on IBR Facebook and via email. Thanks so much to the Wasielewski Family for the ticket donation. GOOD LUCK!!
Illinois Birddog Rescue is proud to be a Partner for Pets! BISSELL and LostPetUSA have teamed up to help organizations like ours to raise money, and now you can help too! When you purchase pet products on SHOP BISSELL and enter the code ADOPT at checkout, a portion of your purchase will be donated to our organization.
It's simple.
Shop pet products here BISSELL
Enter the code ADOPT at checkout
Then select ILLINOIS BIRDDOG RESCUE!
Wyatt is an 18 month old Pointer that was surrendered to the rescue from an owner in New Hampshire where he was left in a kennel with only a barrel full of straw as his only shelter from the cold. He wasn't working out as a guide dog and as he came into the program very thin and frightened, he also seemed a little off- even perhaps showing some autistic symptoms. He would run in smaller circles in my yard and seemed a little in La La Land. I had seen similar behavior in a few other infected rescue dogs including my own adopted IBR Setter Gavin, assuming he had some underlying tick borne disease, started on medication. Wyatt started on doxycycline and amoxicillin and immediately his behavior started to change. In foster care - he was a dream houseguest and never had an accident, and learned to love the indoors and played beautifully with his foster sister and also did well with the children of the home. We did his blood work, a CBC/Chem and 371 tick panel at 3 weeks into treatment and while his blood work showed a few issues, his tick panel was negative. We continued treatment and 2 weeks later when he was scheduled for his neuter, I reran the 371 tick panel. At this time- Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever antibodies did show up. Sometimes the pathogens hide in the body and the immune system is unaware until antibiotics shake things up. Wyatt moved to Iowa a week later for adoption.
Sadey came into IBR's program the end of summer 2018. She was a frightened 9 month old Pointer pup that was breaking with terrible mange. As we have linked mange and immuno compromised issues with tick borne disease, she also started on a course of antibiotics. Her first set of blood work showed a few issues but her tick panel was also negative. We continued mange treatment and also treatment for suspected tick borne disease and when she was spayed in December, I had a new 371 tick panel done and Lyme disease did show up. At this time, Sadey's skin had cleared up and she was the picture of health. She moved to Iowa in early February to keep Wyatt company and she was adopted a few days later. YAY!
Two Special Lemon Girls from Tennessee
10-03-2018: In early October, we were contacted about a pretty little Lemon and White Pointer that was in an over- crowded shelter in Western, Tennessee. Apparently there is a Pointer breeder that routinely dumps his dogs at this rural shelter. While I was working on getting Debbie's vetting scheduled so that she could travel, the shelter volunteer called me and said the breeder just dropped off another. Morwenna aka Winnie, is the name is from the Poldark series on PBS Masterpiece (also on several streaming services). Morwenna is a Welsh name meaning "waves of the sea". We discovered a 71 tattooed into Debbie's ear and have to wonder was she the 71st puppy borne to this breeder? She has suffered some abuse, and you can see every rib and hip bone and was very timid upon arrival but her first and second foster moms are doing their best to help build her confidence. She LOVES other dogs and when she is not afraid is hilarious when she plays. Like Debbie, Morwenna aka Winnie has a tattoo in her ear that reads M71. Both girls have suffered neglect and I am sure some very cruel training. Winnie was very timid the short time I had her and she is doing better building her confidence in foster care in Wisconsin. Both girls do so much better with other dogs than people but we are working hard to build their trust.
Our vet was happy to do blood work on both girls and as we proactively treat every incoming dog for suspicion of tick borne disease, Debbie tested positive for Lyme disease and Morwenna tested positive for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We can assume both girls have the same diseases and their Complete Blood Counts and Chemistries did show some irregularities consistent with tick borne infections. Thankfully Dr. John understands how to treat these dogs long term- having an adopted infected Pointer himself. Both girls will need adopters that will repeat their blood work annually so that they can live well into their teens. We can sure use some help with their vetting bills.
Sadie is our recent Kentucky Beagle rescue from death row. She is so sweet but has a lot of complicated health issues including rotten teeth and some mammary masses. Sadie also came in with a double ear infection and an eye tearing issue with her right eye that she is being treated for. Her obligatory blood work shows low thyroid and she is also infected with Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We will build her up for many weeks and get her ready for surgery in mid to late September, but we'll need a lot of donations to help her get better.
Gloriosa- A Very Special Setterador Needs Your Help
Gloriosa is a Setter/Labrador mix that was in danger of being put to sleep in an over- crowded shelter in North Carolina. She was covered in ticks upon arrival and had some infected skin from fleas. She also has heartworms and I am sure once we get blood work done we will find several tick borne diseases. As she had some walking difficulty- initial x-rays show a shattered hip and it looks like there could also be bullet fragments in her arm pit area. Glori has lived a neglected life and also has broken teeth and missing teeth and is at least 10lbs underweight. Thankfully we found a wonderful foster home with Lauren and Eric who also promote Lyme Warriors as both -- like me and most of the IBR dogs have struggled with Lyme disease infections. They are doing their best to build Miss Glori up to get her ready for hip surgery in a couple of months. She looks very happy and is getting stronger every day. We hope you can see how special she is and help us help her get better. She has so much going on and such a long way to go- but we are hopeful that we can help her live a great quality of life filled with love and compassion and pain free!! Any size donation no matter what size would be appreciated.
Is your dog cold? We have some new dogs coats to help keep your dog warm in the colder months.
Fleece Snuggler: The Snuggler Coat is a lined plush fleece that is soft and snuggly. The front is sewn closed to make it easy to put on and take off. Contoured haunches give a custom fit. The fleece belly flap secures on one side with Velcro. It's simple and functional design make this such a great coat for the dog on the go!
Nylon Turn Out : The Plaid Turnout comes in a wide range of colors and patterns, many imported from Italy. Same quality three-layer construction as the Nylon Turnout but with a soft, non-water repellent outer shell, suitable for the most active dog. Measure your dog from the base of the neck to the tail for coat size in either 22" or 24".
We've always enjoyed our meet and greets at the BMO Harris Bank Center with the Rockford IceHogs. This year we were invited to their Pucks & Paws event on Saturday night- March 30th from 6-8pm. This event is especially fun as folks can bring their dog to the game. A few other pet rescues will be in attendance and we will have a pair of dogs to meet and pet, plus we will bring our special leashes, dog coats and will also have a few fundraising raffles. If you want to come to the game- you can preorder specially priced $15 tickets by calling Ryan at 815-847-6383 and for $2 more if you want to bring your dog. The rescue receives $5 per ticket so please spread the word! We are hopeful to see some of our adopters, volunteers and some of our special furry friends.
If you are a Chicago Blackhawks fan- this season has been an emotional roller coaster for sure. The Hawks are fighting to get into the playoffs and there are only a handful of games left and the tickets we are raffling off are for a must win game for sure with 2 to play until the season ends. The 2 donated tickets we are raffling off are for April 1st at the United Center in Section 221 and we also have a parking pass. This is a $300- $500 value. In addition to our ticket raffle we are also selling tickets for an adorable Patrick Kane custom stitched Foggy Mountain Snuggler dog coat size 20, and we also have a comfy small sized Orvis washable dog bed and custom Blackhawks fleece cover. We also have a men's size XL old style Blackhawks Reebok jersey and a Patrick Kane 100% cotton XL T-shirt. Lastly we have a 3 piece Blackhawks set including a bottle opener and 2 ornaments. Funds raised from the ticket sales will help the vetting costs for Genevieve and Sebastian. The raffle goes through March 31st with the winners being pulled at 2pm. Game tickets will be emailed to the winner and the additional winners will be notified on IBR Facebook and via email. Thanks so much to the Wasielewski Family for the ticket donation. GOOD LUCK!!
Buckwheat was a huge part of IBR's program and was my little rock for almost 17 years. As he got older, I would have a raffle celebrating his birthday which I guessed was around Valentine's Day 2002. I had to say good bye to him on New Year's Eve but in his memory, I have taken a few wonderful donated items in the hopes that this raffle can help some of our new dogs and especially some of our senior dogs including Sadie the beagle, Bernie the Lab mix, Glori the Setter mix that is having hip surgery soon and Thelma and Louise- an auntie and niece pair of beagles aged 11 and 13. Senior dogs need a lot of extra care but Buckwheat was longer lived because of my diligence doing his annual blood work and treating his tick borne disease long term. I hope you like some of our raffle prizes and tickets run $5- $10 each. As my birthday is on Valentine's day too- I will pull the winners at that time to help make some folks happy.
Winners will be announced on Facebook and will also be notified by email. Unless noted, many prizes can be picked up at IBR HQ or shipping can be arranged. Any alcohol winners must provide proof that they are over 21. GOOD LUCK and Thanks for your support!!
Have A Heart 3- IBR's Biggest Fundraiser of the Year! EXTENDED Through 12-8
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Have A Heart 3 Calendar contest. This contest is dedicated to all the dogs we bring into the program that are struggling with heartworms and also tick-borne disease. Each year we bring in many dogs that need extra care due to neglect and this year was no exception. As I was working on the 2018 calendars last December- we were working hard to bring in 3 Lemon Pointers from Kentucky-Holly, Eddie and Queen Victoria - a mother and her older pups all heartworm positive and fighting tick borne disease. We thought we were going to lose Victoria this spring, but she rallied and is a fighter and doing much better even though she lost most of her teeth and has cancer besides. In January we brought in handsome Kyle from southern Illinois and he was so sickly and then came February when I saw photos of Olivia, an English Setter struggling with mange besides her heartworms on death row in North Carolina. Adorable Pointer Tucker and German Shorthair Pointer Dewberry came in a few months later- both from southern Illinois- both so thin and also fighting heartworms and tick-borne disease. In July, we heard about Gloriosa - a Pointer mix that was covered in ticks when she came to the shelter in North Carolina. Further X-rays revealed that she has a shattered hip bone, a possible bullet in her arm pit and will need surgery once she is strong enough.
Funds raised from Have A Heart 3 will help us with the continued care of these dogs and many of the dogs in our program fighting tick borne disease. Cost to help any of these dogs can be in the hundreds and hip surgery will be close to $1,000 besides. In the past few contests- we have had many amazing photo submissions and are so grateful for the support. As this is our 15th year as an official 501c3 Charity- I set our goal at $15,000 with the hopes that we can reach that amount and help so many more dogs. We’ve come close to our $10,000 goal the last 2 years- so we will need as much help as we can get to reach this lofty new goal.
Skye is a beautiful Orange and White Field Bred Pointer that was surrendered to us because of her hip dysplasia. Her father is a Field Trial Champion but while Skye has inherited his hunting skills, she must have gotten her bad hips from her mom. The older she got- the more pain she was in after working in the field on birds. Illinois Birddog Rescue has a lot of experience with hip surgery and we are hopeful that once she has her procedure she will be pain free and get back into the field. Skye is in temporary foster care in Minnesota. We'll be bringing her to Chicago for surgery in a month as I still need to fundraise quite a bit to raise the $1500 we'll need. We are not sure if both hips are being done- but she'll need to get her CBC/Chem and tick panel done as well. She is precious and we hope you think so too!
TRUE LOVE- Shirt Fundraiser/ Ends 8-19
Want to help IBR and promote the bestest rescue ever? Take a look at our newest shirt fundraiser. I am a huge tie dye enthusiast, but there are other great solid color options and some hoodies for the fall too. Buy your TRUE LOVE SHIRT HERE!!
Kelle and Endeavour are two sweet English Setters that came into IBR's program in the late spring about 5 weeks apart. Kelle was found as a stray in Southern Illinois and Endeavour came in as a stray from a Chicago suburb. Both have something in common- Lyme disease. Kelle also has Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Both were sick campers until treatment started and became good buddies while in foster care. Both are going to make wonderful companion pets.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2018: Endeavour was adopted to a wonderful family in Wisconsin. Kelle is still waiting for his forever home. IBR prides itself in our better tick borne disease screening. We fundraise hard to make it possible to do a Complete Blood Count and Chemistry besides the all important Immuno Fluorescence Assay Tick Panel on each and every dog we bring into our program. This expense is added on top of the cost of vaccinations, heartworm testing, intestinal parasite screening, spays, neuters and microchipping. The average monthly expense for doxycycline to treat one dog in the United States is close to $200 and these dogs need to be treated for months and follow up care needs to continue the rest of their lives.
We are always in need of funding for this rescue and appreciate any support we can get.
It's our third annual Chicago Cubs ticket raffle fundraiser and what a great way to celebrate the first day of Autumn. This year we are off to Guaranteed Rate Field- home of the Chicago White Sox for the Cross Town Classic! The Cubbies are in a hot pennant race and the White Sox are in a rebuild but they are playing some great baseball right now too. It should be a great game and I picked seats in Row 12 as I am a big Kyle Schwarber #12 Fan- but if the White Sox Left fielder La Marre is playing- he should put on great show too. The pair of tickets are for September 23rd with a 1:10pm start. FUN!!!!
We also had some jerseys donated and I picked up a few other things to make for a nice pet rescue fundraiser. Tickets are $10 each and the winners will be drawn on September 19th at 7pm. Winners will be announced on Facebook and will also be notified by email. Tickets can be picked up at IBR HQ or can be emailed to the winner. GOOD LUCK and Thanks for your support!!
RAFFLE #1: Pair of tickets for Chicago Cubs @ Chicago White Sox September 23 @ 1:10 pm-- Guaranteed Rate Park- $200 value.
RAFFLE #2: Kyle Schwarber SZ XL Jersey and Cubs' hat- $100 value.
RAFFLE #3: Anthony Rizzo SZ XL Jersey and Buona Beef Hat- $100 value.
RAFFLE #4: Orvis Red Dog Bed and Chicago Cubs' collar. Best for a dog under 35lbs- $75 Value.
RAFFLE #5: Chicago Cubs 2016 World Champion Flag, SZ L Hoodie and SZ L T-shirt- $125 value.
RAFFLE #6: Chicago Cubs' SZ L dog jersey, and hand made Cubs' collar. This would fit a 60lb dog or larger- $35 value. RAFFLE #8: Chicago White Sox SZ L T-shirt and Adult sized hat- $40 value.
RAFFLE #9: Chicago White Sox SZ S or Kid's SZ XL T-shirt, Adult sized hat and Pez dispenser- $35 value.
Want to help IBR and promote the bestest rescue ever? Take a look at our newest shirt fundraiser. I am a huge tie dye enthusiast, but there are other great solid color options and some hoodies for the fall too. Buy your TRUE LOVE SHIRT HERE!!
Our Sweet Seniors Need Your Help!!
Get to the Point!
Lani and Bella. Photo by Jenni Bidner
As IBR celebrates our 13th year of dog rescue- I want to show off our new adoption event banner featuring rescue Pointer Lani and rescue Setter Bella. I had wanted a great backing photo of one of our talented rescue Pointers and rescue Setters for a long time and this image really epitomizes what IBR is all about. Lani was pulled from a high kill shelter in Kentucky in 2007 and UNTIL we discovered his Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever infections via the IDEXX 371 tick panel in 2009 (low titers that would have been missed via 4DX Snap testing and Lyme Quant C6 testing), and started long term treatment, Lani had no hunting instincts, could not scent point anything and suffered from terrible separation anxiety, was very destructive and was a fence jumper. Lani finished his AKC Junior Hunter title in the Spring of 2012, has competed in American Field US Complete Walking Field trials and is the most reliable handling rescue I have ever worked with and has free run of my home now. He is a couch potato! Sadly Lani still relapses on occasion and is most likely incurable. Lani is the dog that really helped me understand most how tick borne diseases can affect the natural hunting abilities and drive of these magnificent dogs. What I have learned from him the past 5 years has helped so many other Pointers and Setters that were dumped for non performance through no fault of their own due to tick borne disease infections.
Bella was an owner surrender and was also an escape artist. Her foster dad- who eventually adopted her- worked very hard to help her overcome her issues and she is a working hunter every fall. Nothing makes her daddy John happier than bragging about his IBR rescue Setters- Bella especially.
We have many success stories like this and hope we can continue to help save more and educate hunters, field trialers but more importantly-- lovers of the American Field Bred English Pointers and Setters in the United States. There is an epidemic of tick borne disease affecting these dogs (most infected from birth) and we have such a long road ahead of us to try and educate veterinarians to better testing, longer treatment regemines and the warning signs of tick borne disease beyond traditional thinking.
Some of Our Very Special Sweet Seniors- So Much Neglect
The fall of 2005, Illinois Birddog Rescue received the great news that we were an official 501(c)3 charity. We had been saving dogs since 2001, but it took some fundraising to become a legal entity. Over 1300 dogs and puppies, cats and kittens have been saved and so many more as we do our best to share as many as we can via social media if we can't bring them in. It's always fun to let our dogs run and play and this year Jenni Bidner has offered to host our Family Picnic and Dog Romp at her home in McHenry, IL. Jenni adopted a beautiful German Shorthair Pointer rescue named Libchen that she has trained and that works with Illinois Wisconsin Search and Rescue. Jenni is also a professional photographer and with the help of our other wonderful adopter/photographer Peggy Morsch, we should get some amazing images of some of our very special rescue dogs. Many images are used for promotions and in our fundraising calendars. It is also just such a feel good to see so many former abandoned, neglected, tick borne disease infected dogs doing so well with their adoptive families. The yard area is over 2 acres with very safe fencing. We plan to cook out and we welcome any food donations from participants. If you can't attend the event, we welcome sponsor donations to help off set the cost of the event and also for general fundraising. The $50 - 1 dog donation includes lunch, and a flash drive with 5+ images of your adopted dog shipped. Jenni and Peggy also do amazing portraits of you and your pet. We will also be having a fundraising raffle- donations welcome.
Please use the PayPal link to sign up for the event and I will provide directions and other details closer to the event.
Talk To The Paw!!
May is Lyme disease awareness month- but Lyme disease is a year long danger to our pets and families. I was infected over 20 years ago in a walk in the woods in April. My Setter Thelmalou and Pointer mix Buckwheat who turned 16 in February, were infected on a 30 degree February day in 2008. We test and treat nearly 100% of our incoming dogs for tick borne disease and if you follow me on Facebook, I post all our struggles and successes on every incoming dog we rescue. Talk to the Paw is a way for me to express my own personal contempt with the CDC and their denial of chronic Lyme disease and also to tell the veterinary community, that their poor education and ignorance in diagnosing and treating our infected pets- is not acceptable!!! Please support IBR and all our hard work with the purchase of this whimsy shirt. Please click on Talk to the Paw to order yours and share for more help!!
Buckwheat's Sweet 16 Raffle & Fundraiser
How lucky am I to have my best dog buddy with me for 16 years? Buckwheat has been a huge part of Illinois Birddog Rescue's success having helped at so many dog meet and greets, garage sales but more importantly, helping so many rescue dogs feel comfortable in the car after a scary transport or in my home in foster care. He is my rock and I am hoping you can join me in raising some much needed funds for the dogs and puppies in IBR's program by buying a raffle ticket.
Cost of each ticket is $16 and my goal is 100 tickets sold to help our 4 new heartworm positive dogs. We will be selling tickets through most of February and will be pulling the winners Sunday February 25th at 7pm. Winners will be announced on IBR Facebook and via email by Monday February 26th. Winners are responsible for the pick up of the larger pieces if they can't be shipped. Large items are only available in the Chicagoland area and that will be noted on the ticket description.
Thanks to those that helped donate so many nice items and good luck to all!
I got word of these 3 Lemon Field Bred Pointers in September of 2017 and I tried so hard to line up foster homes but it took me a few months. All 3 were dumped near a river in Kentucky 2 months before in July and the shelter had no luck finding them homes when they contacted me. Finally, in December I was able to bring up Holly and sadly she was positive for Heartworms, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Next I brought in Eddie the Eagle in early January, 2018 and again he was positive for Heartworms, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Due to some weather issues, it took me a couple more weeks to bring up Queen Victoria and I broke into tears when I saw the condition she was in. We knew she had heartworms, but her teeth were in the worst condition, inflamed and she was in obvious pain. She also had yeasty wax filled ears and it looks like she is losing her eye sight. The oldest of the 3, she really needed to come in so much sooner.
We guess that Eddie is the youngest at maybe 2-4 years old. Holly is maybe 5-7 years old but Queen Victoria is more than likely 10-12 or older. Check out a recent video of this special lady. All of them are so sweet but to take in 3 heartworm positive dogs with tick borne complications will be a huge expense to our rescue at easily $1200 a piece during the course of treatment and Victoria's dental will be another $400 besides. We really need a lot of support and any donation - no matter what size would be appreciated.
Apolo- Our Fourth Heartworm Positive Pointer for 2018
Isn't he so handsome? Apolo (Anton Ohno) was found running at large in southern Illinois with a 20' telephone cable wrapped around his neck. He was lucky he didn't strangle. He was brought to an animal control on 12-22-2017. Sadly he has heartworms and we are sure he also has at least Lyme disease. He has started the IBR Heartworm Slow Kill program and is doing well in foster care. He has a little bit of a cough running outside and as you can see from his photos, he is a bit thin and has a sway back. With a lot of TLC, he is going to recover and make the best companion. We are looking for a Foster to Adopt home to help him recover but in the mean time, we would appreciate any donations for his care. Here is our Foster Care Application if you can help out.
Gunner the Senior German Wirehair Pointer Needs Your Help
Gunner is 12 years old. His owner passed away and while in his care he had suffered neglect that includes heartworms and Lyme disease. He is currently with a caretaker and has started the Heartworm Slow Kill program. We need a long term foster care home for him going forward and donations for his care. Here is our Foster Care Application if you can help out. We would sure appreciate it.
Dustin- Another English Setter Rescue With Heartworms
Dustin is a very handsome Tri-color and White Field bred English Setter that was rescued from a Chicago shelter. Blood work has revealed that he has Heartworms, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. He has started the Heartworm Slow Kill program but we'll need help with the cost of supplies. We would appreciate any donations for his care.
Three Beagles Need Our Help
WE LOVE OUR BEAGLES!! We also have a new beagle loving foster mom that helped bring Chauncey, Missy and Sophie into our program.
Chauncey is a sweetheart but did test positive for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. He is an Ohio neglect case. He is also dealing with double ear infections and an eye infection. We want to get him better before we work on getting him neutered. So far we have $300 into Chauncey's care and his foster family is donating his food expenses.
Missy is a sweet senior partially blind and partially deaf beagle. She was pulled from a Northern Illinois shelter and also tested positive for Lyme disease. She also has some serious eye inflammation we are treating. She has the worst periodontal disease and we were quoted about $250 for her dental and tooth extractions. We already have $300+ into her care so really need some thoughtful donations.
Sophie was an Illinois Craig's list rescue. She is 8-9 months old and cute as a button. We just had her blood work done awaiting her results and will be doing her spay soon. Our expenses are close to $300 for her care and we would appreciate any donations - no matter what size to help her get ready to find her forever home.
Five English Setters in Deplorable Conditions
We were contacted to help 7 - 8 English Setters with a breeder that was a little bit over her head and dealing with some health issues. All were covered in fleas and their own filth and in need of shampoos. Two foster moms drove to Kentucky to pick them up and gave them much needed shampoos and started them on deworming meds. Here are the first photos we got of them and here they are individually in their foster homes: Nutmeg is the oldest at maybe 4-5 and she might be pregnant. Kathy was the thinnest and was loaded with worms. She is feeling a lot better now and gaining weight. Tyrion and Jon Snow are year old brothers and also both had worms and other parasites. Kathy's daughter Daenerys was underweight and loaded with round worms. ALL have been started on proactive antibiotics and will need blood work to check their overall health and to look for hiding tick borne disease. Their additional vetting expenses will include heartworm testing, vaccinations, and spays and neuters when they are healthy enough. Cost for each dog will be close to $400 each and more if there is tick borne disease. I have sent all kinds of supplies including flea and tick topical, food, dewormer and other supplements to their foster homes.
With all the new rescue dogs in our program-- we really need some help to help these dogs get ready to find their forever homes. Most will move to Foster to Adopt so that we can get their blood work and the rest of their vetting done.
PUPDATE December 2017: So far we have found homes for all of the Setters except for beautiful Nutmeg the Liver Tri-color and White. We still need donations to help with her blood work and spay. Here is Kentucky Setter Rescue Facebook Photo Album.
Ross Poldark- A Sweet Sickly Setter
Ross' blood work is in and he has a raging case of Lyme disease which has surely caused some of the soreness and the start of arthritis in his front end. A fecal has also showed coccidia protozoa which probably contributed to his anorexic look. He is doing well in foster care in Minnesota but we will need a very special loving home for him. 9-27: What a handsome boy!!! I'll be adding to this album as photos come through from his road trip. Ross Salem was surrendered because he was losing his endurance in the field. He is skin and bones and we'll deworm and then get him on some antibiotics as he surely has at least Lyme disease coming in from New Hampshire. He sure is handsome!! Here is Ross' Facebook Photo Album.
Have A Heart 2- Our Most Important Fundraiser of the Year
It's here-- IBR's fundraising calendar contest! Last year we raised over $8,000 which helped so many in our rescue program. As IBR never turns down any dogs with heartworm disease, we are always in need of extra funding especially since all these dogs also have tick borne complications. Thanks to Peggy and Kathy, we have a 7-10 stay at their Florida Condo for May 2018 as our big prize besides the winning pet as our calendar cover and insert. We hope to have many wonderful entries and this contest will run through November 30th at midnight. My photo collage shows many of the sweet dogs this fundraiser will help throughout their treatment.
UPDATE: since this original photo 3 of these dogs have passed away. Dantes, the blonde Setter in front passed away from heart complications at about 13 years old. Lani, the lemon Pointer was let go from complications from an enlarged heart in early February 2017 at about 14 years old. Clancy, my liver and white Pointer permanent had to be let go from her sinus cancer. She was maybe 11 and I cared for her over 2 years. I lost 3 dogs in less than a year and my heart is broken. My Saturn took them to every appointment and sadly to the vet when it was time to let them go. My Saturn has helped many more dogs come into the program and off to their new forever homes in 2017. I am still trying to pay off old maintenance bills- so any help would be appreciated.My 5 speed plastic Saturn Vue has over 230,000 miles on it. It makes me smile that my dogmobile is a collector's item but as you can imagine-- I have moved A LOT of pets- mostly dogs on rescue transports, to the dog park, to agility trials, to hunt tests and field trials but to many vetting appointments. How many cars or SUV's make this kind of a milestone. I'm still waiting for a new IBR car to just show up in my driveway as a donation- well a girl can dream anyway. My bumper sticker reads My Dog is my Co-Pilot and my beloved Pointer Westleigh had that honor for a long time followed by my beloved Setter Thelmalou and now my 14+ year old rescue Pointer mix Buckwheat rides next to me on every trip. Gosh so many dogs, so many weekends on the road trying to make a difference-- 1 mile at a time. IBR'S SATURN GO FUND ME
Dear Santa, All I Want For Christmas...Is a Setter and BEER!!
It's BACK- my whimsy Setter Christmas fundraiser-- just in time for your ugly Christmas Sweater party! This year we have added 3 more designs sure to bring delight to every holiday occasion. This fundraiser ends on November 30th- and we need to reach a minimum to make sure the shirts print. Hope you like it!
Robert Abbett Pheasant Framed Print & Dog Bed Raffle
We are hosting our annual Pheasant Photo Shoot in November which showcases many of our English Setter and Pointer rescues. So many of these dogs find themselves dumped into over crowded high kill shelters because they are not hunting or are not winning in field trials. Some are seniors. Because of our research into tick borne disease the last 10 years, we are finding that nearly 100% of these dogs are infected with at least Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountian spotted fever. With diagnosis and treatment, many of these dogs regain their natural hunting drive. We work a lot of these dogs on pheasant and shoot with cameras to help promote our cause.
To help support the cost of the event and for those that can't attend the event, we are having a fundraising raffle.
RAFFLE #1: Robert Abbett framed print, "On the Edge of a Cornfield" triple matted with archieval materials. Frame measures 28" X 36.5" This piece retails for $450.
RAFFLE #2: Orvis Chocolate Couch Dog Bed. This bed measures 40" X 26.5" and is for dogs 40-60 lbs. This retails for $200.
RAFFLE#3: Quail Forever English Setter XL T-shirt and Cap. This retails for $25.
Ticket prices are $5- $7 each. This raffle will go through November 19th at 9pm. Winners will be announced on IBR Facebook and will be contacted by email. Shipping cost will have to be paid for by the winner unless transportation can be arranged.
Congratulations to the Fall Raffle Winners!! Robert Abbett Framed Print: Tina Neeley Orvis Dog Bed: Christine Holton Quail Forever shirt and hat: Nicole Badeau
Jody-- A Very Special Pup Needs a Very Special Adopter
Photos by Jenni Bidner
Jody came into IBR's program in June of 2016 from the Memphis, Tennessee area. He was always a sensitive, frightened little puppy but did well in foster care as long as he had confident companions. He moved to foster to adopt at about 3 months old, but sadly the family didn't continue his possible tick borne disease treatment and after he was loose in the house as a young puppy, he had some destructive behaviors. We he came back to our program in January of 2017, we did find that he was infected with Lyme disease and started treatment. He did pretty well with his new foster family, even with all the kids, but never got comfortable with the father who traveled a lot and he moved to a new foster home which was his 2nd original foster home. He did well there but needed to move once again and he is now being fostered with some younger dogs and his health is being cared for better.
Jody can be a very affectionate dog and he is so food motivated. He has the potential to be a very good working dog, maybe even in obedience or dog agility with an adopter that uses food and praise as rewards. He still can suffer from some fear issues and anxiety, but with a very dog savvy intelligent adopter, he is going to thrive. He is currently learning some agility obstacles now. Sadly, he is never going to be a dog park candidate, but I can absolutely see him being a hiking companion and best friend. He needs time to adjust to new situations and he would do well with an alpha male or female playful companion. If you are interested in meeting Jody, please message me privately.
2017 Pheasant Training & Photo Shoot
Join us at our annual Fall pheasant training and professional photo shoot. This year, IBR German Shorthair Pointer adopter Jenni Bidner has offered to host in McHenry, IL. Action and pointing photos will be held in a 2 acre fully fenced and safe area with lovely objectives which will make for some amazing photos of our rescue dogs. Not only is Jenni offering her photo services, but IBR GSP/Pointer adopter Peggy Morsch is also going to donate her photography skills.
DETAILS When: November 11th
Where: Jenni Bidner's- McHenry, IL
Yard Romp Photos: 10am to 11:30am, cook out lunch to follow
Pheasant Photos: 1pm to 4pm-- 25 dog maximum
Yard Romp Photo Details
The photos in the above collage were taken on Jenni's property and many have helped so many of these dogs find their forever homes. The yard romp is to help the pointing dogs warm up and also to help so many dogs that don't get an opportunity to run off leash in a safe area to play and meet new friends. The $75 per dog package includes 5 high resolution jpegs. Packages are also discounted for multiple dogs. Peggy and Jenni would also be willing to do a family portrait for potential greeting cards.
Pheasant Photo Shoot Details
The Pheasant Photo Shoot has been a fall tradition for Illinois Birddog Rescue. The photos in the above collage were taken by Peggy at our photo shoot in 2016. All of these dogs have been diagnosed with tick borne disease and 2 are also being treated for heartworms. To see so many of these rescue dogs that were saved from being killed in over crowded shelters-- many dumped for not hunting or competing in field trials-- regain their natural abilities due to IBR's thoughtful tick borne disease screening and treatment protocols, is such a feel good for me. The amount of work by the volunteers and foster homes to help so many of these dogs, many also infected with heartworms, recover while working so hard to fund raise for their care is also heartwarming.
The pheasant photo shoot will include a first walk through with 4 cage planted birds for extra scenting. This also helps us evaluate some of the new dogs on birds. The rest of the afternoon we will work each dog on 2 walk throughs with a bird released for a good point. The only shooting we do will be with a camera. Jenni's property has a lot of nice areas to hide our birds and let the dogs find them by their natural scenting abilities.
We welcome folks to bring a chair and watch these dogs do what they were bred to do. There are many goosebump moments watching some of these dogs point their first pheasants. Photos from this event help promote IBR's mission.
The $100 per dog package includes 2 pheasants (besides the walk through birds) and 5 high resolution jpegs. Packages are also discounted for multiple dogs.
THERE IS A 25 DOG MAXIMUM for the pheasant photos- and sign up will end Thursday November 2nd as I will need to place my bird order.
Yard Romp and Pheasant Shoot Packages
This package is the best deal and includes 12 .jpegs per dog that would be the best photos from the yard romp and the pheasant work.
Pheasant & Yard Romp Paypal Ordering Details
The IBR Saturn
This fundraiser is dedicated to the IBRmobile, my 2005 Saturn Vue and the repairs to keep it going. This car has transported so many dogs from rescue transports, to and from the vet, to new foster homes and new families over the years. Old Faithful has also made so many trips out to the game farm to pick up birds. This photo was taken by Peggy when I was unloading birds at last years event. Until the rescue gets a vehicle donated or raises enough funds to lease a vehicle, annual repairs can be expensive. I hope we have a successful event.
Puppy Socks Needs Your Help!!
September 6: GOOD NEWS!! Socks is doing so much better. The fungal infection is under control and the swelling in his nose and lungs is going down. He is also getting his energy back and thankfully eating well. Thanks so much for all that prayed for his recovery.
August 12, 2017: We have an emergency- our 8 month old Lexington, KY rescue puppy Socks is fighting Blastomycosis.� This is a very serious fungal infection and it is in his chest and in his nose and he is having difficulty breathing.� He is starting treatment but his ER bills is close to $1,000 and could be more if we have to rush him back if he goes into respiratory distress. He has started on his antifungal treatment and the weekly cost of that is $62 although we are looking for alternatives.� Every day he goes to his foster mom's vet so they can monitor his care. There are no guarantees treatment will save him but we have to try, he is such a sweet little puppy.� He was actually going move to foster to adopt on the 13th :(.
We would appreciate any help for his care as we just don't have available funds for these kinds of emergencies.
A Forever Home Needed For Our Beautiful Pointer Sisters-ADOPTED!!
Photos by Peggy Morsch
Lady Monica and Ruby Eleanor were found abandoned in a hotel room with a few other dogs in June of 2016. We found a foster to adopt home quickly for the German Shorthair Pointer Maggie and the other dogs also found rescue. These two beautiful girls were left and as time was running out at the shelter they found themselves at, we found temporary foster care. The photos of the girls are from working on pheasant last November and at that time we thought we had a forever home. They are a bonded pair-- they love each other. They play together, they groom each other, they need to be placed in a home together. If you would like to adopt these amazing dogs, please submit an online Foster Care application. We also offer Foster to Adopt for any of these dogs. As usual we will need some donations to help with their care and we welcome any help via our donation pages.
Chicago Cubs Fundraising Raffle
The Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016 and we'd like to continue the celebration while helping the dogs and puppies in IBR's program with our latest fundraising Raffle. We have some amazing donations to help us raise some much needed funds for many or our new dogs in need including 5 new Setterador puppies coming in from Kansas.
Tickets may run $5 to $10 each and the bleacher seat raffle will go through September 12th at 7pm. Raffles #2- #21 will go through September 18th. Winners will be contacted by email or announced on Facebook. Smaller items will ship unless arrangements can be made to pick up at IBR HQ. Let the pennant race begin!! Fundraising goal is $1500.
We would appreciate any support with Lani Lou's Giving Grid to help with her continued care.
SAVE THE DATE- Pizza N Paws @ California Pizza Kitchen
Join us on Father's Day, June 18th to meet some of our new rescue dogs and when you bring in this flyer, IBR gets 20% of the tab. The meet and greet is mid day but you can dine all day to help IBR. Here are the printable flyers for the event.
Spring Cleaning? The IBR Fundraising Garage Sale is Coming!!
Are you spring cleaning? Got a lot of kids' toys or clothes or other junk laying around the house? WELL- we want it!! We've had a few fundraising garage sales the past 10 years and folks actually come by to shop to help the rescue. If you have anything shoot me an email or give me a call at 630-694-1359. Garage sale will be in Wood Dale at IBR HQ.
Yankee Candles Spring Fundraiser
Yankee Candle is always a great way to fundraise with. Now until June 16th you can shop for wonderful spring and summer candles, and other wonderful household and garden items. Here is their full Spring/Summer Catalog, and you can order directly from this LINK and use IBR's Group #990076963.
Talk To The Paw!!
May is Lyme disease awareness month- but Lyme disease is a year long danger to our pets and families. I was infected over 19 years ago in a walk in the woods in April. My Setter Thelmalou and Pointer mix Buckwheat who turned 15 in February, were infected on a 30 degree February day in 2008. We test and treat nearly 100% of our incoming dogs for tick borne disease and if you follow me on Facebook, I post all our struggles and successes on every incoming dog we rescue. Talk to the Paw is a way for me to express my own personal contempt with the CDC and their denial of chronic Lyme disease and also to tell the veterinary community, that their poor education and ignorance in diagnosing and treating our infected pets- is not acceptable!!! Please support IBR and all our hard work with the purchase of this whimsy shirt. Please click on Talk to the Paw to order yours and share for more help!!
Daisies For Daisy
The end of February we were contacted about a senior English Setter that had one day to find rescue before the shelter was going to have to put her to sleep due to lack of space.� Daisy is approximately 13 years old and lived most of her life tied to the end of a chain is what we are told. She has also suffered neglect and is full of heartworms.� Our slow kill program is the only way we can treat her so that she has an easy time.� Our goal is to get her medicated for the next month, and start killing the heartworm larvae so that she isn't contagious once mosquito season starts.� In a month we will do her blood work to see how her overall health is and to look for any tick borne co infections. We hope to give Miss Daisy some TLC in foster care and hope she learns about unconditional love. Daisy would be very happy if you supported her Flower Power Fundraiser. Her goal is to help raise $500 to purchase heartworm supplies and medications for the rest of the heartworm positive dogs in IBR's program.
Spring Raffle
Thanks to some nice donations we have some really great items up for raffle on the HelpIBR.org page including 2 nice dog beds, and some great IBR shirts, and some Sara England Framed art to help support our precious Beagle rescue Charlotte. Take a look here.
Chicago Blackhawks/ St. Patrick's Day Ticket Raffle --Thru March 11th
It's time for our annual Chicago Blackhawks ticket and prizes raffle.� This time we are also celebrating our Irish roots and St. Patrick Kane/Day!� FUN.� We have a lot of lovely things that have been donated to help us raise some much needed vetting funding for some of our lucky dogs. You can view all the photos of each raffle HERE ON FACEBOOK .
Raffle #1: Chicago Blackhawks VS Minnesota Wild pair of tickets for March 12th at the United Center.� Game time is 6pm and the Seats are in section 323, section 13, seats 5 & 6.� These seats are near the bar- fun!!! This is a $300 value. It does not include parking. Raffle ticket price $25 each.
Raffle #2: Patrick Kane #88 St. Patrick's Day Jersey size 48 which is a like a Woman's size L or Men's size M.� This is brand new with tags and is a $100 value.� Raflle ticket price $10 each.
Raffle #3: Chicago Blackhawks Kids 2T, Teddy bear to snuggle during games, Chicago Blackhawks toothbrush holder, toothbrush and toothpaste.� This is a $50 value. Raffle ticket price $10 each.
Raffle #4: Chicago Blackhawks cap, and Heart Clover Necklace.� This is a $95 value. Raffle ticket price $10 each.
Raffle #5: Guinness pair of pint glasses and Alex and Ani Prints of Love bracelet.� This is a $50 value.� Raffle ticket price $5 each.
Raffle #6: Shamrock stained glass and Bailey's Irish Cream.� This is a $35 value.� Raffle ticket price $5 each.
This raffle will go through Saturday March 11th and ticket winners will be notified by email or by phone call. Items will be shipped and Blackhawk tickets will be emailed unless arrangements can be made to pick up in person.� GOOD LUCK!!
How blessed am I to have the companionship of my beloved rescue pup Buckwheat the past 14+ years.� Buckwheat and his litter of 9 puppies were left at the door of a rescue near Kansas City in 2002.� As 3 puppies were adopted, I was asked to take the other 6 pups into IBR's program.� Back then we were about a year old and we were new to puppy rescues.� As some of the pups had some upper respiratory issues, Buckwheat became gravely ill with Parvo virus at about 9 weeks old.� It was touch and go for several days and when he recovered I knew I was a failed foster and my other Pointer Westleigh and Setter Thelmalou didn't mind making room in the bed for him.�
Buckwheat followed in his sibling's footsteps and learned all about dog agility and as a Pointer/bully mix, showed some pointing skills in the field.� For fun, I got him registered with the AKC and put a hunting title on him.� On many occasions, Buckwheat's desire to work and hunt and point in the field bettered his pure bred bracemates.�
Over the years BW has been a huge part of IBR's success as he helped with so many foster dogs and also helped at so many adoption events. When Wes passed away in 2007, BW became my petsittng partner and has helped walk dogs and help with vacation clients�for the past 10 years.
In February of 2008, Buckwheat was bit by a tick.� I didn't used to worry about tick bites in February, and he did have a flea and tick shampoo after our walk in the woods, but when he became feverish and not himself, I found the engorged hitch hiker under his collar a week later.� I know about many symptoms of tick borne disease having struggled with Lyme disease myself for many years and got Buckwheat started on proactive antibiotics and for the past 7 years I have done blood work annually, watched his health very carefully and treated on and off as is the protocol of many Lyme Literate DVM's and LLMD's as I know Lyme disease especially is incurable.� I also know that ticks in Illinois can carry many diseases including Babesia, Bartonella, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Mycoplasma�and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.� We can only test for Ehrlichia, Lyme and RMSF accurately with the IDEXX 371 so I assume based on human evidence of disease in Illinois that my pup was at risk for so much more.
Since� Buckwheat was infected with Parvo Virus, I only tested for antibodies through his life and never revaccinated him.� He has also never had any additional vaccines, no Lepto, no Bordetella, and absolutely no Lyme vaccine.� He has been exposed to so many different strains of kennel cough from so many sickly foster dogs and because his immune system is strong, thankfully he's never come down with it. Aside from slightly elevated liver enzymes in 2016, which meant he started on a good liver detox called Denamarin, he is still in great health.� He has good vision, good hearing and no arthritis.� He is still walking with a few pet sitting clients daily too.� He has been on a partially raw diet and has only been given human grade kibble and treats.
I tell adopters all the time what I have learned in this rescue and having also consulted with some very thoughtful DVM's who have followed some of IBR's successes, my goal for each and every adopter is that they have a dog as healthy and happy as my Buckwheat. Buckwheat has been my best buddy for nearly a third of my adult life.� The past few years I have celebrated his life with his annual fundraiser.� This year I am asking for a $15 donation for the 15 wonderful years Buckwheat has been on this planet helping me in good times and bad -trying to do my best to help a few homeless pets go on to live long and happy lives. My goal is to get 100 caring folks to help me raise another $1500 for the care of Mercedes, another Pointer mix�and the other 3 liver and white Pointer boys waiting to come into our program.�
As best I can determine, Buckwheat's birthday was in early February so we both celebrate it on Valentine's day. I am going to have this fundraiser through February and put the names of the folks that contributed in�a bowl and send out some of Buckwheat's favorite treats to some random winners in his honor.� Thanks for reading, thanks for helping and let's hope we do this again next year.
Mary Lynn's Hip Surgery Fundraiser
Mary Lynn is a 5 month old English Setter puppy that has a serious hip problem. I was contacted by her breeder in December and he stated she was favoring her back leg after playing with siblings and wanted to give her to my rescue. We were very concerned and lined up a foster quickly and got her to the vet for an exam and x-rays. We are not sure if the hip was dislocated, but it could just be a terrible birth defect, but this sweet baby needs surgery. The FHO is scheduled for January 17th and we have a bit of fundraising to do. Here is a list of surgery and vetting expenses: $230 initial exam, x-rays and pain meds, $800 hip surgery, $300 post surgery�chiropractic care, CBC/ chem, tick panel, $155, spay $100. Total vetting $1585. Please consider a small donation to help our precious Setter baby.
Calendars Calendars & More Calendars!!
How beautiful are our rescue Pointers JD and Brady on point? BOTH these boys were pulled from certain death in over crowded shelters in Illinois. BOTH are fighting at least Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and BOTH are alumni of IBR's Tick Borne Disease successful testing and treatment program. Neither of these dogs would have pointed pheasant had their illnesses not been discovered and treated. Tick borne disease in our birddog population is epidemic and too many dogs get dumped for non-performance in the field- through no fault of their own. Many dogs are infected from neglectful owners not using any flea and tick protection but many are infected from infected mothers. That was probably the case with both of these handsome Lemonheads. We hope you see the value of the work we do here at IBR and help us continue to save dogs like JD and Brady. What a tragedy if they had been killed and dumped in a land fill somewhere in Illinois.
Eighteen Calendars to Choose From
Here they are-- so many wonderful rescue dogs and images taken by our pro photographer adopter Peggy Morsch too. There are 2 sizes to choose from and the mark up is only $10. This company does a great job getting them printed and shipped quickly too.
The Last IBR Fundraiser for 2016- a 75/25 $$$ Pot Raffle
For many years my balance at the Animal Hospital of Gurnee where we do most of our vetting and specialized care has be problematic. I try to make a New Year's Resolution to pay it off but there is always an emergency here and an emergency there. At one point it was above $12,000 but right now it is just under $3,000 and I would love to get it to ZERO to start 2017. As the rescue moves into the new year we are slowing down a bit as the key players take a step back, but it would be so nice to have that bill paid off so that we can use our good credit for dogs that do need our help as far as emergency boarding or surgery or sadly end of life care.
My last fundraiser for 2016 is a 75/25 raffle that starts Wednesday, December 28th and goes through January 1st until 5pm when I will pull the winner. The winner of the ticket pulled gets 25% of the $$$ raised in the next 4+ days AND the Limited Edition Bird Dog Whiskey Set plus their choice of an IBR Blaze orange hat with either an English Setter, Pointer or German Shorthair Pointer. All of these breeds came into IBR's program in 2016 and too many came with heartworm and tick borne complications. The trend will surely continue in 2017 so please buy a ticket for $10 each and help us get ready for the next year of rescues. Thanks and GOOD LUCK!!!
In early October I got word of a Treeing Walker Coonhound that needed a rescue outside of Memphis, Tennessee. Miss Demelza was going to be killed in a matter of days- such is the tragedy of so many dogs in over-crowded shelters across our country. I found a foster home locally and Pilot Matt a volunteer with Pilots N Paws flew down to TN and picked her up, overnighted her for a few days and then flew her to the Chicago burbs from his home base of Springfield,IL. Matt's wife took some amazing photos and his kids had a good time while Demelza stayed with them. A few weeks later I heard from Matt and he sent me his son's school project about Pet Abandonment with Demelza featured prominently. Matt also asked if Demelza was still available for adoption as his family could not stop thinking about her. How wonderful that this throwaway dog will have a wonderful new home soon.
DONATIONS DESPERATELY NEEDED!!
Release the Hounds!!!
While IBR's focus for many years has been American Field bred English Pointer and Setters, we have saved and rehomed many beagles, and hounds including Redbone Coonhounds and Treeing Walker Coonhounds. Hounds just are the most wonderful special dogs but like our beloved Pointers and Setters-- are just at risk for tick borne disease and to date we are 100% for at least Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Because we know the 4DX snap test is not reliable, we do the better IFA Serology and combine a Complete Blood Count and Chemistry for each dog. The following dogs need the blood work: Demelza, Trina, Petunia (who is also heartworm positive) and puppies Flash and Wrigley. As Honey has been in the program over a year, she just had all her blood work redone plus her heartworm testing and rabies vaccination. The cost for the blood work per dog can run from $150- $200 with our discounts. Demelza will also need her spay in a month and if any are positive the cost to treat can run $50-$75 per month and treatment can last several months. As we often need to retest-- that also adds to our huge veterinary bills. If you would like to help our hound dogs out-- please consider a donation via our You Caring 7 Hounds Fundraising Page. We would really appreciate it.
Another Heartworm Positive Setter Needs Your Help!
Cost to treat a heartworm positive dog in our slow kill program can be upwards of $800 or more if there are tick borne disease complications. We would love it if you bought one of these fun whimsy Setter T's and we welcome any additional donations as well.
Click here to support Kayla with ourChristmasSetter Shirt Fundraiser.
IBR's Facebook Silent Auction/ Ends 12-12/ Extended and NEW Items added!!
While IBR's focus for many years has been American Field bred English Pointer and Setters, we have saved and rehomed many beagles, and hounds including Redbone Coonhounds and Treeing Walker Coonhounds. Hounds just are the most wonderful special dogs but like our beloved Pointers and Setters-- are just at risk for tick borne disease and to date we are 100% for at least Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Because we know the 4DX snap test is not reliable, we do the better IFA Serology and combine a Complete Blood Count and Chemistry for each dog. The following dogs need the blood work: Demelza, Trina, Petunia (who is also heartworm positive) and puppies Flash and Wrigley. As Honey has been in the program over a year, she just had all her blood work redone plus her heartworm testing and rabies vaccination. The cost for the blood work per dog can run from $150- $200 with our discounts. Demelza will also need her spay in a month and if any are positive the cost to treat can run $50-$75 per month and treatment can last several months. As we often need to retest-- that also adds to our huge veterinary bills. If you would like to help our hound dogs out-- please consider a donation via our You Caring 7 Hounds Fundraising Page. We would really appreciate it.
Howliday Hounds/Release the Hounds Shirt Fundraiser ENDS November 27th
How about helping our houndies with a whimsy howliday shirt? We also have this great image on some t-shirts, hoodies and crew neck sweatshirts. This is a 4 color silk screen and you can donate along with your shirt purchase. The quality of these shirts is really nice and shirts ship in about 2 weeks after the promotion ends. You can order your shirts at the following links.
WE LOVE THE ROCKFORD ICEHOGS and why not-- they are the Chicago Blackhawks farm team. We have had 2 events at the BMO Bank Center in Rockford and they have been so much fun!!! Thankfully Buckwheat can come along again to promote our senior dog program and we will have some nice Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Cubs dog related items for sale. We will also be having 2 raffles for the Artemi Panarin and Patrick Kane custom made dog coats. We will also have some festive Christmas wreaths made by IBR's Founder and President for sale. Come on out-- tickets are only $15 and you must pre order and send your payment to Curtis at the address provided.
Come join us for Pizza & Paws at Perry's Pizza Joint for a casual good time with the IBR Village People. Nancy's been working hard getting donations for the silent auction and a $25 Donation includes a buffet. There is also a Cash Bar.
We are very excited to have donations for the silent auction from the following businesses:
OTTO'S CYCLERY
ST. ANDREWS GOLF COURSE
PAPA NICHOLAS COFFEE
LC KING MFG- POINTER BRAND
JACK DANIELS
SPORTS DOG
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
JUDGE MATHIS
BIRD DOG WHISKY
SHEDD AQUARIUM
BROOKFIELD ZOO
GRACE & HEART JEWELRY
GUN DOG SUPPLY
TEXAS DE BRAZIL
ILLINOIS BIRDDOG RESCUE
Clancy Update-- GOOD NEWS!! FINALLY!!!
In early August I noticed some swelling above Clancy's left eye that also extended down across her nose. She was also having some pussy discharge coming out of both eyes. I thought to myself- DAMN IT-- it's a bad tooth- probably this whole time. I have been caring for Clancy for 19 months at this point. So I made an appointment with my favorite trusted vet of over 10 years, and Dr. Hanover of the Animal Hospital of Gurnee and I discussed a dental and surgery to remove 2 very suspicious bad back upper molars. This was on August 6th and surgery was scheduled for the 11th. Cost was estimated to be close to $1,000 with the presurgical blood work. For grins I redid her heartworm test and God love the heartworm slow kill program-- she was negative!!
On Monday the 8th, I created My Precious Clancy You Caring fundraiser and God love the IBR family, we raised close to the amount needed to help her surgery expenses in 4 days. The day of surgery, I was a complete wreck of course as Clancy had all that nasal and chest congestion but my girl with such a strong heart- made it through and was completely alert a half hour after the procedure was done. The next few days were rough as there was so much draining coming through the hole of the right sinus and I had to do saline washes several times a day to help clean out the bloody mucous. On Saturday the 13th- Clancy was smiling. Perhaps the constant pain and pressure in her head was better, surely the pain meds were helping too.
I have had some incredible challenging foster dogs the past 14 years and I volleyed back and forth about considering letting Clancy go. I didn't want her to suffer and I knew after the swelling happened in early August, I had to do something. Thank goodness it looks like we made the right decision for her and I can't thank all the folks that helped her the past 2 years enough. I am over whelmed some days at the thoughtfulness and kindness -- often from complete strangers that help some of these poor homeless, neglected dogs with so many health complications. How this poor dog kept wagging her tail with all the pain she must have been in is amazing.
Clancy has been in Illinois Birddog Rescue's program 21 months now- with IBR Founder and President 17 months since the vets that saw her last gave up and suggested her best option was euthanasia. The dogs we bring into IBR's program face so many health challenges and while Clancy has had her ups and downs, she always wags her tail. She is always a trooper when I do a sinus cleaning on her twice a day to try and remove the bloody discharge.
Thankfully- she eats very well on her own, and the bulk of the worms in her heart are dead. The tick borne diseases are not curable so boosting her immune system and trying to detox and rid her of the over growth of yeast has been a daily project with good food and supplements. She is clearly not adoptable and we still need to bring in funds to help with her care and many of the other special needs dogs in IBR's program.
We heard about a starving Pointer in Southern Illinois in August of 2014. Clancy was found as a stray and her incoming photos were heart breaking. A snap test revealed she was also heartworm positive and I imagine she had quite a load. I was also sure she was also fighting several tick borne diseases as is the case with all our heartworm positive dogs. Sadly a short stint at the local shelter that contacted me and poor immuno compromised Clancy caught Kennel Cough. That developed into full blown pneumonia and nearly killed her. The virus she contracted at the shelter also spread through the foster's home causing many dogs to also become very ill. The following weeks-- Clancy struggled and then started to have nasal discharge that included blood. In December of 2014, Clancy spent 3 weeks at my local vet where they tried to diagnose the cause of the sinus infection-- but after chatting with an infection disease specialist-- it was determined that due to Clancy being so immuno compromised from her heartworm infestation and tick borne diseases-- there wasn't much they could do. So after spending nearly $1800 there-- I had the decision to euthanize or bring her home in hopes of giving her some quality of life. It hasn't been an easy job-- for months Clancy didn't eat well and the sinus issue persisted accompanied by daily chest congestion that still plagues her today. She seems happy otherwise and will gallop in my yard and thankfully is eating better again. At 17 months she is still heartworm positive and her latest tick panel shows at least Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. My vets agree that the immiticide would have killed her early on in her treatment and she is still not well enough for her spay. Clancy rests under my computer everyday and I can only hope when the last worm dies, that her body can still fight the tick borne diseases and we can make some progress with her sinus and chest issues.
To date her medical bills are at $2400. Her food and antibiotics, twice a month heartworm meds, saline sinus wash, kleenex, expectorant cough syrup, anti yeast and immune system boosters is nearly $2000 more. Should I have let her go over a year ago as one vet suggested when they gave up-- I don't think I could have lived with myself if I did. She has lived longer than some of the boys that had the immiticide treatment-- Wally (6 months), Lauren (8 months) Ollie (13 months) and Maks (8 months) so I know the slow kill was the only option for her. Her rage aggression she had when she first came in is gone and I do find her snuggling with some of my other dogs on the dog bed under my computer. She loves my home made pumpkin pie and she loves a McDonald's burger on occasion too. We could sure use some donations for her monthly expenses. I have created a $25 PayPal link dedicated to Clancy below. Please say a prayer for her and me. Lisa
To say we need your support now more than ever-- would be an understatement for sure but with your help- we can make this the biggest best fundraiser ever!!! I have been making calendars for the rescue for many years now and hope to make the Have A Heart calendar extra special. The Florida condo prize is so nice especially since it can be used for a limited time next year. I can only dream that we could raise $10,000 in just a matter of weeks- but I never would have dreamed that I could have helped so many dogs the past 14+ years. I hope you enter our contest and promote your special pet to all your friends and family for votes and much needed donations. Click here for the Have a Heart Calendar Contest.
WOO HOO Thanks to all that participated- over $8,000 in much needed funds raised!!
MORE TICKETS DONATED-- SURGERY IS AUGUST 1ST--HELP PUPPY KRIS!!!
Clancy has been in Illinois Birddog Rescue's program 21 months now- with IBR Founder and President 17 months since the vets that saw her last gave up and suggested her best option was euthanasia. The dogs we bring into IBR's program face so many health challenges and while Clancy has had her ups and downs, she always wags her tail. She is always a trooper when I do a sinus cleaning on her twice a day to try and remove the bloody discharge.
Thankfully- she eats very well on her own, and the bulk of the worms in her heart are dead. The tick borne diseases are not curable so boosting her immune system and trying to detox and rid her of the over growth of yeast has been a daily project with good food and supplements. She is clearly not adoptable and we still need to bring in funds to help with her care and many of the other special needs dogs in IBR's program.
Time to bring back the 75/25 $$$ raffle. This raffle will run through Saturday June 11th and my hope is we can raise at least $2,000 to help me buy supplies for Clancy and Gretel. The more tickets that are sold-- the bigger the pot grows. The winner will get 25% of the $$$ raised PLUS the beautiful Peggy Morsch framed photo of Brady's Vindication and also the Bird Dog Whiskey set- YUMMAY!!! Runner up winner will win the Bissell SpotClean Auto Portable Carpet Cleaner $99 value.
First prize winner needs to show that they are 21 or older and all items will be shipped via UPS. The framed print will have plexi glass installed for safety. Items can also be picked up at IBR HQ if the winner is local. Winning tickets will be drawn at 7pm, June 11th. Tickets are only $10 each so good luck!!
New Illinois Rescued English Setters Need Your Help!!
Afield Setter Style Shirt Fundraiser- Limited Time
Since 2002, Illinois Birddog Rescue has been trying to make a difference in the rescue, rehab and rehoming of Field Bred English Setters in Illinois and around the Midwest. We have 3 rescue Setters that are currently in our slow kill heartworm program and we rescued 3 more beautiful Setters in 2016 already. We hope you you will support this little rescue with the purchase of one of our Afield Setter Style shirts- and like me-- will wear it proudly. Click here to support the IBR Setters Afield Setter Style (click here) fundraising campaign.
BUDS FOR BIRDDOGS
YUP-- it's time for our annual Flower Power BUDS FOR BIRDDOGS (click here) fundraising campaign. The Setter in the above photo is my very special deaf rescue Gavin and in the back ground, my pride and joy garden. I have ashes of many IBR dogs and puppies that didn't make it buried under a few perennials that help me remember them each year they come up and bloom. I will be burying Setter Dantes and puppy Tommy's ashes in the flower bed this spring. Please help the dogs and puppies in the IBR program with some beautiful flowers.
Special Seniors Need Your Help
This fundraiser is dedicated to Buster, Devonshire and Zsa Zsa, and their care takers Kathy in Michigan, Randy and Diana in Wisconsin and Susan and Bob in Iowa. These very special seniors were diagnoised and treated too late for their tick borne diseases. Their care takers loved them and ended their suffering when it was time to let them go.
We at Illinois Birddog Rescue have always had a soft spot for senior dogs in need. We currently have 13 special seniors in our program and 11 are pictured in my collage. Until we can find forever homes if that is at all possible, these dogs all need annual bloodwork, heartworm testing, medication and food. We will also need end of life funds when it is time to let them go. Please consider a small donation to help one our our special seniors.
We have four more Chicago Blackhawks Raffles featuring d-man Niklas Hjalmarsson #4, goalie Corey Crawford #50, and forwards and a blessing to Chicago Jonathon Toews #19 and Patrick Kane #88. Things are pretty intense if you are a hockey fan with teams fighting for a playoff spot. We are lucky to have a few adopters that donate to the rescue and this makes for some really pawsome fundraising raffles. Order your tickets HERE and GOOD LUCK!!
RAFFLE #1: Thanks to adopted Pointer Cobb's adoptive momma Susan and her season ticket co op, we have a pair of Chicago Blackhawks tickets for Monday, March 14th against the Los Angeles Kings. Should be a PAWSOME game as both teams are the tops in their division and the playoffs are just around the corner. Also in this raffle is the official 2015 Chicago Blackhawks XL T-shirt and hat- bought downtown the day after we won the Stanley Cup, plus an XL car magnet and custom dog collar. The winning ticket will be pulled on FRIDAY March 11th and the winner can pick up the prizes at IBR HQ.
Congratulations Diane Diaz of Bolingbrook, IL for winning the Ticket Raffle #1.
We had such a great time in Rockford with the Ice Hogs on Valentine's day, that we are heading back for one more fundraiser the first day of spring. The Valentine's event was so fun and the Rockford Ice Hog/Chicago Blackhawks fans were so kind and generous. Here is the Facebook Album from the event.
This game is even more special as the IceHogs are hosting a Star Wars themed Special Olympics Jersey Auction. May the FORCE be with us!! More details HERE.
By purchasing a $15 Upper Bowl ticket, $5 will be directly donated to IBR and help us continue our rescue and research efforts. The direct link to the ticket order is HERE. Tickets orders may also be submitted via email to Vicki, or phone at 815-847-6388 and mentioning Illinois Birddog Rescue Benefit Tickets. Tickets must be purchased in advance of the game for IBR to get the $5 donation. Vicki's contact information is also at the bottom of the flier.
Puppy Harley Needs Your Help!!!
Harley was originally Miguel from the 11 Boys & 2 Girls of Summer Litters from July and August of 2015. His momma Matilda and his litter were in danger of being put to sleep in an over crowded shelter in Alabama with another new Momma and her 6 puppies. We paid a driver to bring both litters to foster care in Ohio and this was his original photo album from the fall. Matilda it was discovered was infected with heartworms, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. You can see in the photo above how thin she was and we can only imagine with those serious health issues, Harley may have had some growth issues while he was in the womb as his momma was malnourished.
When we were dealing with Tommy's terrible health crisis, Carol offered to take Harley in and here I posted a new Facebook album in November. He was so sweet to his brother as sick as Tommy was.In January Harley's foster to adopt momma noticed him not playing so much and he seemed to be in pain. We had X-rays done and sadly he has terrible hip dysplasia. All he wants to do is play but it is so painful for him as the hips are slipping out of their sockets.
There is a procedure called FHO Femoral Hip Ostectomy and we are consulting with Dr. Jacobsen in Oswego about this procedure on Harley. He has done orhtopedic procedures on 2 IBR dogs and is a very good surgeon. We know based on past surgeries we are looking at a $3000 procedure, but Harley will need follow up chriopractic care, swimming therapy and he still needs his tick borne disease blood work and neuter besides. We hope in Tommy's memory that we can raise funds for his brother.
PUPDATE: Harley is doing GREAT! The surgery was a complete success!
Clancy- Terrible Heartbreaking Neglect
Clancy came into our program in September of 2014. She was severely malnourished at least 15lbs underweight and she was also infected with heartworm, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. As she was first delivered to a local shelter, she caught kennel cough there that turned into terrible pneumonia in foster care. Because she is so immuno compromised- her infections have really caused her to struggle including a terrible sinus and chest infection. While she spent 4 weeks in the care of our local vet, she still struggled and we felt it was best to put her back in home care where she has her ups and downs. We could surely use donation for her previous vet bills which were in the thousands and also to help with her current vet bills, medications and food.
Buckwheat came into IBR's program with 5 of his litter mates from outside of Kansas City, MO in April of 2002. He became very ill and nearly died from parvo virus but thankfully made it through. Buckwheat is the pride and joy and best doggie buddy to IBR Founder and President Lisa- me. I dragged him all over when he was a puppy as I was competing in dog agility with my Pointer Wubs and my Setter Thelmalou. Thelmalou helped raise him and they had such a fun relationship. I am sure Buckwheat actually thinks he is an English Setter.
When he was younger and being a bully/pointer mix that did scent point and hunt, I did put an AKC limited registration on him and did get a Junior Hunter title. At 4 month old Buckwheat also trained in dog agility and competed to the excellent level in AKC. His true talent was being his charming self as dog adoption events and he has been my pet sitting partner for Lucky Pets for many Years.
Buckwheat was infected with tick borne disease in 2009 when we went out to the woods on a cold February 2nd day and I learned the hard lesson that ticks can still be out in 30 degree weather. While I did a proactive flea and tick shampoo when we got home-- I found an engorged one on him hiding under his collar 5 days later as Buckwheat was not acting like himself and was feverish. I also had some strange symptoms and missed one on myself and developed hot and cold flashes and my joints started to ache badly. Back on doxycycline my symptoms improved within 24 hours. Buckwheat was treated for 4 months with doxycycline-- but that wasn't enough as he developed rage symptoms and his behavior was so out of his character. So he was treated with dual meds for another 6 months and then he has been treated on and off since then.
Thankfully he continues to do well and at nearly 14 years old has no arthritis, and can still jump into the back of my SUV. He has more energy than so many dogs younger than him and I have to contribute that to his 7 year tick borne disease treatment plan, good human grade food and thoughtful supplements. Buckwheat has his share of lumps and bumps but I worry more about the things that hide inside--rather than fatty tumors on the outside. We know with this rescue and all of our research that tick borne disease is often not curable but manageable and as I am a 17 year Lyme disease survivor/ WARRIOR, that is so true with our pets. One of the best chats I ever had with Dr. Mary Felt of DuPage Animal Hospital in Villa Park came after she went to a tick borne disease seminar and she validated everything we have been seeing and reiterated that the best treatment for tick borne disease is long term treatment with thoughtful blood work and annual tick borne disease screening-- IFA if at all possible.
Buckwheat and I would love it if you and your sweetie would join us for the Ice Hogs Hockey game on Valentine's day-- his honorary birthday. He has special permission to be at the game as he is a BIG hockey fan. Ticket info below!
The Buckwheat Challenge Fundraiser!!
If you can't make the Ice Hogs Fundraiser-- consider a $14 donation in the Buckwheat Challenge! I am blessed to have Buckwheat in my life these past 13+ years. He came into IBR's program in April of 2002 with his 5 other siblings and also 2 lemon Pointer puppies. Buckwheat broke with parvo virus after his arrival and nearly died. Thankfully he recovered and became my first failed foster dog. For many years he, my Pointer Westleigh and my Setter Thelmalou had so much fun together in the field and at agility trials. Buckwheat became my full time petsitting partner after the death of Wes in 2007 and has been a delight at any adoption event we have had for IBR as well.
With Buckwheat's 14th honorary birthday coming on Valentine's day, I am asking for a $14 donation to help with the homeless pets in IBR's program. We do have many unadoptable seniors and so many with complicated health issues that a donation of $14 would really be helpful. Anyone that buys a $14 ticket will get a signed thank you card from Buckwheat and I will throw all the tickets into a pot to win Buckwheat's favorite treats.
Winner will be pulled on 2-14-2016 at 9pm. Thank you and good luck!!!
I've been running this rescue for more than 14 years now. They say time flies when you are having fun, but pet rescue is never fun. It is so stressful, heartbreaking and as hard as you work, all the hours you dedicate trying to save these poor homeless animals-- sometimes that is never enough. Volunteers come and go, some burn out-- some don't have the stomach for the day after day drama and disappointment that comes when no matter how hard you work- animals still die needlessly, sadly, tragically. The feeling of sadness and helplessness that I deal with on a daily basis because we don't have the funds or the foster homes to try and save one more is often over whelming. This year especially has been so hard-- so many litters of puppies and then to have one foster to adopt home so negligently nearly kill one of my babies-- that just knocked the wind out of my sails. My poor defensiveness puppy-- DAMN DAMN DAMN. Please if you can send a happy thought or prayer to Tommy- he needs as much positive energy as possible. We are doing our best to help him recover but at this point we may need a miracle.
We have so many pets in our program that need medical care and no funds to pay for it. I listed all of our needs in the Find Out More section of Tommy's GivingGrid. I hope that if you happen upon this website, that you take a look and think about giving us some support. We/I would really appreciate it. To those that have thoughtfully, generously helped support this rescue this past year, we are so grateful. For your added words of encouragement, and those that have given so much of their time to help, I can't thank you enough. We really do amazing work here in this rescue, especially the tick borne disease education that has now expanded to wonderful addition of two new Veterinarians that fully support IBR's testing protocols.
UPDATE 1-1-2016: I had hoped to do my usual thank you to all that helped support IBR last year via financial support, giving our dogs and puppies wonderful homes and to some of the greatest volunteers- an atta girl when they knew I was really stressed and emotionally worn out. In between my New Years romps with dogs and friends yesterday, I got a call from Dr. Hanover that Tommy was declining rapidly and had to make that awful decision to let a sweet 5 month old puppy go. I had to call Carol who had hoped to give him a forever home- the news that he would not be coming back to her. The IBR volunteers are in a rage about how his health declined at the hands of a negligent foster to adopter that if only had contacted me as she was contractually obligated to- Tommy may have had a chance. I volley between anger and complete helplessness as I held him in my arms in October and also the days that led to us bringing him up to Dr. Hanover to see if there was anything he could do. The family that has his brother Rizzo has offered to pay for his euthanasia and cremation expenses and I will bury him along side sweet 5 month old puppy Bethie that also had a short life affected by neglect and illness. We lost many wonderful dogs in foster care last year from illness as much as we tried to help them- all affected by tick borne disease too. I think I'll leave Tommy's GivingGrid up one more week and then pull it down-- it is just too sad of a reminder of a tragedy that didn't need to happen. Here it is if you want to help some of the rest of his surviving litter-mates, his heartworm positive momma Matilda and other dogs in IBR's program. Lisa
Tommy is one of our very special puppies that was rescued from Alabama along with his littermates and Thelma and her litter in August. Both families were at risk of being killed in over crowded shelters and thankfully we raised some funds to pay a driver to bring them to foster care in Ohio. At 9 weeks old he moved to foster to adopt with a girl we entrusted with his care. Sadly his care went terribly wrong and he nearly died. Click on Tommy's Videoto see how this poor baby is struggling. Only time will tell if the damage and terrible decision making will cause permanent damage to this little guy-- but his new foster momma is doing her best to help him recover while we work with our local vet/adopter to deal with his medical issues. We will also be contacting some canine chiropractors to see if they can also offer some help. We welcome your prayers and donations to help with his care.
BOTH Jake and Bertram had their Complete Blood Counts, Chemistries and 371 tick panels done no Saturday by Dr. John. We know Jake has at least Ehrlichia and Lyme disease and the longer he is treated- the less fearful he is. Click on Jake's video in NCto see how pathetic he was and in foster care in Illinois. Bertram is gaining weight quickly while he is being treated proactively for his tick borne disease. PAWSIES crossed-- we may have a new foster to adopt home for him. Click here for Bert's happy howling video. When you support IBR-- you help doggies like Jake and Bertram.
New rescue Pointers means more expensive vetting bills. To date we have been able to do blood work on Jilly, Champ and Dudley, and they are all positive for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We fundraised to bring Jilly, Champ and Paw Paw to town from Alabama but that cost was $700. All still need to be spayed and neutered and Dudley needs his neuter besides extra surgery to remove some creepy nipples. Please consider a thoughtful donation to help the Pointers in our program. Here are their Facebook albums Dudley , Jilly , Champ and Paw Paw.
Booster Fundraising Shirts-- Limited Time!!
With the help of shirt fundraising company Booster, we have 4 new designs available to help the dogs and puppies in our adoption program. These are high quality silk screened designs in 5 different T-shirt and Sweatshirt or Hoodie options. Click on the highlighted links to get to each fundraiser:MUTTS RULE/Tommy's--Pointer University--Setter University--Beagle University.
IBR on EBAY!!!
Afield Winery- The Perfect Holiday Fundraiser!!!
Click on the Afield WINERY link to order our wine. UPDATE: New wine added- the ordering link will be working shortly.
Date of Birth February 28th, 10 puppies-- 9 survivors. Kimmie's Facebook Album Kimmie is positive for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and is a rescue from Ohio.
Date of Birth April 23 & 24, 9 puppies. Trudy's Facebook Album Trudy is positive for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and is a rescue from Mercer County Kentucky. Tester puppy Hudson positive for Lyme disease at 9 weeks old.
Approximate Date of Birth April 14. The Endearing Litter Facebook Album This litter was born under a porch where we pulled Trudy from and the rescue is still trying to catch their momma. There were engorged ticks on many of the beagle and dog population pulled from this property in Mercer County, Kentucky.
Approximate Date of Birth June 26th, 7 puppies--4 survivors. Rainbow Plus 4's Facebook Album and Rainbow's Fundraiser Rainbow is suffering with heartworm disease and was pulled from an over crowded shelter near Birmingham, Alabama with terrible mange. Once we got her started on antibiotics, no more puppies died and once we got her puppies on amoxicillin, their mange started to clear up. We will be testing Rainbow soon.
Rainbow's puppies are now ready to move to foster to adopt. Their are healthy and they are so cuddly and so loving. These pups are going to make the greatest of companions and wonderful family pets. Please click on the Foster to Adopt link to the left to submit your application to bring one of these precious babies home!
Date of Birth July 16th, 8 puppies. Ellie's Country Bumpkins Facebook Album Ellie was pulled from Hazard County in Kentucky and was covered in engorged ticks. While her 4DX snap test only revealed Ehrlichia, a better IDEXX 371 IFA serology showed is infected with Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. She was very ill and many of her puppies were also ill and were on sub Q fluids to get them hydrated. When their vet started them on oral amoxicillin, the puppies started to nurse better. All are doing well now with oral meds.
Date of Birth: Matilda's July 26th, 7 puppies. Date of Birth: Thelma's puppies, August 4, 9 puppies, 6 survivors. Matilda & Thelma's Facebook page . Both Matilda and Thelma Sue were in over crowded shelters in Alabama, pregnant and in line to be put to sleep with her unborn puppies. Thankfully a temporary foster was found and the mommies started to co parent when brought together in foster care in Ohio.
PLEASE VOTE FOR REGAL EVERYDAY- To Help Us Win $5,000
GRAND PRIZE $25,000 and RUNNER UPS CAN WIN $5,000-- and that would help me get a lot of vetting done for our 7 rescue litters!!! Through September 25th-- PLEASE vote everyday for REGAL!!! CLICK HERE TO VOTE ! The link will take you directly to the voting page for REGAL. EVERY vote counts as IBR will get $1 for every vote!! You can vote from different devices and email addresses, too. Please keep voting DAILY! Regal is what IBR is all about-- so many health issues-- no rescue was stepping up to help him-- but we did and look at him now!!
Pedaling for Paws- Bicycling Fundraiser
Maybe you've been bicycling all summer long or perhaps you need an excuse to get back on your bike- like me!! In an effort to raise funds for many of the dogs and puppies in our rescue program, we are hoping that many folks will sign up to ride a few miles or a lot of miles from Monday August 31st thru Sunday October 4th. Hopefully we'll have some decent weather during this 5 week period and I hope like me, you'll push yourself to get in shape while also helping some very special dogs and puppies. I will be posting some flyers that you can post on your Facebook timelines or to bring to work or school to get some sponsors for ever mile you ride.
A little about me Lisa, IBR's Founder and President in the photo below-- So I turned 50 on Valentine's day- how did that happen??? LOL!! I have been fighting Lyme disease for 17 years now- since my tick bite at Purina Farms after an Agility trial in April, 1998. I have sure had my ups and downs and when I was chatting with a friend on a recent training ride, I told her I was so sick in my 30's that I didn't think I was going to make it to 40- seriously. The only reason I am doing so well is I take care of my own medicating with antibiotics when needed-- usually in June after the onslaught of mosquito bites wreak havoc with my immune system and the Lyme symptoms start to show up. Too many MD's have let me down-- especially the one that looked at my borderline = 1:64 titer for Lyme disease and decided I wasn't infected turning my life upside down the years that followed. Unless you find a Lyme Literate MD -- the likelihood that you will be tested correctly or treated based on symptoms (that finally helped me recover) is slim to none. I also take a lot of good vitamins and a lot of immune system supplements. I am luckier than most -- I don't have the migraines, my joints are feeling pretty damn good right now, and avoiding gluten and sugars has really helped. I don't drink ANY pop or diet pop. My goal is to hopefully lose 10-15lbs, and I hope to ride 75- 100 miles per week during the 5 week promotion-- so my friends over 50 better sponsor me!!! I am one of Clancy's Red Warriors!!!
We are so very proud of our 12 team riders and couples!! They are pedaling hard and we hope you will support them with a sponsorship donation per mile or per event!!
IBR�s Pedaling for Paws- Sponsor Application
Need a Bike, Gear or Bike Repair? Please Patronize Otto's Cyclery!
The Selfless Selfie Contest- YAY!
The Selfless Selfie Contest (click here) This contest is dedicated to the adopters/ volunteers/ families and friends of those afflicted with tick borne disease or those dealing with tick borne disease in their beloved family pets. The issue of Lyme disease and co infections afflicting our pets and rescue population is becoming epidemic across the country and Illinois Birddog Rescue strives to help educate the pet loving public and veterinarians willing to listen based on all our testing and treatment successes. The likelihood that any dog or cat in our adoption program has tested positive for tick borne disease is nearly 100%. We are blessed with amazing caring foster families that help us with these throw away pets and also with thoughtful caring adopters that look beyond what could be chronic disease and give our furbabies forever homes.
Please Vote for Fred from KISS FM 103.5!!
Please VOTE for Fred from KISS FM. Listen to Fred and Angi on I HEART Radio 103.5. Fred is quickly becoming a Chicago treasure and volunteer for Pilots N Paws rescue transports. He helped fly our precious Nellie the Pointer from the Chicago burbs to her new foster to adopt momma in St. Louis on August 1st. He flew in Rainbow's puppies from Ohio to Illinois on August 22nd. A vote for him helps dogs and puppies like Rainbow fighting some serious health issues. WE LOVE UNCLE FRED!!
IBR's Annual Fundraising Garage Sale
IBR's Spring Fling Facebook Pet Supply Auction Fundraiser
Thanks to a wonderful donation of supplies donated to foster mommy Suzanne in Ohio, we are having a Spring Fling Pet Supply Facebook Auction Fundraiser. Many of our fans and volunteers know how this works but for the newbies, I will post a description and starting bid and use the comments section to place a bid or increase a bid. I will add an estimated shipping cost to the things that are shippable and will note when items must be picked up or put on a volunteer transport when we move doggies :). The first phase of this auction will run through April 11th. Click here to get to IBR's Spring Fling Facebook Pet Supply Silent Auction Fundraising.
Yankee Candle Spring/Summer Fundraiser
Help Illinois Birddog Rescue with our bi-annual Yankee Candle Fundraiser! Now you can order on line and have items shipped directly. Here's how, click here Yankee Candle Fundraising, and in the Start Shopping Box, insert IBR's group number 990076963. Then a percentage of your sale helps support IBR and the pets in our program.
McKay's Nursery Company Gift Certificate Fundraiser
Gift Certificate #1 is Design Fees for Residential/Commercial Design, 3- Champlain Roses -- a $350 to $500 Value. Raffle tickets are $25 each.
Gift Certificate #2 is 5 - Champlain Roses and Delivery a $230 Value. Raffle Tickets are $15 each.
Gift Certificate #3 is The Shade Perennial Package includes 3- Visions in Pink Astilbe, 3- Lady's Mantle, and 3- Variegated Lamium. This is a $190 value. Raffle Tickets are $10 each.
This raffle will go through the end of April and the winners will be picked at IBR HQ on May 1st at 5pm. Winners will be announced via Facebook and by email. With IBR's great transport team, we should be able to move the winning flowers in any direction of Chicago. McKay's also covers Wisconsin and Northern Illinois south to about Interstate 80. Each Gift Certificate expires 7-1-2015 so get your flowers quickly!
Click HERE to enter to win one of these amazing Gift Certificates!
ALL PLANTS ARE PET SAFE!!! Thanks and good luck!!
IBR's Pupperware Fundraiser
May is Lyme disease awareness month- but everyday is Lyme disease and co infections testing, treatment and education in IBRland. With nearly 100% of our incoming rescues being diagnosed and needing much needed medications, we are having a Pupperware Party Fundraiser to help with the vetting expenses of these sweet homeless pets. When you click on IBR's Pupperware Party you can see how much your purchase will help our program.
SIX Lucky Pups That Need Foster Care
We have the BESTEST temporary foster home near Cincinnati, Ohio. Suzanne had opened her home for many IBR dogs and puppies and so many have found wonderful home the past few years. Here are 8 more adorable sweet dogs that would have died in over crowded shelter, had Sue not opened up her home. Some of these babies have waited a while to find their forever homes- and to help them get ready, we need loving caring compassionate foster homes. Click here for more information about how you can help at our Pets for Adoption Link.
UPDATE: Austell is safe in foster care, click here for her updates via her Facebook Photo Album.
We are having a Puppy Shower to raise funds for Kimmie's puppies. What we will need most for the first 6 weeks is the Earthborn Meadowfeast dog food. You can donated $50 for that or send a bag directly to Kimmie via our Amazon.com Wish List. We'll need help with some of the other items soon!!!
MacKimmie Puppy Naming Auction Fundraiser!!!
Welcome to Kimmie's Puppy Naming Right Auction!! (click here) . Rescue Herding dog mix Kimmie gave birth to 10 beautiful puppies on February 28th, 2015. Sadly one passed. The remaining 9 are doing very well. In an effort to raise funds for their food and vetting and pre adoption care--we are having a naming rights auction.
Here are the rules:
We are going with a Scottish Clan Theme for this litter in honor of their foster mom!! What that means is if you win your puppy naming auction- the name you choose must be from a Scottish Clan/hertiage AND you will need to provide a link to the family crest. Here's an example, we named a beautiful Tri color and White Setter Aberdeen- and here is her family crest/coat of arms!! (click here) Good luck and we can't wait to see what you all come up with!!!
Huckleberry's GUESS THE BREED Game
Huckleberry was in an over crowded shelter near Atlanta Georgia in August of 2014. He was very sick- had coccida, ringworm, hookworms and wolfworm. He was also treated proactively for tick borne disease. Follow up testing when he was 7 months old showed he was also infected with Ehrlichia and Lyme disease. Thankfully we found a loving home for him in Iowa and his new momma did a DNA test on him to try and determine what his mix could be. The Wisdom panel came up with 4 breeds in his geneology. We thought it would be fun to have a fundraiser for folks to try and guess what he is. In the chart below, one number matches all of his 4 breeds. Each guess/donation is $10.
In the comments section- please put the numbered square, or squares you think best fits Huckleberry's 4 possible breeds- for example if you pick square #229, you think he is Dachshund, Bloodhound, Airdale Terrier and Keeshonden. Our goal is to raise $1,000 in much needed vetting funding. Prizes include a new BISSELL LIFT OFF 2-In-1 Cyclonic Cordless Stick Vacuum ($120 value), and a $50 Wildtree Gift Certificate.
The winner will be announced February 28th. IF more than one person picks the winning square- those numbers will be put in a pot and the winner will be drawn randomly.
CONGRATULATION to Kristy Zelewsky for picking #88 which means Huckleberry's DNA shows American Bulldog, Great Dane, Beagle and Bull Mastiff. Talk about a designer breed!!
Addison is a very special Irish Setter that we rescued over 10 years ago. He was found abandoned in a car in Chicago and was brought to the local animal control. He was adopted quickly but over the years he developed terrible skin allergy issues and some aggression issues. His adopted momma Sonya contacted me for help in 2009 and as we were learning about better testing options for tick borne disease. Addison had the IDEXX 371 IFA Serology done and it was discovered he had a low titer for Lyme disease. Dr. Hanover assisted with his treatment but long term antibiotics were not prescribed for chronic troubling infections. So Sonya treated and then once he was off his meds, Addison would relapse. Sadly one of the health issues we have found in many of our long term infected dogs is spleen cancer. Too many of our adopters have lost their dogs when these aggressive tumors rupture causing the dog to bleed out or metastasize through the dog's body and when it is found it is often too late.
Addison has been having some digestive issues for a few months and a proactive x-ray and ultrasound has revealed a mass on his spleen. We know too well how serious this is but at the same time, Sonya is having some major surgery herself and may be put on disability and was considering putting Addison down. Thankfully my vet has offered us a rescue discount for his surgery and we are going to document his procedure with photos and video and while a sample of the spleen with be biopsied to see if it is in fact cancer--hemangiosarcoma or hopefully just hemangioma, but we are also sending samples to Texas A & M to have it DNA tested for several tick borne diseases. If we do find Lyme disease DNA in Addison's spleen- that will help us continue to get the word out why better testing is so important. Please consider helping Addison and IBR with a thoughtful donation. Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, February 4th.
UPDATE: Addison's surgery went well. A very large tumor was found attached to his spleen and thank goodness we got it out in time. Click here for his Facebook Surgery Photos. Thanks to all that have donated for his surgery expenses so far.
The Buckwheat Challenge- Make a $13 donation!!
The year after I started Illinois Birddog Rescue, I was contacted by a lady in Missouri that had 9 little Pointer mix puppies left at her door. She contacted me to see if I could help and after she placed 3, the remaining 6 came to town in April 2002. Buckwheat was one of those puppies. He became gravely ill with suspicion of parvo and after many days at the vet, he survived and I decided I could not part with him. He was the Yang to my Setter Thelmalou's Ying and she taught him how to be a proper Setter-- even though he was a little Pointer mix. I gave Buckwheat Valentine's day as his official birthday and this year he is now 13. Where did the time go?
Buckwheat has been a HUGE part of IBR's foster care program as he has helped socialize many dogs and puppies that came into our program. As a youngster- I kept him busy with dog agility and I even put a hunting title on him- HA! He is such a crowd pleaser at dog adoption meet and greets but his most important job the past 8 years has been my co pilot and walking buddy for Luckypets Pet sitting. He is so confident and well socialized that he is a great walking buddy for many dogs that may be fearful on leash. He has been such a joy to me and my rock when I lost my Pointer Westleigh and also when we lost Thelmalou in 2013.
My goal with this fundraiser is to see if I can get 100 wonderful people to contribute $13 to the rescue through the end of February in honor of every year he has helped me save so many with Illinois Birddog Rescue. We love our senior dogs and these donations will help with the care of so many that weren't as lucky as Buckwheat to have a best friend and champion all of their lives.
Use the Button below to make your $13 donation! UPDATE-- 31 donations as of 2-18-2015, 69 TO GO!!!!!
Chicago Blackhawks VS Boston Bruins Ticket Raffle!! WOO HOO!
OH YEA- the Chicago Blackhawks ticket raffle is back!! This time the game is against the Boston Bruins and on Sunday February 22nd at 2pm. We were able to pick the game and after their game a few weeks ago where the Hawks won 3-2, what a great rematch!!! Those who remember the Blackhawks beating the Bruins on their home ice in Boston for the Stanley cup in 2011 know that this is a great rivalry and this will be a very fun game for sure!!!
The raffle also includes one of our handmade tissue box covers, a car flag, a kick ass baseball cap, a bottle sweater and last but not least a Kaner #88 Cost per ticket is $25 and the winning ticket will be pulled Monday February 16th, 2015 at 5pm. Winner will be notified via Facebook or by email. Items will be shipped priority mail to the winner with a USPS tracking number. GOOD LUCK!!
Special thanks to Kristy Zelewsky for the ticket donation and Elea Ament Owen for the dog coat construction.
CONGRATS to new Beagle adopter Debbe Ricchio for winning the big prize!!!
MORE REASONS Why We Need Your Help More Than Ever!
It has been an incredibly busy and difficult 2014 for the dogs and puppies in IBR's program. EVERY DOG we have brought in is dealing with tick borne disease. ALL the heartworm positive dogs are also infected and that makes their care and treatment much more complicated but thankfully- we have found many foster to adopt families that are continuing the Slow Kill Treatment Program. Puppies Chamber, Chaps and ROOsevelt have also recovered from their mange infestations and Huckleberry has recovered from FOUR serious parasite issues but all of them plus Darlyn our deaf puppy and Mellie will need the life saving blood work and tick panels to help them live longer happier lives. We have a few new senior dogs in the program and Clancy the starving Pointer from this fall is still fighting a serious sinus infection. In the next 2 months we need to raise at least $4000 to help cover the vetting expenses of these new dogs, the returned dogs that need follow up blood work and also newbies Niklas and Johnny. In an effort to fundraise- we have many folks working hard to help the pets in our program. Please scroll down and look at all our fundraisers- 4 Shirt designs, Dove Chocolate, Funpasta, Wildtree, Tupperware, Santa Paws and Peggy's Poochie Portraits. We also have our Afield Winery and Buckwheat's Wish List and if you order via Amazon Smile- we get an additional percentage of your purchase. If you have an old car, boat, motorcycle- please consider our vehicle donation program. Of course any monetary donations are always welcome via our Donate/Paypal link or HelpIBR.
Please check out my interview on The Busy Guy with Vincent LoCascio. It was a wonderful opportunity to chat about IBR and all the good work we do!
SPONSORS NEEDED URGENTLY!!
In an effort to raise funds for the pets in our program we have brought back FUN PASTA and have added DOVE LOVE, WILDTREE & TUPPERWARE. Please click on the links and share on your Facebook pages as the more you share the more successful these events will be to help us by pet food and medications for the foster dogs and cats in our program.
IBR's PETS ARE BEAUTIFUL Calendar Contest!! Ends December 14th!
We wanted to have our last year end fundraiser to include all the pets from all our friends across the country and the WORLD!! This contest will allow the highest vote getters to have their beloved pet inserted into a beautiful oversized calendar created in IBR's Cafe Press Store. It is FREE to enter any photos and we encourage you to enter as many as you like and then SHARE your pet's link on Social media to get your votes and much needed donations. It is only $1 to vote with a $5 minimum. This is SO FUN!!!
Illinois Birddog Rescue Logo T-shirt or Sweatshirt ($25- 45 value)
A 10� Mendota Dog Walker Slip Lead ($25 value)
Calendar created in IBR�s Caf� Press store- overall size 11� X 17� or 17� 11 depending on winning images ($28 value) that includes the winning pet as the cover and insert.
Top vote getters for each additional category win:
A 10� Mendota Dog Walker Slip Lead
A Calendar featuring each winning dog as the cover and insert.
Top 12 pets per category:
Will be featured in each calendar created in IBR�s Caf� Press store- overall size 11� X 17� or 17� X 11" depending on winning images ($28 value)
Winners will be notified by email. Calendars will be created the week of December 15th and will ship thereafter along with any additional prizes. Goal is to arrive before the end of the year.
Thanks to all that donated, baked, shopped and hosted- we were able to raise over $1,000 to help the dogs in IBR's program.
IBR's Fall T-shirt/Sweatshirt Fundraiser-- Limited Time!
UPDATE!! This shirt fundraiser is ending November 30th and all 3 designs are in danger of not meeting the 20 shirt per design minimum. We need 3 more Setters shirt sold, 7 more Pointer shirts sold and 14 more Beagle shirts to sell to get this design to print.
If we sell 100 shirts per design, we can raise over $1,000. Folks have been waiting for a new English Setter design and I hope you like it as much as I do especially since it features my very special deaf rescue Gavin. Time is limited on these shirts as it takes 2 weeks from the end of the promotion for shirts to ship to be in time for Christmas sales. Customink.com has been wonderful to work with!!
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS FUNDRAISING RAFFLE- ENDING SOON!!!
HOORAY- Hockey Season is just around the corner. To celebrate and to also help the dogs in Illinois Birddog Rescue's adoption program, we have a great Chicago Blackhawks Fundraising Raffle. This Fundraising raffle includes the following: TWO Preseason Chicago Blackhawks VS the New York Rangers for Friday night, September 26th at 7:30pm at the Madhouse on Madison, a dog statue with a Chicago Blackhawks bandana, an IBR 10' custom Mendota dog walker, a Chicago Blackhawks car magnet and license plate cover. This prize is worth over $200.
Tickets are $10 each and the winner will be picked on Wednesday. September 24th. Winner will be notified by email and winner is responsible for picking up his prizes at IBR HQ in Wood Dale, IL. Good Luck!!!
Click here to get to buy tickets for the official BLACKHAWKS RAFFLE!
CONGRATULATIONS Christy Carrano- our winner!!
Four New Rescue Dogs Need Your Help!
Molly UPDATE!!
Molly was adopted by her foster mommy in July and we look forward to new updates about her adventures in the field in the future!
May 2014: Molly has made an amazing transformation in just 5 weeks but she is still fighting some serious tick borne diseases. She needs follow up blood work and medications. You can contribute as little as $5 by using our HELP IBR .
Worthy has done very well post eye surgery but we need to get him out of boarding and into a loving caring foster or foster to adopt home for his heartworm and tick borne disease complications. Ideal candidate would have another playful dog for him to hang with and also a decent sized fenced in yard. He still needs follow up blood work and medications as well and you can contribute as little as $5 by using our HELP IBR . If you can help foster, please fill out our application HERE .
Two More Pointer Fundraising T-shirts- LIMITED TIME!!
Tfund has been a great way to make some fun T-shirts that you can wear to support Illinois Birddog Rescue while helping bring in funds. If we sell 25 of each style we can bring in $500 in much needed funding. Show your Pointer Pride by buying a $25 T-shirt!!! This fundraiser ends in ONE WEEK!!!
In June of 2014 we lost our magnificent Skeets. He was almost 10 and lived a legendary life as the most celebrated rescue Agility Pointer. GODSPEED Skeets!!!
In June of 2013, I was contacted by a volunteer from Tazewell County Animal control about a Pointer that was in danger of being put to sleep. Brady was about 7 months old and had chronic diarrhea, and this volunteer stated if his owners brought him to the shelter, he would put him to sleep.
A follow up conversation with his family let me know that he was sold to them by a well known Illinois Pro trainer and breeder. He had flunked field trial training and was sold as pet quality. From the day they brought him home he had health issues and they could not afford his vet bills. I was familiar with this trainer, followed up with the breeder that didn�t care about his life being in danger, but we put him in foster care, found 3 tick borne diseases, immediately started treatment, changed his diet as he was allergic to the Pedigree dog food he was being fed and he recovered and all his natural instincts have returned. You can find out where Brady is competing HERE
THANKS SO MUCH TO THE FOLLOWING SPONSORS:
Tiffanie Andrews-Rost
Leslie Flannagan
Kristy Zelewsky
Susan Ebey
Mark Appleby
Pam Szponer
Randy Folz
For $50 - sponsors will get this beautiful Large Mug featuring our special rescue Brady. Please go to the Donate! section and in the comments section please put Brady sponsorship. We will need several sponsors and addition funds raised will be used for his follow up blood work in May and monthly medication.
Pheasant Photo Shoot and Chocolate Paws
AMAZING adopter and professional life photographer Peggy Morsch is using her talents to help us fund raise once again with 2 wonderful events.
Some of Peggy's amazing images from last years event. Eddie, Regal, Chance, Max, Kayla and Aberdeen are all alumni of IBR's tick borne disease testing and treatment program.
Tickets are $10 each and the winners will be drawn Monday, March 17th. CONGRATS Allan Braun and Christy Carrano our big winners. We raised over $600 with this event :O).
HELP ME SAVE MY FOSTER DOGS!!!
I just made front page in the Daily Herald today!!! Buckwheat, Lani, Dantes, Boonie and Gavin could not have been more charming and better behaved except for Buckwheat jumping up on Bev the photographer and putting some muddy paw prints on her clothes- SORRY!!!! Thanks to all with your kind words of support. These are my babies.
UPDATE: 12-16-13 I am happy to report that the City of Wood Dale has decided to let me keep my 5 dogs including my seniors Buckwheat, Lani, Boonie and Dantes. They can live out their lives with me and I am overjoyed and relieved at the same time. No more court appearances either. I want to thank all that gave me so much support especially Carrie and Paula. I want to thank the Daily Herald and Bob Sanchez for your help too. I never gave up hope that this issue would be resolved and my stubborness is what has helped keep this rescue going the past 12 year. Well that and a lot of hard work and so many wonderful benefactors that believe in me and what we do here to make a little difference. YIPPEEEEEEEEEE Lisa
POINTER LOVERS RAFFLE- ENDS FRIDAY AT MIDNIGHT
In an effort to raise funds for the new pups and also to raise funds to help buy medications for some of the pets in our program, we have a pre Christmas Pointer Lovers Raffle. Tickets can be bought HERE . Tickets are $5 each and winner will be pulled early Saturday and once the winner is notified, the set will ship out that day!!! Congrats adopter Eric Sandberg!
FUN PASTA & BUDS FOR BIRDDOGS
In an effort to raise funds for the pets in our program we have brought back an old favorite- Buds for Birddogs and a new fundraiser by FUN PASTA. Please take a look at the links and share on your Facebook pages as the more you share the more successful these events will be to help us by pet food and medications for the foster dogs and cats in our program.
IBR Xmas in July and Facebook Silent Auction- Ending Soon!
In an effort to raise funds for the pets in our program we have a very fun Facebook Silent Auction (click here) going on through August 21st. We've had some wonderful items donated and we hope to raise some critical funds for the pets in our program. Here are a few offerings and shortcut links to their auction pages.
UPDATE July 2013: Topaz is currently in a foster to adopt home! Three new little birddog babies need your help! Diamond, Ruby and Topaz were in an over crowded shelter near Tuscaloosa Alabama when we were alerted to their need for rescue. We believe they are Pointer, maybe German Shorthair Pointer, Brittany or Setter mixes and ADORABLE!! We love our Birddog Super Mutts!! Here are their new photos on IBR Facebook. Like every adult pet in our program- these 2 girls and boy will benefit from our mandatory Tick borne disease screening but we will need donations to help us with this life saving pre-adoption screening. Average cost per pup is about $160 for the IDEXX 371 and Complete Blood Count and Chemistry and if they are positive they will need many months of antibiotics and follow up testing. Some puppies recover quickly but some need months of medication. Thankfully we do find conscientious adopters that do follow up care but for now they are coming to foster care.
One time gifts can be made via our DONATE link (to the left of your screen) or via our HelpIBR site.
SPONSOR A PET TO HELP KEEP IBR GOING
Chloe tested positive for Ehrlichia and Lyme disease on May 15, 2013.
Hi. If you are new to this site- welcome, if you have flown, driven, volunteered, fostered, adopted or donated, welcome back. My name is Lisa Spakowski and I have been trying to make a difference saving dogs (and a few kitties) destined for euthanasia either by lethal injection or suffocation from the gas chamber since 2001. To say this has been a difficult journey would be true and every day I question how long I and this rescue can continue. It comes down to this- we do amazing work here but we need monthly sponsors for the pets in our program because donations are down and funds are scary low. We have learned so much from these dogs and especially about tick borne disease and how to help these dogs and cats but that has been a journey in itself and it has been beyond expensive.
I have been fighting Lyme disease since 1999 and the ignorance of the first medical professional and lack of treatment means I am incurable but it also gives me a better perspective on how this disease feels and because of that I am much more sympathetic to how the animals also infected must suffer and do suffer and often die. I have helped many of the IBR volunteers and recently an adopter- get the correct human testing done based on what we have learned from the dog testing and because of my own struggles. That part of the rescue is gratifying but there are always skeptics and no good deed goes unpunished and because I don't have an MD or DVM behind my name- I have been accused of Practicing Veterinary Medicine simply for trying to spread the word about what we have learned here by suggesting better testing and treatment options but because of that- we have some very happy adoptable dogs and cats, many no longer suffering from their diseases due to long term treatment and follow up testing and many of our homeless hunters are now working back in the field. What we offer here is HOPE and while we know that many infected pets are incurable, with the support of a few open-minded caring vets, we are making a difference and giving these pets the long term help they need and finding the best adoptive homes that continue their care.
After 12 years of rescue- this continual fight to help these pets, and find funding to also pay for the testing, medication and food to continue has been exhausting. I WANT a Birddog Rehabilitation Plantation. I WANT all of IBR's discoveries to be taken seriously and to do that- we need a more serious trial. We need some serious influx of cash and as I thought after 12 years- a ginormous benefactor would have donated a few million to help me realize my dream- that has not happened. Is it possible we can work together to find ways to raise money-ABSOLUTELY- but I can't do it alone and I am very tired. With the summer months come summer mosquitoes and as I can't hide in a plastic bubble, my immune system always takes a major hit with all the new bites and allows the Lyme disease to rebound. I hate the summer.
Please consider a monthly gift to IBR to help us continue our good work! We do need caring foster homes for many of these pets, so please consider opening your home to help us get these pets better and on the road to adoption. The foster care application is on our menu to the left of your screen.
Everytime I listed our Hossa on IBR's Facebook page the day of a game against the Boston Bruins during the Stanley Cup Playoffs- the Chicago Blackhawks WON!! That is why he is our Lucky Charm Pointer- but our sweet Hossa has not had a charmed life at all. When he came into our program a few months ago- he was found as a stray in southern Illinois and was going to be put to sleep in an over crowded shelter in Shelbyville, IL. He was so sick when he came into foster care- about 10lbs underweight and as is typical with all the dogs we bring into our program- fighting several tick borne diseases.
Thankfully his foster family has worked hard to put weight on him but as he has suffered some terrible abuse, he will need a special family to help him with his confidence and socialization. I gave him a strong name and we hope he can be as strong and confident as Marian Hossa good old #81 of the Chicago Blackhawks.
A Special thank you to all that helped contribute to his recent dental procedure! Lisa
Wiconi Needs Your Help!
UPDATE July 2013: Coni's surgery was done on June 17th and he is ahead of schedule with his recovery. He has also moved to Kentucky and is in a loving foster to adopt home. If you follow IBR Facebook, you will see all his new photos! Thanks to all that contributed to his care.
Wiconi was rescued from a neglect situation in Missouri where he was left out in the heat last summer. When he was moved to the emergency vet it was discovered that he had a 106 temp and he nearly died. Follow up testing showed he was loaded with intestinal parasites and he also sadly is infected with several tick borne diseases. He was doing well in foster care until he jumped the fence and was hit by a car in February. He will need follow up FHO Femoral Head Ostectomy due to the scar tissue and arthritis. His ER bills ran nearly $1,200 and new estimates for the hip surgery are $1,000. We need your help once again and any donation would be most appreciated. One time gifts can be made via our DONATE link (to the left of your screen) or via our HelpIBR site.
May is Lyme Disease and Co Infections Awareness Month
BUT this all year round with Illinois Birddog Rescue. Sheldon the Setter came into the rescue with Heartworm and Lyme disease. He was frightened and a little snarky. The IDEXX 371 serology found his low Lyme titer at 1:100 and we are certain he was dumped into a shelter because he lost his natural hunting instincts due to his health. Lani the Pointer came into the rescue with Lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted fever- but was not diagnosed until after 6 foster home changes, 3 destroyed couches, OCD hole digging, OCD fence jumping and no hunting instincts. Three years prior to his positive IDEXX 371 tick panel he had one FALSE Neg Michigan State U tick panel and many NEG 4DX snap tests. FIVE WEEKS after he started on doxycycline he started POINTING birds in my yard!!!!!! Both boys are INCURABLE and Lani is on a maintenance daily dose of amoxi/doxy so that his OCD behaviors are kept in check.
These diseases are EPIDEMIC in our hunting population and sadly our testing shows most dogs are at risk and our cat population is 100% infected. This month I will diligently work on getting some of our data posted on the site.
We would like to thank JD and the organizers of the first Birddog Jamboree for inviting IBR to your event. I also personally want to thank the IBR volunteers that ran the IBR booth while I was home taking care of my senior Setter Thelmalou.
Chicago Cubs Bleacher Seats and Doggie Couture Fundraising Raffle!
Welcome to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Chicago Cubs Bleacher Seat and Doggie Cubs' Couture Fundraising Raffle. Bleacher seats are for Wednesday May 15th against the Colorado Rockies. Should be a very fun night of baseball! Doggie Couture is size XL but as soon as it arrives, I will dress up one of my dogs to get a better idea how it will fit! This raffle will go through May 10th so I can ship out in time for the goods to arrive to the winner. Tickets are $10 each so buy a bunch and good luck!! Click Here to Buy Tickets! .
Yankee Candle Fundraiser
IBR will be participating in a spring Yankee Candle fundraiser through May 14th and IBR will get 40% of all sales- WOO HOO :) Take a look at the Spring Catalog . Here is the online Order Form and Instructions. Please mail order form with check payable to IBR by May 14th to PO Box 364, Wood Dale, Il. 60191.
If you would like a catalog and order forms to help fund raise for IBR, please email Lisa . We would appreciate any additional help to make this a successful fundraiser!!
BIRDDOG BIKER WARRIORS
How about getting on your bike this summer and helping raise much needed funds for Illinois Birddog Rescue while also spreading awareness about Tick borne disease at the same time? IBR proudly announces our BIRDDOG BIKER WARRIORS TEAM. You can set goals for yourself and get friends to sponsor you per month with your accumulated mileage. Some of us will also be roading our dogs off of our bikes and will need sponsors per month for these Teams. We have a T- shirt sponsor ready to donate $500 for Team shirts but we have a limited time to raise funds and only have 5 days left. Here is the link to Mike's HARDER Lemonade Birddog Bikers Facebook Sponsorship .
SAVE THE DATE!!
The First Annual Birddog Jamboree!!
Click here to get to the official Birddog Jamboree site! We are honored to be picked as the first Birddog Rescue Group to benefit from proceeds of this exciting event. We'll need to fund raise and we'd like to come prepared with some new informational posters and we also want to have some of our success stories on a new Power Point Slide Show on a BIG Flat Screen TV! It would be great to get one donated too. We'd also like to be able to get the volunteers into some nice new logo T's and it would be great if I could reprint our fun "GOT BIRDS?" T's and Sweats featuring a Pointer, Setter, GSP and Lab. Please donate to help IBR have a successful showing at the first ever Birddog Jamboree!! VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!! Email Lisa if you would like to help.
Silent Auction to help with the Birddog Jamboree!
WELCOME to Illinois Birddog Rescue's Birddog Jamboree Framed Art Fundraising Auction! The purpose of this fundraiser is to help us raise funds for the Birddog Jamboree coming up in March. We will need funds for the following reasons: to board some of the foster dogs while we are away, for the RV rental and gas expense, for the purchase of a PC compatible flat screen TV for our slide show, and most especially for NEW volunteer t-shirts!!! Thanks so much to Laurie at the Great Frame Up in Addison, IL for helping us get some of these pieces framed up at bargain pricing to help our cause! Thanks to Bob Bertram for four wonderful pieces and to Sara England for our new wholesale account! Additional photos can be seen in this Facebook Album . ALL pieces will be framed with plexi- glass for safe shipping and I have added estimated shipping cost into the starting bid.
Please go to IBR's Official Auction Site to see all our auctions to help with the expenses for the First Annual Birddog Jamboree. I will include as much information as I can on each auction. HAVE FUN- and thank you in advance for your support!! Lisa
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS FUNDRAISING RAFFLE!!!
How about an awesome Chicago Blackhawks ticket raffle to help raise some much needed funds for Illinois Birddog Rescue! This raffle includes the following: 36" X 27" Bagel dog bed and hand sewn red tie-dye coverall (sewn by IBR Founder & President Lisa), dog jersey, pair of tickets to the United Center on March 29th to see the Blackhawks take on the Anaheim Ducks and a donated autographed Patrick Kane official hockey stick!!! WOO HOO! This is a $500 value and raffle tickets will be sold for $25 each. Winner will be picked on March 17th- St. Patrick's day- HA!!! Good Luck!!
Click here to get to buy tickets for the official BLACKHAWKS RAFFLE !
CONGRATULATIONS to Jeff Barta- the BIG WINNER of the Blackhawks Raffle. HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!
2013 Fundraising Calendars on Cafe Press
Still plenty of time to order your 2012 IBR Fundraising calendar. There are now 15 to choose from featuring Pointers, Setters, Mutts & Friends. We have so many beautiful professional photos from volunter/adopter Jenni Bidner and so many more contributions by our foster families. Please check out all our products for the birddog lover at our Cafe Press site (click here).
On October 1st I was emailed the story of Bob a 14 year old English Pointer and Molly his 14 year old English Setter hunting buddy. Their owner was bringing in new dogs and the old dogs had to move out. We scrabbled to pull off a rescue and moved them to the West Rome Animal Hospital where sadly we were told both are heartworm positive. At their age the only safe course of treatment is monthly heartguard and doxycycline. I am sure they are infected with a few tick borne diseases or two but thanks to a good friend in St. Louis-they have a safe place to retire. We still need funds to help with their care as initial expenses and boarding in Georgia were very expensive. Please ChipIn if you can and thanks to all that have helped thus far! Here are Bob and Molly's heartbreaking shelter photos on IBR Facebook.
Please Help Millie's Book Get Published!
Mildred aka Millie is a sweet senior English Setter that came into IBR's program the Spring of 2011 after we saved her from being put to sleep in an over crowded shelter in Southern Illinois. She was is such poor shape- with large mammary tumors and blood work revealed that she was infected with Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We were so blessed when the Gerry and Jay Hergott contacted me to help her along. Please help get Millie's illustrated book get published.
IBR's Pheasant Phundraiser/Silent Auction!
From now until November 30th, I will be listing items for folks to bid on using their comment button- over 100 so far!! I will give a description of the item as best I can and a starting bid which will include an estimated price to ship. Once bidding ends on November 30th, folks can use IBR's paypal address to pay for their winning item. I want to thank all that have donated and I really hope we have a great fundraiser! Click here to start BIDDING!!
Buds for Birddogs
Please Help IBR with the purchase of some bulbs that can be planted now so that you can have beautiful additions to your flower patch in the Spring. Click on BUDS FOR BIRDDOGS to get to the IBR Flower Power Fundraiser.
KITTENFEST!!
When: Saturday, October 20th, 11-2pm
Where: PETranek's Pharmacy
426 North Milwaukee Avenue
Libertyville, IL 60048
847-362-2005 Web site
IBR Celebrates 1000 Rescues!!
The Buckeye Five- All American cuties!!
Illinois Birddog Rescue is proud to announce our 1000th rescue- well technically the litter is #1000-#1004. In early July I was sent an email from a Perry County Ohio that they had a litter of mixed breed pups that were in danger of being put to sleep. Thankfully a wonderful foster family came on board and the Buckeye Five came to town. Here is their RESCUE BABY BLOG. The kids are nearly 9 weeks old and once they have their 2nd puppy vaccination, they can be adopted! Please go to How to Adopt for more details!
The Dayton Birddog Rescue 75/25 Fundraising Raffle!
Maddie in foster care!
While we have our ChipIn Fundraiser below for the 6 new Setter rescues- we are also doing a 75/25 Raffle to help generate funds for the 3 Dayton, Ohio dogs which include Setters Abby and Dixie (pictured below) and Maddie the Liver and White Pointer that was also saved from being abandoned on the fore closed property. Maddie was a frightened little girl the beginning of April but her foster dad, Archy is working hard to build her confidence. As she is also being treated for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, she is also feeling much better and her happy-go-lucky Pointer silliness is coming back. She did very well scent pointing a chukkar on April 15th :O).
The current vetting and boarding bill in Ohio and New York is over $1200. We are hopeful we can raise $2,000 and the winner of the 75/25 Fundraiser will win 25% of the pot and that is $500!!! Here is the link to the Dayton Birddog Raffle.
Thanks to those that participated in our latest fundraiser! We raised over $1100 and that has certainly helped with the Dayton, OH vetting bills!!
IBR Fundraising Calendars are READY!!!
The Proud Pointer
Trend Setter
Check out IBR's 2012 Fundraising calendars! We are so lucky to have two amazing photographers donate their time and photos to make these possible. IBR President- Lisa (who also contributed a few photos of past foster dogs) worked hours and hours editing to make these wonderful keepsakes. I decided to go with the 11 X 17 and 17 X 11 formats so that folks can save the pictures and maybe even frame them! We only make $10 on every sale- so I hope you find one you like and enjoy it throughout the year!
Ten Years of Compassion
Thank you Pat- for working so hard on this. Only a third of IBR's rescued dogs are represented here. Where's my tissues!!
ChipIn to Help Keep the IBR Dogs Warm!
Gavin looking stylish!
With the colder temps upon us- many of the dogs in IBR's foster care program could use a nice warm snuggly coat. Please help ChipIn so that we can buy a few to keep them warm! Average cost of the Foggy Mountain Dog Coats runs between $50 to $60 for a 30 to 50lbs dog. These coats are beautifully made and are also machine washable.
Raffle Fundraisers!!
Canine Couture Fundraiser
Check out our latest Raffle- Foggy Mountain Snuggler dog coats!! I got these at a discounted price from a friend of the rescue. These coats are the best I've found for Pointers that may need a bit of extra warmth in the winter months. Buckwheat wears his as soon as the temp outside dips below 30. I have also shipped adoptees out of O'Hare Cargo wearing their warmy snuggler coats :O).
These coats normally retail between $56 and $66 plus shipping.
Here are the raffle details: Raffle starts November 17th and tickets are $5 each per ticket per coat. Winners will be picked on December 18th so that I can ship in time for Xmas. You can buy tickets with a credit card via our Firstgiving link and in the comments section please let me know if your ticket purchase is for COAT #1, #2 or #3. You can also snail mail ticket purchases to IBR PO Box 364, Wood Dale, IL 60191.
Here is a SIZE CHART from the Foggy Mountain Web site.
Thanks and Good Luck!!
Foster Pointer Amaryllis
COAT #1- Derby Plaid size 20.
Adopted Pointer Lani.
COAT #2- Black Watch Plaid.
Adopted SUPER MUTT Sandy.
COAT #3- Dexter Plaid.
Lisa's Xmas Wreath EXTRAVAGANZA
Not So Silent Auction Fundraiser on FACEBOOK.
***EXTENDED THRU SUNDAY 11-27***
Here are the details:
All of these wreaths are listed in an album on IBR's Facebook pageand also at this XMAS WREATH PAGE. They were designed and constructed by IBR Founder and Presidente Lisa Spakowski and I was surrounded by my adoring dogs and foster dogs during the creative process!! While I have a degree in Commercial Art and am an illustrator, I am also a crafter and one of my favorite things to do is make fun explosive holiday wreaths.
Auction will officially start Monday November 14th and end November 24th (Thanksgiving) at Midnight CST. 10 days for IBR's continued celebration of 10 Years of Compassion :O). I will have a description of the item under each photo and will have a minimun starting bid (which will include shipping costs). During the 10 day period, you may bid at any increment above my minimum listing using your comment button. That way you can watch what the high bid is at before the end of the Auction and sneak in a last bid to win!
Item must then be paid for using IBR's Paypal link which can be found at the IBR home page at www.illinoisbirddogrescue.org or oyu can Paypal directly to info@illinoisbirddogrescue.org no later than Sunday November 27th and wreaths will ship Monday the 28th unless they are paid for sooner.
Money raised at this auction will be used to help pay for the dog food and antibiotics we need for the dogs and puppies in our foster care program. I hope you enjoy this auction as much as I enjoyed putting the wreaths together.
Thanks and Happy Bidding!!!
Email Lisa if you are not on Facebook but would like to bid.
"FOR THE LOVE OF QUAIL"
Santa Paws
Please join us for our annual photos with Santa and your little canine ELF! Photo sessions are by appointment only and last 15 minutes each. You can bring as many pets as you like too!
Buckwheat and Santa Paws :O)
WHEN: Saturday, December 10th.
WHERE: Pam's Humble abode in St. Charles, IL
otherwise known as the North Pole!
COST: $25 Please email Lisa to book your appointment!
Sondra's Scentsy Fundraiser
IBR Adopter Sondra Dewitt is having a Scentsy Fundraiser for IBR. Scentsy makes the perfect Christmas gift plus you help out the dogs of IBR at the same time! Just ask her adopted pup- Winston. He was saved by IBR with his family in 2009 from a shelter in Oklahoma. He loves IBR and Scentsy :). Just click on the SCENTSY LINK to shop. Everything ships direct and usually only takes a week to get.
THANKS SONDRA & WINSTON!
Adopted Pointer mix -- Winston :O)
GREAT GIFTS!
HELP IBR WIN $25,000
Nancy- 4 days before giving birth.
Chase Community Giving is donating over $3 Million dollars to deserving charities that get enough votes via Facebook to be in their top 100. With your vote, IBR could win a part of that and maybe even $25,000!!! Please click on this LINK and VOTE!!! Please then share on your Facebook page and spread the word. This could be your opportunity to help save more English Pointers and Setters, Super Mutts and senior dogs abandoned in shelters across the Midwest.
In the next few days you can help us make a miracle happen and save a dog rescue that has been struggling to keep going. Illinois Birddog Rescue (IBR) just celebrated its 10th year in operation, but this past year we have had some major emergencies and sadly lost a few older dogs and puppies along the way. The testing and retesting of our tick borne disease infected foster dog and puppy program has been expensive but we have learned so much and because of that our special needs Pointer- Louis from Louisiana- is still with us after a year of battling Babesia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Puppies Kevin and Jimzie (the only 2 survivors out of a litter of 10) will also have long and happy lives because we found and treated their infections at 3 months old.
PLEASE take the time this week to contact each and every one of your friends on your Facebook page with this message for hope. With a $25,000 grant from the Chase Community Giving Campaign, IBR could pay off our existing debt (over $15,000), besides having funds available for the senior dogs in our hospice program including Pointer Mandi who is in desperate need of chemotherapy for her mast cell cancer. Heartworm positive pointer- Cypress in Texas also needs a partial mastectomy. As we have 3 other senior dogs in hospice care, besides a few other senior dogs in our program, a $25,000 grant would help us have money in the bank for any quality of life decisions.
Illinois Birddog Rescue headquarters (where a large percentage of our special needs foster dogs are homed) is also in need of fence repairs as a portion is falling apart and the estimate to replace it is over $1,000. We are also in desperate need of a new home base computer as the current one is over 6 years old. This is the computer that the IBR President uses for all web site updates and all daily operations.
All we need to be is in the top 100 by November 22nd 2011 to be guaranteed to win $25,000. The Chase link is safe and user friendly. We can�t do this without your help so please take a few hours out of your week and contact as many friends as you can and ask that they do the same. I have included a photo of Nancy our momma Pointer. She was found as a stray in an oil field in Texas this past summer. It was discovered as she was brought to the local shelter that she was also pregnant. Folks rallied and donated to save her and her unborn pups due to my Facebook pleas and thankfully she was pulled 4 days before she delivered her 3 little puppies in August. While Nancy is still in foster care, all of her puppies have been adopted to loving families in the Chicago area. While Nancy is struggling with two tick borne diseases, her pups will be tested when old enough and will benefit from IBR�s treatment protocols. Please attach her photo to your Facebook message as it really is a message of hope because her story is one of many happy endings that was only made possible by the caring folks that support this rescue.
Regards,
Lisa Spakowski
IBR Founder & President
Thanks to all that voted.
Buds for Birddogs Fall Fundraiser!
Buckwheat loves to garden!
Here's a fun and easy way to brighen your home with some lovely flowers that will also brighten the life of a homeless birddog. From now through October 28th, 2011, Flower Power Fundraising is helping IBR raise much needed vetting funds. Please go to our Buds for Birddogs link and check out the beautiful flowers.
Thanks to all that participated in our Spring Fundraiser-we raised over $1100 :O). Thanks to all that bought some fall bulbs, we raised over $200 :O).
IBR's 10 year Anniversary NOT SO SILENT FB Auctions & Fundraiser
Auction #4 EXTENDED thru 10/22.
I am happy to report that our online Auction brought in close to $3,000!! WOW. Thanks to all that participated.
Bird Dog Blackberry Whiskey, T- shirt and Cap
Here are the details: Facebook Auctions #1, Facebook Auctions#2 , Facebook Auctions #3, Facebook Auctions #4 & JUST ADDED LAST CHANCE Facebook Auctions , will officially start Monday October 10th and end October 19th at Midnight CST except for Auction #4 and the Last Chance Auction which will end 10-22. 10 days for 10 years :O) This auction is a way for those that can't attend our 10 year anniversary still help out the rescue with a feel good auction win.
I will have a description of the item under each photo and will have a minimun starting bid (which will include shipping costs). During the 10 day period, you may bid at any increment above my minimum listing using your comment button. That way you can watch what the high bid is at before the end of the Auction and sneak in a last bid to win!
Item must then be paid for using IBR's Paypal link no later than Thursday October 20th at Midnight. Anything not paid for will go into Sunday's Birddog Balooza Raffle.
Money raised at this auction will be used to pay down Glen Ellyn Animal Hospital's vetting bill so that we can continue the care of our newest Black and White Pointers- Frida, Rico and Cisco and also help pay for Louis' Babesia medication. Dig deep folks!!!
Dogtra 1900NCP Field Training Collar Raffle- ONE WEEK ONLY!!
Dogtra 1900NCP
Dogtra's donation has arrived!!
Thanks to Pete Fischer at Dogtra, we have a wonderful Electronic/Paging collar for our latest Fundraising Raffle. I have been training with Dogtra collars for years with my foster dogs especially since there is the humane vibrating function for training purposes. I have taught my foster dogs solid recalls with the vibration alone. This collar has also helped with nuisance fence jumping and on occasion chronic barking for cage training. I rarely have to use the electronic zap because the vibration is enough of a correction to get the dog's attention.
Here are more details on the collar: "The new Field Star Series Dogtra 1900NCP is Dogtra�s latest 100% waterproof electronic training collar. This new electronic collar is full of Dogtra features including a 1/2 mile range, three different stimulation types; Nick, Constant, and non-stimulating pager/vibration, and the same rheostat stimulation control that has made Dogtra a leader in the industry. In addition to these great features, the Dogtra 1900 NCP Field Star uses rechargeable, user-replaceable Ni-MH batteries. It's designed for entry level dog training, K-9 or sporting dog unit where a � mile range is needed. This collar is also available in a two dog system. The 1900 NCP is an excellent multi-purpose electronic collar for mild mannered or stubborn dogs.
The Dogtra 1900NCP Star Series transmitter is compact in shape and weighs just 4.8 oz. which makes it easy to carry in the field on either a lanyard or on your belt clip. All stimulation controls, �Nick, Constant, and Page�, have separate buttons on the single dog unit which makes it easy to the proper correction without the change of wrong stimulation. On the Dogtra 1902NCP Field Star, the two dog unit, the transmitter contains a toggle switch that switches from �Nick� and �Constant� stimulation, and color coded buttons for each of the collars (orange button for the orange collar, and black button for the black collar). Two buttons emit pager stimulation, and two buttons release either a �Nick� or �Constant� stimulation depending on what the toggle switch is set at. Each transmitter contains rechargeable, user-replaceable NiMH batteries, which will provide years of service if serviced with proper care. The transmitter LED indicator light will flash every four seconds when the transmitter is turned on. The color of the light indicates the status of the battery life. When the light flashes green the battery is fully charged, turns amber when the battery is at medium charge, and starts blinking red when the battery needs to be recharged.
The 1900NCP Field Star Series has been designed to fit dogs with up to a 28� neck and comes with a Biothane style collar. The collar weighs 7.9 oz. This fully rechargeable collar has NiMH batteries which should last 3-5 years of service with proper care. The LED light on the collar indicates the currant charge of the collar. When the light flashes green the battery is fully charged, turns amber when the battery is at medium charge, and starts blinking red when the battery needs to be recharged."
I am only about positive training methods with my dogs and foster dogs and my old Dogtra collar has literally saved some of my foster dogs lives when they needed a solid recall in the field. THANK YOU Dogtra for your kind donation!!!
Raffle Details: Mail with check payable to IBR with your ticket request/s to- PO Box 364, Wood Dale, IL 60191, or feel free to purchase tickets via our Firstgiving link. Click on the Blue Button and in the comments section denote how many tickets you are buying. Cost per ticket is $10 each and winner will be picked on Monday October 24th after the 10 year reunion festivities are over. Fund raising goal- $500 or more!!! This collar retails for $249.
WOW- 10 years rescuing Pointer, Setters, senior dogs, puppies, and Super Mutts!! What a journey it has been- such joy and sorrow. Please join us for our BIG 10 year family reunion and fund raiser. Kids and dogs are WELCOME as are any supporters, Facebook friends, etc- but this is invitation only. As in years past we will be having our 100 piece raffle and this year we are also having a 50/50 Raffle. This event will also be catered. We will probably have a pointing demo as well. The theme of the party is 10 YEARS- $10,000 as that is our fund raising goal.
Here are the details:
When: October 23rd, 2011
Where: Hammel Woods Forest Preserve- Crumby Pavilion and Dog Park, Shorewood, IL.
Cost: $100 per family- which includes lunch and 25 raffle tickets.
50/50 Raffle Cost: $100 and winner gets 50% of the pot!! Folks that can't make the event can still contribute to the raffle via our Firstgiving site!
Time: 11am- 4pm
SAVE THE DATE--IBR's 10 Year Anniversary Photo Shoot!!
Adopted Setter Bella and with a nice back by adopted Pointer Lani.
Bella was rescued 4 years ago.
Lani started pointing birds once we treated his Lyme disease.
We try to get together twice a year to take photos of our more talented rescue dogs. The photos of Lani and Bella were actually taken at Fermi lab the fall of 2010. The grounds are lovely and we bring pheasant for the dogs to scent point. Photos are used for the web site, for fund raising items and also for advertising. It is wonderful to see these once discarded dogs rehabbed and working on birds as they were bred to do. We welcome some of our past adopters and foster homes to join us for a pre Birddog Balooza gathering to have your dog work on birds.
Here are the details:
When: October 22nd, 2011
Where: Fermi Lab- Dog Training Area, Batavia IL.
Time: 11am- 4pm
Cost: $15 per bird. All birds will be released on the grounds.
Mandi's 75/25 Surgery Fundraising Raffle
IBR�s Help Save Mandilyn 75/25 Raffle Fundraiser. Mandi�s mast cell tumor on her leg has come back and is inoperable now as it completely surrounding her knee and causing her pain. Instead of putting her to sleep- we are trying to raise funds to have her leg amputated so that she can have a better quality of life. Here is Mandi's Old Blog.
Raffle tickets are $25 each and our goal is $2,000 with the Raffle winnings being 25% of that or $500!! $1,500 should cover her surgery expenses.
To participate- go to our Firstgiving Site Click on the blue DONATE button and follow the instructions to use your credit card. Please put MANDI in the comments section.
Wiinner will be picked on Sunday 9-4 at noon (CST). Date has been extended to get the word out to raise more funds! It is critical that we raise the much needed funs. The tumor is the size of a baseball wrapping around her knee.
Good Luck and Thank You!!!
Mandi this past Spring pointing a pheasant from 10 feet away. No sign of the tumor.
A view of the mast cell tumor.
Post surgery 9-1-11.
Here is some video of special sweet Mandi on You Tube. Surgery is scheduled for 8-30-11. The day of surgery, Mandi was play bowing with me and dancing around in Pointeresque fashion. I am glad she doesn't know what is ahead.
UPDATE 9-2-11: Mandi's leg was saved!! Dr. Hanover at the Animal Hospital of Gurnee did his best to save her leg. Thankfully the tumor had not invaded her bone- but he did have to remove some additional tissue and muscle- but she is doing fine. We will need to fundraise for her chemotherapy- but one step at a time. Here is some video of post surgery You Tube. If you can spare $25 to help us help Mandi- please give to one of our fundraisers.
UPDATE 9-6-11: Thanks to some wonderful folks- we were able to raise $1150 in Mandi's Raffle. Her surgery was $981 with our discount so we almost raised enough. Congrats to Stephanie Spurrier our amazing Pointer Angel out of Texas for winning the Raffle. Stephanie has donated thousands to IBR this past year to help us save more dogs and puppies. XOXO
Bass Pro Shops
Come on out to Bass Pro Shops Fall Hunting Classic at Gurnee Mills and meet some of the wonderful hard working IBR Volunteers and many of our adoptable pets. If you are thinking about fostering- we'd be happy to chat with you too. We could sure use new volunteers that can open their homes to some of our amazing dogs and puppies.
When: Saturday, August 6th, Sunday August 14th & Saturday August 20th / 11am-3pm
We have had several emergencies this past week and our vetting bills are escalating once again. When Loren needed to go back to the Doggie ER- I needed to come up with a quick idea to try and generate cash fast. I came up with the 75/25 Raffle. With a $25 donation via our Firstgiving page- you will be entered into the $$ money. On the 4th of July one winner will win 25% of the total amount raised since Friday the 1st. When you go to the link- hit the blue donate button, fill out the necessary information and use the easy credit card link to donate.
We were able to raise just over $2,000 in 4 days. Thank you all that participated!!!
Thanks to everyone that helped- IBR raised $300 :O).
IBR Welcomes Rescue Dogs 900, 901 & 902!
#901- Lord Tennyson- Senior English Setter from Minnesota that is deaf and has Anaplasma, Lyme disease & Rocky Mountain spotted fever. NEWS! Tenny's foster home is going to adopt him- YAY!!
#900- Arlington- Senior English Pointer from Texas that is Heartworm positive with Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever was nearly killed on 4-12. Estimated expense- $1,000.
#902- Frankie Lee aka Tex- Pointerador (Pointer plus Labrador- SUPER MUTT) from Texas was nearly killed on 4-12.
WOW--April has been so busy! Thanks to many donations we were able to save a few more. We are proud to announce our latest rescues- a Pointer, a Setter and a Super Mutt! While Tex has youth on his side, both Arlington and Lord Tennyson have lived lives of neglect and will need lots of care to get better. Tenny is safe in foster care in Minnesota and has already started on antibiotics to help with his tick borne illnesses. He is very stiff and sore and we do hope that his arthritis will get better in time.
Tex is safe in foster care in Texas but we would like to bring him to the Chicago area with Arlington who also needs a safe foster home as he is currently in boarding in Texas. We still need to get blood work done on both of our Texas boys--but Arlie especially will need special care with his heartworm diagnosis. Please consider a donation to the Heartful of Love ChipIn to help Arlie, Morgana, Sophie, and Lord Byron.
We always need new foster homes especially for Arlie and Tex, and a few others waiting in the wings, so if you'd like to help, please fill out our foster home application.
Buds for Birddogs Spring Fundraiser!
Buckwheat loves to garden!
Here's a fun and easy way to brighen your home with some lovely flowers and also brighten the life of a homeless birddog. From now through April 29th 2011, Flower Power Fundraising is helping IBR raise much needed vetting funds. Please go to our Buds for Birddogs link and check out the beautful flowers.
Thanks to all that participated we raised over $1100 :O).
Nancy Whitehead Framed Print & Autographed Book
Raffle #1: To help the senior Setter polulation in foster care with IBR, we are offering this wonderful raffle prize- Nancy Whitehead's framed print My Turn.
Raffle #2: To help the senior Pointer population we are raffling her autographed Coffe Table book In The Field .
Nancy has been capturing the beauty of American Field Bred Pointers and Setter for years and we became acquaintences a few years ago. The print is framed with plexi glass so it can be shipped anywhere across the country. Please visit Nancy's amazing Web page.
Raffle #1, My Turn framed print.
Original photo.
Raffle #2, In The Field- autographed photo book.
Congratulations winners Carol Malik and Brett Schulze!
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Mega Adopt-A-Thon
Firework's puppy- Cobalt.
Come meet the Fireworks litter on Sunday, March 20th at the Mega Adopt-a-thon Event at the South Suburban Humane Society in Chicago Heights.
Spring Photo Shoot
IBR Adoptee- Ginger.
Please join us for our bi-annual scent point training gathering of some of our newest foster dogs and adopted dogs. Photographer/Volunteer and foster mom, Yukiko McFarling, will be taking digital images of the IBR dogs. This is an opportunity to let the dogs scent point pheasant for the first time while also assessing their progress if they are fighting a tick borne infection. Many hunting dogs are abandonded by their owners because they can't smell birds or have no natural hunting instints. IBR has found that many dogs can't smell the birds because their scenting abilities are compromised most often by Lyme disease. Often times dogs with Rocky Mountain spotted fever can't concentrate and have no hunting focus. Post treatment or while undergoing treatment, their natural instincts return as the brain damage caused by the tick borne illness subsides.
When: Saturday, March 19th--starting around 10am.
Where: Fermi Lab Dog Training Grounds, Batavia, IL MAP and DIRECTIONS.
Happy Birthday My Precious Buckwheat!
My little baby.
Buckwheat came in with 5 of his siblings in early April 2002 from Missouri. He was about 8 weeks old and cute as could be. A week after he arrived he became gravely ill with Parvo- a nasty virus that attacks the lining of the intestinal tract. While he had been vaccinated for Parvo in Missouri, he must have been exposed to the virus and contracted it in less than a week in Illinois. It was touch and go for several days and we weren't sure he was going to make it. As the rescue was only a little over a year old--we did'nt have much experience with Parvo. Thankfully he survived and I couldn't part with him after that.
Valentine's Day is his official birthday and as much as I can figure--pretty close to his birthdate. Nine years goes by very quickly--and he's starting to look a bit like a raccoon, but little Weeters is my third arm and my contant shadow. Buckwheat took over petsitting duties when his big brother Wes passed in 2007 he and also took over his spot under the covers sleeping next to my chest after we all got through the shock of his passing. Happy Birthday my little boy!
Dear Santa-
Over a year ago I was in an over crowded shelter near Ardmore, Oklahoma. There was no hope that I would make it out alive until Illinois Birddog Rescue came to my rescue. Thanks to some wonderful volunteers, I was driven to Illinois where my health was assessed. Due to some terrible neglect, I was found to have Heartworm disease and I also had two co infections of Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) from tick bites. I was in a lot of pain and to add to my suffering, I also had a bad case of mastitis because I was never spayed.
The good folks at IBR really worked hard to raise money to help me get over my issues and so far I am heartworm negative and RMSF negative, but I am still struggling with Lyme disease and that made for a complicated partial mastectomy the end of November. Due to IBR's research, I am now on new medication and I will hopefully kick this awful disease since I need another partial mastectomy in a few months to get rid of more tumors.
Santa--IBR works so hard to save homeless hunters like me and I am hoping with your vast network of friends and contacts that you can put the word out that they still need thousands of dollars to stay afloat and help more dogs in dire need like myself. I am one of the lucky ones but without folks like IBR, so many dogs are going to die. I hope you can help!
Sassy's mastectomy recover went well after we switched her from Doxycycline to Ceftin for her Lyme disease infection. Thanks to the outpouring of support, we were able to pay off her first surgery. She will have her follow up partial mastectomy the end of February 2011. We welcome any donations to off set her care.
Marcus of Umbria, Fido Fleece and Therabed Raffle
Marcus of Umbria
Marcus and Justine
We are happy to announce our latest fundraising raffle-- Justine van der Leun's autographed paperback memoir Marcus of Umbria. Justine contacted me back in April about donating two of her books when they came into publication in June. She is a true Pointer rescue hero. We are grateful for her kind donation.
As Marcus lives the good life now (Dolce Vita), we are also raffling two other nice donated Pointer/Setter must haves thanks to Sitstay.com. With the winter season approaching- we are also raffling off a beautiful Fido Fleece, Flower Power dog coat. Winners can choose from size 18, 24 or 26. Also from SitStay.com we are raffling a must have for any dog that needs to keep warm in the winter, a Therabed Heated Pet Bed size 30 X 26 X 8.
We do hope Marcus would approve!!!
Funds will be used to help offset some of our high vetting bills for the dogs and puppies in our foster care program.
OK here it is--the Blackhawks Fundraising Raffle-- thanks to Jason (Tyler's new daddy) for donating a night of fun at the Madhouse on Madison on January 5th, 2011. Should be a GREAT TIME!! I also picked up a fun dog jersey and sticker to add to the fun. The raffle is going to be used to help offset the surgery expenses for Mandi and Sassy--our Pointer girls. Raffle tickets are $20 each and you can buy via our Firstgiving link. Winner will be drawn on December 29th so I can ship to the winner via Priority mail in time for the game. Good Luck!!! OK here it is--the Blackhawks Fundraising Raffle-- thanks to Jason for donating a night of fun at the Madhouse on Madison on January 5th, 2011. Should be a GREAT TIME!! I also picked up a fun dog jersey and sticker to add to the fun. The raffle is going to be used to help offset the surgery expenses for Mandi and Sassy--our Pointer girls. Raffle tickets are $20 each and you can buy via our Firstgiving link.
Winner will be drawn on December 29th so I can ship to the winner via Priority mail in time for the game. Good Luck!!!
Tickets for 1-5-11.
Dog Jersey size XL.
Car sticker.
Congrats to Holly Hartley--our big winner!
Santa Paws Photo Shoot Fundraiser
Okie Pointer Winberie
Where: The North Pole/Carol Stream, IL
When: Sunday, December 5th from 9am-5pm
Cost: $25 per dog per 10 minute session.
Photo shoot will be held in the home of IBR Volunteers Paul and Yukiko McFarling. Yukiko is an amateur photographer and does an amazing holiday set up. This is a casual photo opportunity with Santa! Photos will be available for purchase via Yukiko's Smug Mug page. Here are last years hilarious photos.
Please email Lisa the Elf for reservations. Payment must be made prior to the appointment via our Firstgiving Link to reserve your slot.
Maui Vacation!!
Sera Hula
Ashley Hula
We are happy to announce our latest fundraising raffle-- a Maui, Hawaii condo package!!! WOO HOO!! Looking for the perfect place to wear your new grass skirt? Here is the opportunity to spend six nights/seven days in an ocean front condo on the Island of Maui. You will over look Po�olenalena Beach or you can stroll past the nearest pool to Paipu Beach �one of Maui�s largest white sand beaches., The condo is a two bedroom, two bath with a den that can be closed off into a third bedroom. Full kitchen, washer and dryer are in the unit. The property includes two swimming pools and tow sets of tennis courts. This is truly a dream vacation waiting to happen. Must use by March 31st, 2011.
Airfare is not included. This is a $2,700 value and was generously donated by adopted Setter Rory's daddy--Dennis Felton.
Congrats to Sue DePasquale for winning the Maui trip!!
Two Regal Birddogs in Illinois Need Your Help!
Leland- meaning Meadowland, was in danger of being put to sleep in an over crowded shelter near Peoria, IL. Windsor was in an over-crowded shelter in Centralia, IL. We had been trying to find foster homes for them for a while via Facebook and finally our efforts paid off. We will need to board them until arrangements can be made to move them to foster care, but we will need help with their food and initial vetting expenses. These expenses will include the mandatory tick panel for rule out Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF). We also need to do heartworm testing and treat if necessary and also deworm. Depending on their health, we will also need to do CBC/Chem blood work. Vetting fees will add up quickly. Please help us if you can--even the smallest donation will help!! We always need foster homes--so if you can help, please fill out this online application.
Leland at the shelter
He is a Tri-color & White English Setter
Here are more photos from Facebook.
Lyme disease confirmed 9/30.
Windsor BEFORE
he is a Lemon & White Pointer
Ehrlichia and RMSF confirmed October 4th. Lyme disease confirmed 11-1-10.
UPDATE 10-30-10: While we are still on a quest to find a foster home for Leland, we did pull him out of boarding to see if his nose was working. Leland did test positive for Lyme disease and I suspect with his skin condition and hyper behavior upon arrival, he has Rocky Mountain spotted fever hiding. It may show up in further testing. In any case, he is doing so much better now that he is on better food and his antibiotics. He also did pretty darn well on his first outing on pheasant. We were pleasantly suprised. My guess is he was dumped because he was not training very well for his past owner due to his infections. After several months on antibiotics, Leland will be one top notch pet/hunting prospect. He is showing so much potential already. This is what IBR is all about. Please help continue support our efforts and ChipIn for his care.
The Ultimate Bears Fan/ Bears-Viking Ticket Raffle!
Thanks to two IBR adopters we have this wonderful Bears and NFL/NCAA Football Fundraiser. This is easily a $600 value.
All Football items are included in this fun raffle!! Buckwheat--however--is NOT included!!! :O)
TICKET PRICES ARE THE FOLLOWING:
$20 each and must be purchased via our FirstGiving Link.
Winner will be picked November 11th, 2010 so that items can be shipped in time for the game!!
Let's hope we have a great season!!
CONGRATS to Helen Braun for winning the Bears Raffle!!!
We are happy to announce our latest fundraising raffle-- a realistic, single subject, head study portrait of the winner's dog by Charlotte, NC portrait artist Tina M. Morgan. Tina's portraits emphasize true likeness, expression, and vivid detail. She will be working from digital only, in focus, color photos provided by the winner. The portrait medium will be pastel on velour board, sized 16 x 20 or larger (large size dogs) or 10 x 13 up to 16 x 20 (toy, small, medium size dogs), as is appropriate for the dog's actual size, and will be shipped to the winner ready to frame. Allow 2-4 weeks for completion after a suitable "working" photo is agreed upon. To see more of Tina's work, and to compare her portraits to the photos she worked from. THANK YOU TINA for your generous contribution to help the dogs and puppies in IBR's program. We are truly grateful.
Congrats to new foster mom- Marissa for winning this great prize.
IBR Featured in Gun Dog Magazine
We are thrilled to be featured in Gun Dog Magazine's August issue with a few other birddog rescue groups. Writer M.J. Nelson did a great job reviewing a lot of IBR's tick borne illness research and did a thoughtful piece about some of our success stories including IBR's Sweet 17 aka Jules. It's nice to have some recognition for some of our hard work. We are moving mountains--one boulder at a time...--Lisa
This gorgeous bench featuring a lovely hunting scene with Pointers and pheasant--was donated to the rescue to help us fundraise for the vetting care of our foster Pointers. This is a $200 value and assembly is required.
We have so many sick Pointers in the rescue right now--many dealing with heartworm disease, many with tick borne illnesses. The average cost to get one of these dogs healthy and ready for adoption is nearly $1,000 a piece.
This raffle is dedicated to our rescue Pointers that have been infected with terrible tick borne illnesses and are fighting valiently. I am hopeful that this will be a great fundraiser and will help offset some of their vetting bills.
TICKET PRICES ARE THE FOLLOWING:
$5 each, 10 for $35, 35 for $100
Winner will be picked July 31st, 2010
Congrats to winner and IBR adopter Christy Carrano for winning the Pointer bench!
The Infamous IBR Fundraising Garage Sale
Garage Sale Funds Raised to date- $3500. Thanks to all that have contributed!
AHHHHH buzzy bees, butterflies and petunias blooming everywhere; Spring has finally arrived in Chicagoland. Now is a good time to spring clean out all your old junk and help IBR raise some funds with our upcoming garage sale (details below). Perhaps we'll have to get an IBR group together for the doggie boat ride too. This was a lot of fun and the dogs loved it!!
Happy 11th Birthday Thelmalou!! Here are some highlights on IBR Facebook of her recent romp along side my bike. She did 6 miles!!! At 11!! YOU GO GIRL!!
IBR will be participating in a spring Yankee Candle fundraiser running from May 1st-May 21st. IBR will get 40% of all sales- WOO HOO :) Take a look at the Spring Catalog . If you are interested in any of the products please Email Keely . There will be product pick ups in Ohio and in the Chicago area. Shipping is also available if needed. Please feel free to cross post for more exposure. If you would like to assist with the sale in your area feel free to email Keely for order forms and catalogs to be sent to you.
As the chairperson of the event I ( Keely) will be offering a $50 Visa gift card to the person that brings in the most profit for the rescue:) Good Luck!!!
Well the total for the Yankee Candle Fundraiser is in and we sold $3000.00 worth.....so that means that IBR will receive $1200.00:) Thanks to all of the sellers:) The top seller was Kristy Zelewsky at $912.00.. Congratulations on winning the $50.00 Visa gift card!--Keely
IBR Golf Raffle and Informational Event at the CBOE
Where: Chicago Board Options Exchange
When: Friday, June 11th/ 8-3pm
Details: Thanks to IBR Adopter and Foster mom Kristy, we will be able to have a Golfing Raffle Fundraiser and IBR informational event at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. We have a gift certificate for Greens fees for 4 players at Maple Meadows Golf Course in Wood Dale, and Greens fees for 2 players at St. Andrews Golf Course in West Chicago, to raffle that day too.
Congrats to the winners of the CBOE Raffles.
Ron Petzke: Maple Meadows Golf Greens Fees Package
Jeff Short: St. Andrews Golf Greens Fees Package
Ray Quirk: 3 Blackhawks T-Shirts; Toews, Kane, & Hossa ($90.00 Value)
Don Urbas: Callaway Golf Balls and Accessories ($60.00 Value)
Thanks so much to the folks that came out to support our cause. What a great time with the Blackhawks celebration going on all over the city too!! Here are some highlights from Kristy's Facebook page.
MARDI PAWS--Vacation Raffle Fundraiser
CONGRATS to Jim Mayer for winning this raffle. We raised $570!!
IBR adopter, Greg Holden is donating a 1 week 1 bedroom TIME SHARE in the Big Easy (New Orleans) as a raffle prize to help us raise some much needed funds. SAWEET!!!
Greg states: "The 1 bedroom usually has an additional hide a bed in the unit. They typically sleep 4. I have always found it best to travel at off peak times to improve the chance of being able to select the resort that you want. The week will have to be booked by me and I will provide a guest certificate for the use of the week. This will be available for all of 2010 and 2011. That's nice, the winners will have 2 years to use the week."
We are hopeful we can raise a few thousand dollars to help with Sasparilla's surgery and Mandi's heartworm treatment.
Greg is on Facebook if you have any questions!!! Thanks Greg!!
TICKET PRICES ARE THE FOLLOWING:
$5 each, 10 for $35, 35 for $100
Winner will be picked May 5, 2010
GOOD LUCK!!!
Disclamer: Winner is responsible for transportation to the resort and being respectful of the accommodations.
Mandi & Ophelia-- Some Tough Ol Bird--dogs!!
Mandilyn and Ophelia
Ophelia Blooming!
Mandilyn and Ophelia have had a tough journey in foster care--but hopefully the worst will be over soon. Mandi was treated for Heartworm disease on March 25th and 26th and Ophie had the last of her mammary tumors removed. We are hopeful this will be her last surgery and that her body will finally also be able to fight off the two tick borne illnesses--Ehrlichia and Rocky Mountain spotted fever that have caused her to struggle for months. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
UPDATE 4-6-10 We've got some great news. Ophelia's biopsies were benign--so she is done with any more boob jobs!! She is bouncing back really well and constantly pawing me and wanting her ears rubbed anytime we snuggle. GOOD GIRL!! Mandi is also doing amazingly well 2 weeks post heartworm treatment. She hasn't missed a beat and is recovering beautifully. Hooray for our special senior girls.
We welcome any donations to off set the medical bills for Miss Mandilyn and Ophelia.
Boat Mountain Rescue Remembered
Serafina in Arkansas--overbred and sickly.
Serafina today--Life is GOOD!
In February of 2006, in one weekend, we brought in 20+ dogs from the Boat Mountain Tragedy. It's hard to believe this was 4 years ago--but I'll never forget all those frightened dogs and puppies arriving off of Erin's truck and running around my garage and backyard. Many are still living the good life--just like Miss Serafina Balerina--that lives 8 blocks from my home now :O).
As a side note--after 4 years of adoption, we realized that Serafina never had an official tick panel done. Over the years she always wore a little dog coat as she used to shiver and she also had some urinary incontinence issues. Lately her momma noticed she wasn't as perky as usual and slept most of the time. While much of this can be attributed to her getting older--Serology testing shows she has antibodies for Ehrlichia and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We started treatment and so far-- the antibody levels for Ehrlichia have decreased quite substantially and coincidentally--Sera no longer wants to wear her pretty pink dog coat. Could she have been fighting these diseases the last 4 years and years before that on the Mountain in Arkansas--most likely.
Further testing on additional Boat Mountain survivors shows Rocky Mountain spotted fever (Ella--formerly Glady Hobbit) and Kimberley is still recovering from Lyme disease, Ehrlichia and RMSF. Sadly--we have lost a few of the Boat Mountain survivors to cancer and we suspect they were also sick for years.
We did test all with 4DX Snap tests and all were apparently negative--but 4 years later and hundreds of dogs tested--we know a 4DX can not catch dogs with low antibody levels and chronic illness.
Here is some recent video of happy Kimberley Hobbit. She is so much more outgoing and happy and healthy now that we caught and started treatment for all her tick borne illnesses. Her incontinence is gone now too!!
Valentine and the Sweathearts!!
Time to eat!!
Naptime!!
Valentine and her Sweathearts (that were born around January 26th) were recently rescued from an overcrowded shelter in Oklahoma. So far Momma and babies are doing well, however tick panel shows Valentine also has Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We will begin her treatment once the pups are weaned. A transport via Pilots and Paws volunteers is in the works and we hope to move our new little family to foster care soon. We believe the puppies are most likely mixed with Border Collie, Australian Shepherd or Australian Cattledog--so Pointing dogs that herd! Mom could also have some herding breed mixed in her--hence long and short haired puppies!! The kids will be available for adoption after their first vaccination at nine weeks--so around the first weekend in April.
Our little Star Wars Sweethearts can be seen in the Dogs for Adoption section.
Here is some recent video of Valentine and her babies now in foster care after their long journey from Oklahoma on 2-25-10. Thanks to Sondra and family keeping them safe in foster care.
UPDATE 4-11-10 The Sweethearts are nearly 11 weeks old now and ready for adoption. So far only Eric and Pat are left and Valentine has moved to her new foster home. Here is some video from when they were younger.
Here is their video upon arrival into foster care after their long journey from Oklahoma 7 weeks ago.
We were contacted the week of January 18th about a pregnant Pointer-mix at the Sangamon County Animal Control located in Springfield, IL. As we have been on an incoming dog freeze--we just couldn't stand the thought of this little lady having a litter of puppies on the cold shelter concrete floor. Thankfully my puppy foster home felt rested enough to dive into another litter. On Wednesday, Jan 20th, two volunteers arranged her pull, rescue and transport to Camp Spanbauer. On the way into town, the foster dad brought her to our vet for an exam which included a fecal, tick panel and X-rays to see how babies Fannie Mae was expecting. Films showed 11 skeletons. On Jan 24th at about 12:45am, Fannie started to deliver. She had 11 puppies and 8 survived. They are all black with a few highlights. We do think Fannie is a Pointer maybe mixed with Border Collie and the pups probably have a little Rottweiler in the mix.
So far Momma and babies are doing well, however tick panel shows Fannie Mae has Rocky Mountain spotted fever and giardia. Sadly on January 26th, Fannie lost two more of her babies. She is so malnourished and dealing with so many health issues that she wasn't producing enough milk for all her babies. Attempts to supplemental feed didn't help either and the two littlest ones just weren't strong enough to survive. The foster family is devastated by the sad loss but are doing their best to help Fanny eat round the clock and get better and so far the remaining six puppies are hanging in there. She is a wonderful momma and is attentive as can be. We do welcome any donations to offset her care.
UPDATE 02-28-10 The Chocolate Candy litter is now 5 weeks old and sadly we lost little Truffle. She became ill during the week and while at the doggie ER, she had a seizure and needed to be let go. The foster family is incredibly sad about the loss of another puppy. The rest of the kids are thriving and can be seen in the Dogs for Adoption section.
UPDATE 3-26-10 Fannie's puppies are nearly 9 weeks old now and ready for adoption. So far Heath, Snickers, Pixie and Kit Kat are spoken for leaving baby Rolo as the last one left from this litter for adoption.
As you read about the other urgent dogs in our foster care program, you will read that Rocky Mountain spotted fever is an epidemic problem in Illinois and the Midwest. If only the vetting and rescue community was up to speed on the plague affecting our pets.
GET TO THE POINT!!
Brandon on point.
Donneigh on point.
On Valentine's day, IBR foster families and adopters met at Fermi Lab in Batavia, IL to do some upland bird testing. IBR volunteer and amateur photographer Yukiko McFarling helped get some amazing photos. Both boys featured above have battled some terrible health issues. Brandon, Field Bred Setter, is recovering nicely from Heartworm disease and is still undergoing treatment for Lyme disease. Donneigh, Field bred Pointer, recently completed treatment for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF).
Both boys suffered neglect and were not protected against ticks with monthly flea and tick preventative. Monthly Heartgard or Interceptor would have prevented Brandon's heartworm disease. Both also had behavior issues due to their illnesses as both Lyme disease and RMSF causes brain damage, OCD behavior and hyperactivity, joint pain, anxiety and many other life threatening issues. Tick borne illnesses also affect dog's sensory capabilities and until treatment, both Brandon and Donneigh probably weren't able to smell the upland birds. We do believe that many infected birddogs are dumped in shelters across the country as they are struggling with tick borne illnesses and can't hunt at no fault of their own.
Sadly, Brandon and Donneigh both would have been euthanized in over-crowded shelters in Illinois had IBR not stepped in. What a waste that would have been...
Check out a video montage of last years event by IBR volunteer Pat Malcor. Hope to see you there!!
Check out the fun from this years event in our Facebook photo album and our Youtube montage. Thanks to all the participants we were able to raise close to $400.
IBR Featured in The Pointing Dog Journal
We are honored to be featured in February's online issue of the Pointing Dog Journal. Photography from IBR volunteer and foster mom Yukiko Akimoto McFarling will also be featured. We are hopeful that telling a few of our success stories in this wonderful publication will inspire folks to consider adopting a homeless birddog.
Happy Thoughts for Baby Tambie
Sweet Tamborine
"I'm too cute to be sick!"
It's hard enough to see any dog in pain, but seeing a puppy suffer is heartbreaking. Baby Tamborine is the daughter of Mandilyn a pure bred English Pointer. She and her sisters were doing very well post being weaned until she started to develop some sores on her body while her lymph nodes became enlarged. Sadly, further testing shows she has puppy strangles. She is beginning treatment now and we are hopeful that she will make a full recovery--poor baby. While Tambie resembles a German Shorthair Pointer, she is 50% English and 50% Mutt--but a cutie pie for sure. Here are Mandi and her girls Tamborine, Harmonica and Clarinette in their Facebook photo album. We welcome any donations to help off set some of her vetting bills.
UPDATE 02-16-10 Tambie is responding well to treatment and should make a full recovery!!
2009 Another Ruff Year--Stats
Our 9th year of operations posed more fundraising challenges as the sick, injured, neglected and abused dogs and puppies came in one after the other. As we scrambled to find funding to help our current population of dogs and puppies in foster care, we were blessed with new enthusiastic help. Our tick borne illness diagnosis, treatment and research also continued as more and more dogs and puppies came into our care infected with Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma and Rocky Mountain spotted fever or the combination of two or three. At this point, when we don't get a positive serology for a tick borne illness--we are still suspicious. We tested 78 dogs in 2009 and 61 were positive (that's 78% or 8 out of 10) and we suspected a few more with odd behaviors had a false negative and we treated anyways. As most of our heartworm positive dogs also had tick borne coinfections, that posed more challenges for us to help these dog recover and find new forever homes. Sadly the hardest issues were our sweet girls with mammary cancer. Our vets only give these dogs a 50/50 chance of surviving beyond 18 months post surgery, but we feel that is a worth the extra time and expense to let these girls learn about how it is to be loved and cared for. If only they had been spayed...
Here are our statistics for our incoming dogs and puppies for 2009.
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease: 8
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease and Anaplasma: 1
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease and RMSF: 11
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease, Ehrlichia & RMSF: 2
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for Ehrlichia: 3
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for Ehrlichia and RMSF: 5
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for RMSF: 25
Dogs & puppies diagnosed and treated for Anaplasma: 1
Dogs with Mammary cancer: 4
Deaf dogs or puppies: 2
Cherry eye surgery: 1
Poor Sweet Duckie (sleeping setter) is now in hospice care. She came to us in February of 2009 after her back leg had been amputated. Upon arrival she was diagnosed with Heartworm disease, Lyme disease, Ehrlichia and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. She also has mammary cancer. After 11 months in foster care and with ongoing treatment, she is heartworm and Lyme negative but she still has chronic Ehrlichia and RMSF. She was too anemic to do any surgery until recently and during her spay it was discovered she needed her spleen removed because of a tumor. This is so sad and the doctor has given her 10 months to live. We are hopeful she will outlive his prognosis. Duckie's story
Please read our Ticked Off! section to learn about this very important health crisis affecting our pets.
Every month SitStay.com donates $200 worth of products to five rescue organizations listed in our Dog Rescue Directory. It's their way of supporting rescue.
Illinois Birddog Rescue was one of the Rescue Organizations selected for the month of December, 2009 and Ohio Birddog Rescue was picked for January of 2010 to receive $200 in product donations from SitStay.com. They have wonderful products and some Human Grade Quality dog food. Thanks a bunch!
Click on their logo to get to their site!
Dogtra 200NCP Electronic Dog Collar Raffle
Congratulations to Miss Jan Burroughs of Iowa for winning the Dogtra E Collar!!
Thanks to 2 wonderful adopters and their generous donations, we are able to raffle off IBR's favorite Electronic Dog Training collar.
Dogtra 200 NCP Gold Features: � 1/2 Mile Range � Nick & Constant Stimulation � Pager non-electrical stimulation � Waterproof collar � 3/4 inch collar fits up to an 18" neck � Water resistant transmitter � Transmitter Weight: 3.9 oz. � Transmitter Dimensions: 3.6"L x 1"W x 1.7"H � Receiver Weight: 3.2 oz. � Receiver Dimensions: 2.3"L x 1.6"W x 1.2"H � No external antenna � FREE lanyard � Rechargeable Ni-MH batteries � 2 -Year Limited Warranty
Tickets are $5 each, 10 for $35 or 35 for $100. Mail ticket requests, checks payable to Illinois Birddog Rescue, P.O. Box 364, Wood Dale, IL, 60191.
Winning ticket will be drawn February 1st, 2010.
GOOD LUCK!!
Foster Home for the Howlidays 2009
Mandilyn & daughters Harmonica, Tamborine and Clarinette
Mandilyn is a beautiful Black and White American Field Bred English Pointer that was in danger of being put to sleep in an overcrowded shelter in Southern Illinois. A wonderful rescuer pulled her to safety and gave her a safe place to stay while she had her puppies on November 21st. On December 12th, Mandi with girls in tow, were flown via Pilots and Paws to Ohio for permanent foster care. Sadly, Mandilyn is heartworm positive and is full of tapeworms which is keeping her generally quite dehydrated as they are sucking the life out of her. Unfortunatly nursing momma dogs can't take the dewormer they need until the pups are weaned so her foster mom is doing her best to allow her to drink and eat as much as she can. We ran a CBC/Chem on December 14th and she does have a few red flags--but her foster mom is doing her best to feed iron rich foods to help with the anemia. Considering all she is struggling with, she is taking wonderful care of her three girls Harmonica, Tamborine and Clarinette. After her girls are weaned, we will start getting Mandi ready for her heartworm treatment and get rid of those awful tapeworms!!!
Mandi is the 12th heartworm positive dog we have rescued in 2009.
Monica, Tam-B and Clare will be ready for adoption the end of January after they have their first vaccination at about 9 weeks old. Once we have their adoption pages up we will be accepting adoption applications. Candidates MUST have some dog experience as these girls may have high energy needs. Adopters MUST also have safe fenced in yards and be non-smoking homes.
We welcome any donations to help off set Mandilyn's medical bills.
Here is our latest rescue puppy--Pluto. He was pulled from an Ohio shelter on 11-11, Veteran's day, by the wife of an active member of the Navy. When the volunteer went to get Pluto from the shelter, she realized that he was in trouble. He was lethargic, dehydrated and his eyes weren't focused on her. He was also vomiting. She rushed Pluto to our wonderful Lancaster vet--Dr. Libby, and as we ruled out Parvovirus, Pluto was given a bag of IV fluids and further diagnosis found he was loaded with round worms and another parasite called Giardia. Pluto is only 21lbs at about 5-6 months old and his paws are flat like chicken feet due to malnutrition. He also has a slight case of Ringworm (fungus). Treatment seems to be working as he was playing with the volunteer's puppy a few hours later. While Pluto spent most of his young life in the shelter, he is adjusting slowly to the sights and sounds of an active household. We are hopeful that our newest little baby will make a full recovery, build his confidence and find his forever home soon!
This one vet visit ran close to $250 WITH our rescue discount. Pluto' story is just one of many in 9 years of dog and puppy rescue.
Please vote for IBR as we need all the help we can get.
America's Favorite Shelter Contest!
Currently IBR is in 24st place--which is amazing considering how many wonderful organizations we are competing with. We need at least 2000 votes in the next few days to catch 5th place and get us back into the $1,000 donation range. As you can see in the paragraphs below--we put our hearts and souls into every rescue dog or puppy we bring in.
The America�s Favorite Animal Shelter contest, sponsored by Care2 and Adopt-a-Pet.com, is a chance for animal lovers everywhere to raise awareness of the need to adopt shelter and rescue animals while helping their favorite shelter win a much-needed donation.
The contest launches on Thursday, November 5th at midnight PT and ends on Wednesday, December 16th at 11:59:59 pm PT. Voting is open to anyone 18 or older in the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec for legal reasons). Only one vote per person allowed -- but you can ask everyone you know to vote also!
This is the third �America's Favorite Animal Shelter� contest sponsored by Care2.com and Adopt-a-Pet.com, who aim to offer hope and help to shelters and rescue groups who work tirelessly to care for homeless animals.
Care2 will donate a total of $25,000 to animal shelters and rescue groups: The 10 groups with the most votes at the end of the contest will win the following prizes: Grand prize: $10,000, Second place: $5,000, Third place: $3,000, Fourth place: $2,000, Fifth place: $1,000, and the groups that place 6th through 10th will each win $500. Also, every week, a randomly selected participating group (five or more votes that week) will win $500.
As a bonus, the 20 contest participants who recruit the most friends to vote for their favorite shelter will receive a $50 gift certificate for pet products as special thank-you gifts for them and their beloved companions.
Facebook users--click on the link to vote for IBR in the Community Giving Contest!! Chase is giving 5 Million ($5,000,000)to the non-profit organizations with the most votes. Please help us receive the recognition we need to help us continue our work!!
Winner can bring his or her own dogs and join IBR volunteer Steve Morgan on a guided tour of some public and private hunting areas near Des Moines Iowa. Winner is responsible for obtaining a valid Iowa Hunting license.
Congrats to our winners Mike Bytner and Rich Tremblay!!
Photo Shoot: This year we want to give the folks that are coming out of town for BB4 the opportunity to work their dogs adopted or foster dogs on upland birds. Yukiko McFarling will be taking photos and these in turn may be used for Caf� Press fundraising items or will be added to the WHOA! Doggie. Coffee table book. To off set the cost of the birds- we are asking for a $50 donation per dog and we will be using pheasant, chukkar or both. No fire arms will be used and new dogs will work on the end of a check cord. Event will be held at the DesPlaines Wildlife Conservation area in Wilmington , IL on the 4th. We will start promptly at 11am CST and folks wanting to participate need to contact Lisa Lisa@luckypets.net to reserve their brace or braces. We plan on working many dogs so folks coming in from later in the afternoon should still be able to play.
Directions to the photo shoot: FROM I-55 North or South- exit Arsenal Rd. (1st Exit just after you go over a fun steel bridge over a river). This is south of 80 also. At the stop sign you turn LEFT and follow that road (curving south) past the Dow Chemical Plant. It�s about a mile or so. We will be on the right side at the first main gravel driveway. We will also have signs.
Birddog Balooza 4: October 5th will celebrate our 8th year in operation with our infamous family reunion. The event will be held at the Hammel Woods forest preserve. We will be at the Crumby Recreation area. The entrance is right off of Black Road, (east of rte 59, north of Jefferson St). View this map to see the Crumby Rec area at the top and the dog park in the upper right side of the map. The event will start at noon. Folks can come early to let their dogs run at the dog park. This will be catered. As usual, we will have some demos and our big fundraising raffle. Please make your reservations early!! Download the Invitation!
For hotel information, click here to see a listing of local dog friendly hotels.
If you can�t attend but would like to contribute an item for the raffle- please contact Lisa. We are always looking for fun Pointer/Setter or dog related items.
Take a look at our recent newsletter. Highlights include news about Abe's first Hunt Test qualifier!! WOO HOO!
We also have more information on our very important Tick Panel research including the frightening data on the frequency of incoming infected dogs and puppies and also our latest colaboration with North Carolina State University's Vector Borne research lab.
Minnesota Garage Sale to help Illinois Birddog Rescue
Our MN garage sale was a big success. Thank you to all who helped out and shopped!
The Minnesota group of IBR (Illinois Bird Dog Rescue) is holding a benefit garage sale to support IBR's rescue efforts in Minnesota, and throughout the upper Midwest. 100% of the proceeds will help IBR fund rescues, and medical costs.
The sale includes many household items, but also many dog related products. Some pet food manufacturers have donated samples.
Please come out and meet some of our adopted furry friends too!
Sale Hours:
Thursday, Sept 11th - 8:00AM to 5:00pm
Friday, Sept 12th - 8:00AM to 5:00pm
Saturday Sept 13th - 8:00AM to 3:00PM
(no early birds please)
Location:
19584 Evergreen Trail
Farmington, MN
*Follow signs to the Charleswood Neighborhood Sale* The IBR Fundraiser sale is located in the same neighborhood. Contact Bryan at bryan_appel@yahoo.com if you have items to donate.
Dyson DC14 Animal Upright Vacuum Raffle -- DRAWING JUNE 21st
This raffle will help with medicals bills generated by Sweet Georgia Peach aka Reba and Sir Wallingford from Murfreesboro. Reba, the pointer, has been diagnosed with mammary cancer and needs an immediate mastectomy. Wally, the setter, has many ailments including heartworm disease, Erlichea (a tick bourne disease), Spondylosis (spinal osteoarthritis), many intestinal parasites, and neurological issues from being kept in a small cage.
Tickets are $5 each. The drawing will be held the last day of Spring- June 21st (spring cleaning tie in).
THANK YOU AND GOOD LUCK!
Garage Sale Fundraiser
Who?: All proceeds benefit Illinois Birddog Rescue
What?: Annual Spring Garage Sale
When?: Friday May 16th and Saturday May 17th 9am to 4pm
Why?: To help raise funds for the medical needs of the many homeless dogs in our organization.
On March 15th we hosted our 3rd annual hunt and photo shoot near the Des Plaines Conservation Area off of Arsenal and Blodgett Roads in Wilmington, IL. View photo album 1 and photo album 2. We hope to use photos for the 2009 IBR Calendar and other items created for our Caf� Press Store. View more photos from previous events featuring the work of Yukiko McFarling.
Garage Sale Fundraiser
Who?: All proceeds benefit Illinois Birddog Rescue
What?: Annual Spring Garage Sale
When?: Friday May 16th and Saturday May 17th 9am to 4pm
Why?: To help raise funds for the medical needs of the many homeless dogs in our organization.
Quilt and Christie Print Raffle to fund Elton's surgery
Congratulations Sharon Cisna of Maryland, winner of the prints and Nance Ceccareli of Idaho, winner of the quilt! Thank you to everyone who helped us raise funds for Elton!
We are putting a Raffle together for our wonderful foster boy Elton. Elton is an approximately 6 year old setter boy that has an acute Hiatel Hernia which prevents him from leading the good life he should be. We have tried to alleviate his discomfort with chiropractic adjustments, however, the hernia is so bad that those alone will not take care of the issues. Elton is in constant distress from heartburn, which causes him to drink water excessively, pant constantly, at times throw up his food and due to the excessive drinking causes him to have some accidents in the house. We have sought medical advice from a specialist and Elton is going to need surgery to to restore his quality of life.
We have been blessed with the opportunity to raffle off two very special Items!
John Good has graciously donated a hand made quilt to raffle off.
And the artist Robert Christie donated two of his beautiful English Setter prints. Robert Christie is one of the leading artists who paint wildlife and birddogs. (Please note the frames pictured are not included.Actually photos of the prints will be uploaded soon.)
"The Runners" by Robert Christie
"Point and a Dunk" by Robert Christie
TICKET PRICES ARE AS FOLLOWS!
1 Ticket FOR $2.00
6 Ticets FOR $10.00
12 Tickets FOR $20.00
20 Tickets FOR $30.00
YOU WILL NEED TO SPECIFY WHICH ITEM YOU ARE PURCHASING TICKETS FOR! IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY YOUR HAND AT BOTH ITEMS PLEASE SPECIFY HOW MANY OF EACH TICKET YOU WILL LIKE! ie: FOR $20.00 YOU COULD HAVE 6 OF EACH TICKET!
IF YOU ARE SENDING FOR YOU TICKETS PLEASE INCLUDE A SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE
On March 15th we hosted our 3rd annual hunt and photo shoot near the Des Plaines Conservation Area off of Arsenal and Blodgett Roads in Wilmington, IL. View photo album 1 and photo album 2. We hope to use photos for the 2009 IBR Calendar and other items created for our Caf� Press Store. View more photos from previous events featuring the work of Yukiko McFarling.
Bronson's Big Day!
Bronson, aka IBR's Rugged Vigilante, is on the road to his Junior Hunter Title! He earned his first qualifying ribbon on Labor Day. Bronson came into rescue extremely scared. Read the story of his transition under Rescue Dog Brags and follow his progress by checking out Bronson's Blog. Bronson is still looking for a home! If you are interested in adopting this special boy, please submit an online adoption application.
Hobbit Family Reunion
On Sunday, September 16, we held the first annual Hobbit Family Reunion! It was a blast!
Check out the photos from the event on the Hobbit Family Reunion Blog
In March of 2006, Illinois Birddog Rescue took in over 20 dogs from The Boat Mountain Tragedy in Arkansas. These dogs became affectionately known as "The Hobbits" because of their smaller stature. We will be holding the first annual Hobbit Family Reunion for our adopters this September.
2007 English Setter Association of America National Specialty
October 6th and 7th, All Breed Dog Agility Trial in Sharonville, Ohio.
Stop by and visit the Illinois Birddog Rescue informational booth. Also be sure to catch some of our adopted rescue dogs competing in agility at the event.
View Thelmalou doing agility at the ESA National Specialty in 2005.
2007 English Setter Association of America National Specialty
October 8th, English Setter Only Hunt Test in Wilmington Ohio.
Come out and watch some of our adopted rescue setters show off their bird-finding skills in the ESA National Specialty Hunt Test.
View Rocky�s Juniors Highlights from 2005.
Pheasant Fest 2007
Illinois Birddog Rescue will be attending the 2007 National Pheasant Fest in Des Moines, Iowa January 19 thru 21. Stop by our booth, say hello, shop our promotional merchandise, and meet a couple of our adoptable dogs.
Birddog Balooza 2 Recap
Our second annual Birddog Balooza was held on Oct 15. What an awesome event! We had dog park fun, agility and pointing demos, food, raffles, and lots of fun! Many alumni and volunteers turned out to visit. Thanks to all who came out to support our rescue and show off their doggies.
View the Fall/Winter IBR Newsletter for a re-cap of 2004. Click here.
Garage Sale Success!
The first annual IBR Garage Sale was a huge success! Thanks to Barb and her family and friends for the fabulous set up! Also thanks to everyone who donated items, came out to help, and shopped for those hidden treasures! All proceeds benefit the dogs in our rescue. If you couldn't make this year's sale...stayed tuned for details about our next sale!
Petshow Pictures
< Illinois Birddog Rescue, Inc. was represented at the Chicagoland Family Petshow. Checkout some pictures from the event!
Warning! ProHeart 6 could be dangerous to your pet!
If you are using, or plan to use ProHeart 6, please read this news report from CBS 2 Chicago. The FDA addresses concerns about the safety of the 6 month heartworm prevention shot.
January 4, 2003
Today we launched our new website! We will be adding more information and features in the weeks to come. Please check back frequently!
