Talk to the PAW!!

This fundraiser is dedicated to my foster senior English Setter Daisy and every IBR rescue dog that has been diagnosed, treated, or suffered from the terrible epidemic of Lyme disease and co infections affecting our country. This includes our handsome Bjorn featured in the video and he had been waiting 3 years to find his forever home.

My special girl Daisy is fighting heartworms, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and because of years of neglect, she is also fighting terrible renal disease and I can only hope I can give her a good quality if life while she is with me. Having lost poor suffering Pointer Clancy who also struggled with heartworms and several tick borne diseases, and having lost my Pointer Lani to complications of his long battle from his Lyme and RMSF within two weeks of each other, I put aside my grief and brought Daisy into my home and my care.

Illinois Birddog Rescue is a champion for spreading the word about better testing and treatment for Lyme disease and co infections. With nearly 100% of our incoming rescues being infected, we spend hundreds and thousands of dollars helping these dogs get better and finding their forever homes. As an adopter of several dogs and cats infected with Lyme disease and co infections and fighting Lyme disease personally for the past 19 years, while helping so many foster dogs also fight these horrible diseases, I feel the best I can do is share what we have learned and hope our message is getting out there. I am often contacted by concerned pet owners from coast to coast due to the information provided at the IBR home page and many at risk dogs have been successfully diagnosed and treated once their vets learn about our successes.

For the past 2 years, Dr. John Rimkunas has been testing and treating most of the incoming IBR dogs after having adopted a Pointer and Beagle with at least 3 tick borne diseases including Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Having a DVM see how important the better testing is while helping our dogs recover has been a blessing.

The cost to test one of our dogs is close to $200. The cost to treat for chronic disease can be hundreds more. The test we use is through IDEXX labs and is code #371 which is IFA Serology for Ehrlichia, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We have found that the same company's highly promoted 4DX snap test technology misses early disease and since it only tests for one Ehrlichia and Lyme disease strain, dogs coming in from other parts of the country - especially the south- are not being properly diagnosed. The scariest part about the snap test is it also doesn't test for the Rocky Mountain spotted fever. We have found RMSF to be the most common co infection with nearly all of our infected dogs and the health complications from RMSF besides Lyme disease can be very troubling. We have found dogs infected with RMSF from coast to coast.

Additionally, we have found that 100% of our heartworm positive dogs are also fighting tick borne disease. Finding the co infections in a dog already immuno compromised with a heart full of worms is critical to their long term recovery. Finding Daisy's tick borne co infections and treating while doing the slow kill method to kill the heartworms is the only way to help her. I am doing my best to help the long term damage to her kidneys, but any time she loses her appetite or coughs, I worry.

My oldest dog is Buckwheat. He was bit by a tick in 2008 and has been treated the past 7 years for Lyme disease. At 15 plus, he still has antibodies for Lyme disease, but thankfully long term treatment has helped him and my wish for every adopter is that they get their dogs into their teens and not have terrible health issues and huge vet bills along the way. When you Talk to the PAW, you are stating that you are not going to allow your dog to suffer and YOU WANT your vet to be better educated to help your pet live a happy long painfree life with better tick borne disease education.