Illinois English Bulldog Rescue

This is Frida!
Frida was born with spina bifida, a congenital defect of the spinal cord. As a result, she has some weakness in her hind limbs and is a fully incontinent diaper girl. She doesn’t let this hold her back, though! Frida has gained so much strength and balance since she’s been in foster care that you would never know from looking at her that she has any mobility issues. She loves to go on walks around the block and is always game for a shoulder rub or back scratches.
Frida’s ideal living situation would be a home with a dog-friendly sofa, not a ton of stairs and access to a fenced yard for play. Frida’s regular physical maintenance includes all of the normal bulldog stuff like cleaning face wrinkles and ears, administering eye ointment for her dry eye, and moisturizing her cute little nose as needed. In addition, Frida requires diaper changes every 4-5 hours during the day. Frida needs help expressing her bowels during diaper changes, which may sound intimidating but is actually pretty quick and easy, and it means she rarely has a p**py diaper. Like all diaper dogs, she requires daily diaper-free "naked time” to allow her skin to breathe and air out. Currently she is crated with no diaper overnight and any time her foster parents need to be away from home longer than 4-5 hours. Her crate needs to be cleaned daily and her bedding laundered. Frida loves to have a warm bath and will park herself next to the tub at the slightest hint of a bath time.

Please share this post and lets find that very special family for Frida
https://www.ilenglishbulldogrescue.org/

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The calendar is excellent quality. It is filled with 153 IEBR alums. It has over 300 pictures throughout the collage pages. The calendar also has a lot of beautiful rescue stories told by the loving families that loved each and every one of these beautiful bulldogs.
It is truly something special!

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Sofi is sad because she just doesn't understand why she hasn't found her forever family yet. Help us get her out to as many people as possible by sharing this post.

Learn more about Sofi though our website here: https://www.ilenglishbulldogrescue.org/

Holiday Auction starts in 2 weeks! Auction starts November 15, at 8 AM CST and ends November 17, at 3 PM CST. We have so many great items! Be sure to stay tuned. Sneak Peeks will be coming soon.

Grey is living her best life when she can play ball and get lots of attention! Foster mom says that generally they go out in the evening to play ball for a bit. After work and dinner Grey waits by the door ready to go. She is literally OBSESSED! And she actually brings the ball back to have it thrown a majority of the time.

Grey is a silly girl. Her foster mom filled the bathtub up last week and
Grey stood there patiently waiting to get in. When she realized it wasn’t for her she wasn’t too thrilled. She put her front legs up o the ledge hoping she could sneak in. Foster mom had to keep telling her it wasn’t for her. 😂

If you are interestd in Grey or any of our current available fosters. Please visit our website and learn more about them. https://www.ilenglishbulldogrescue.org/

In the first 3 days,
Feeling overwhelmed
May be scared and unsure of what is going on
Not comfortable enough to be themselves
May not want to eat or drink
Shut down and want to curl up in a crate or hide under a table
Testing the boundaries
After 3 weeks,
Starting to settle in
Feeling more comfortable
Realizing this could be his/her new home
Figured out their environment
Getting used to the routine
Letting guard down and starting to show some of their personality
Behavior issue may start showing up
After 3 months,
Finally comfortable in their new home
Building trust and a true bond
Gained a complete sense of security with their new family
Set in their new routines
Showing happiness

In the spirit of fun we here at IEBR wish all of you a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Doesn't Sargie look adorable? Thank you to his new family for sharing him in this A-DOR-ABLE costume. We just had to share it with all of you!!!
We hope it brings a smile to your face like it did to ours!
Have fun and be safe!

Gucci is a 5 year old English Bulldog smaller than most. Gucci has recently quit her job as a puppy making machine, for a life of morning walks in the cool crisp air, chasing balls and finding sticks, belly scratches, and afternoon naps on a comfy couch, and snacks!!
Gucci is a very well behaved, and laid back. She loves to cuddle up next to you while watching her favorite movie “Life with Pets” She is house broken and crate trained. Gucci loves her fur brothers and sister. No cats in this house so we can’t say if she likes fur covered mouse chasers.
Gucci is learning basic commands at the moment, like sit, down, stay, and leave it. She will only perform these feats when prompted with a delicious cheesy snack. Gucci loves to go on walks! As a matter of fact she won the crown for best newcomer at walking! She owns a good walk!

If you are interested in Gucci please visit our website: www.ilenglishbulldogrescue.org, and read through our adoption criteria to see if you meet our requirements. If you do, please fill out an application to adopt.

Gracie wanted to say hi to everyone. She is outside in this beautiful Fall weather getting a dose of vitamin D.
Gracie is one of IEBR's forever fosters. She has spina bifida and suffers from chronic UTI's. There is nothing that can be done besides treating them. Her wonderful foster parents have looked into all kinds of preventives and supplements to ward them off. Unfortunately due to the way her organs are malformed the infections are inevitable. Each and every time Gracie gets a UTI the doctors must do a culture to be sure the antibiotic is the right one. This is to prolong or hopefully ward the bacteria being resistant to the treatment.

Send Gracie some love!

To help in the medical bills for Gracie you can donate through this link
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Sofi wanted to be sure everyone did not forget about her. She knows Billy's story was a lot, and understood why we wanted it to be told. However she wants everyone to know that she is STILL looking for her forever home.
It will soon be 1 year since Sofi came into rescue. She is a sweetheart but would do best being an only dog in a home that is mostly quiet. Having a fenced in yard for Sofi is important because she is a free p**per. She also tends to want to chase after moving cars or go after the other four legged passerbys.
Sofi does love to take walks but when those distractions are around she needs to be held onto tightly, Sofi loves, love! She needs her own human that wants to make Sofi the center of their world.

Visit our website to learn more about bulldogs in general and read our adoption guidelines. Complete an application. Lets find Sofi her forever family!!
https://www.ilenglishbulldogrescue.org/

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Billy Chapter 13- Feeling safe and being happy

Today Billy still has reservations about his foster dad but he has come a long long way. He easily goes in and outside with foster dad at the door. Foster dad can even put Billy’s harness on occasionally. This was a gigantic step of trust for Billy. Its still not a consistent but it happens much more and much easier than we expected.
Billy has a strong personality and because of this, along with his fear and anxiety, Billy requires consistency and structure. He is a smart boy and being a bulldog he is quite manipulative if allowed. Billy knows that he has rules that must be followed. Consistency really is the key for Billy. He learns quickly and does a great job at following commands to stay, and sit, and come.
Billy requires a strong human that is kind gentle, who is also firm and consistent. He would not do well with a human that is wishy washy and does not have structure. Billy is considered a special needs dog that would do best with a female and a very patient and caring male. It must be understood that Billy may NEVER fully trust some humans. Because of this Billy requires very special care and to be treated with a lot of love and patience while making sure the rules are followed. Billy is a sweet sweet boy who is now thriving and happy. Yes, his PTSD shows its ugly head here and there. But he is in a place where he is leaps and bounds from where we started. He is a happy healthy beautiful boy!

Because of his special needs situation Billy requires 6 different medications and a special diet. This is costly. The medication cost alone is $190 month.
If you are interested in adopting Billy or would like to invest in Billy by a donation or to sponsor his care please visit our website https://www.ilenglishbulldogrescue.org/ or donate through this link
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Billy – Chapter 12 Living life with anxiety like a champ!!!

Billy came to IEBR with a host of problems. It took a lot of time, money and care to get Billy physically healthy and a lot of patience, understanding and love to get him to a point mentally to function around the man of the house. Although we do not know what Billy endured in his life before rescue, it is assumed he was possibly abused by a man. Billy has some other minor issues that lead us to believe that he might have been hit and/or kicked in his back end. You see, Billy’s tail does not move and he has some disorder of his rear end. While sleeping or when he was very fearful 'running to get away', he will drop a turd. This just happens, its almost like there is a minor lack of control. His Xray’s did show some spinal abnormalities but it was assumed that was a genetic condition. However, with his fear of anything being behind him and the pure terror he has when foster dad is carrying an object leads us to a different conclusion.
We will never really know.
Come back for the conclusion to this journey and read Billy Chapter 13- Feeling safe and being happy ❤

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With love ❤ Billy ❤

Billy Chapter 11- Doing the hard things

It takes a few weeks for the medications to fully take ahold. Meanwhile by the direction of the vet we were having foster dad hold Billy's leash when we went on our daily walks with the three dogs. This would show Billy that foster dad is not that scary. Billy did well on the walks but he would not come through the gate with foster dad. Baby steps and patience. After about 3 weeks of the medication Billy did seem to calm a bit but still had fear. The fear would wax and wane. He was still not comfortable when foster dad was standing, but would go to him for pets if he was sitting on the couch or on one of the chairs in the entry. This was a huge step for Billy. Little by little with direction from the vet Billy started to trust foster dad a little more. There were triggers for Billy that would send him backwards in the trust department such as when foster dad would crush a milk jug to throw it out. This would send Billy running into a wall again. What did this poor dog endure? Foster mom could do the same thing and he was fine. It was just the dad that would trigger those fears. It was clear that anytime foster dad was carrying an object it was a trigger. PTSD of sorts. This would set Billys trust back.
Next chapter will bring us to how Billy is doing today. Please come back and read Billy – Chapter 12 Living life with anxiety like a champ!!!

Billy Chapter 10 - The healing continues

After Billy physically healed from the neuter we watched to see if he reacted differently. There were improvements related to his p*eing in the house and eventually he was able to be without the evening diaper and the belly band. It took a lot of consistency and praise to get Billy to this point. He is a very smart boy but his anxiety sets him back from time to time. Back to his fear of foster dad. Through all of the physical issues Billy was dealing with his fear of the foster dad was still very much present. Billy would not go through a door that foster dad was nearby. This hampered the ability for foster dad to let him out to go potty. If foster mom was away the only way foster dad could let him out was to open the door and walk away from it. Now getting him inside was another challenge. Foster dad would open the back door and prop it then go out the patio door. Since Billy was afraid of him, he would run into the house to ‘get away’ from him. Needless to say, foster mom did not go anywhere too often during this time. It was quite the challenge. It was clear at this point that we would have to put Billy on some sort of anxiety treatment to help his anxiety and fear. This was no way to live for Billy or the foster parents. Billy was started on an anti-anxiety medication along with a daily melatonin and gabapentin combo. We are going to leave it there for this chapter. But hope you will come back tomorrow for Billy- Chapter 11- Doing hard things

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THANK YOU for coming along with us on Billy's journey thus far. We hope you will continue to follow us through to his current chapter. Now let's get into Chapter 9 – Billy continues to heal

Since Billy is now feeling much better. (The gagging and vomiting was taking a toll on him) He would be able to get the big surgery ‘The Neuter’. To give you a better picture of how long Billy was enduring the GI issues, it is now the end of March. His neuter is scheduled for April 1, 2024. It took 4 months to get Billy healthy enough for the surgery. We were also hoping the neuter would change some of Billy's personality issues related to his fear and anxiety. That was not getting better. We will go into that in a later chapter. Billy did not do well at the vets due to his anxiety. He had to be heavily sedated during all those visits to during the sickness and GI diagnosis. When Billy feels threatened, he will growl and not let you near him. He has never feared his foster mom and has never shown any sign of fear around her. She was his safe place. With foster mom by his side, he trusted others a lot more. This vet that Billy sees for his regular checkups, immunizations, and the neuter is an amazing patient and understanding vet. She is simply the best. She gave Billy anything he needed to become comfortable with her. The surgery went off without a hitch, and he recovered beautifully. Billy is on his way to healing. We would wait to see if the neuter changed his personality before considering medications. We wanted to make sure we were allowing Billy time to heal properly and let nature heal if possible.
Come back for the next chapter, Billy Chapter 10- The healing continues

Billy Chapter 8 – Diarrhea no more!
As stated in the previous chapter Billy’s gagging and daily vomiting has all but subsided. However, the treatment and food change did not resolve the diarrhea. We can say that his stools did get a little better in consistency, but it was still quite soft, even runny at times. Billy also seemed to have problems holding it overnight. He was already sporting a belly band during the day because he would p*e in the house (still not potty trained). It was thought that his difficulty with potty training could be partly because he was not neutered. However, the neuter could not happen until his stool was solid. So, foster mom started to diaper Billy in the evenings to be sure there was not a stinky surprise in the waking hours. Foster mom changed food again, hoping that would help, but the low-fat food did make things better more often. The stool just didn’t seem to get to the solid-state no matter what food he was on. Psyllium was added to his diet with little change. There was the option to keep him on an antibiotic for the stool that had not been tried. It is a drug called Tylan powder. The problem with this drug is that it is bitter, and the dogs just won’t take it because of the taste. Being that Billy is almost ravenous with food he ate with the powder but it wasn’t pleasant for him. It was clear that he would not tolerate this long term. His stool was getting better with this medication!!! It was much better. It was actually solid! To make it easier to keep Billy on this medication, his foster mom started to put the powder into capsules. Billy continued to have solid stools. It felt like it would never happen, but he was doing great! Billy started to gain weight, too. He went from 38 pounds when he came to IEBR to a healthy 53 pounds today. The resolution of the GI issues allowed Billy to be ready for his neuter and hopefully being able to be fully potty trained.
Come back for Chapter 9 – Billy continues to heal

Billy Chapter 7 – Resolution and relief …. Could it be?

After many failed attempts and too many visits to the ER and vet, we had to try something new. Billy would be seen by a specialist, an internal medicine specialist, to be exact. The clinic that was in the area had a waiting list of 6 months before they would be able to see Billy. We just could not let this boy go through this for that long, so we began looking for other options. We were able to find an opening at another clinic only an hour away that could get Billy in with a relatively short wait. The wait time here was only 8 weeks. We took that appointment, and foster mom continued to log his daily struggle. Every puke, every p**p, every single thing that may have helped get to the bottom of the problem was logged.
The clinic was happy to have such great details from foster mom along with all of the records from the regular vet and the ER visits. All of this was studied before our visit to them. There weren’t many more test that they could do, but they did do an ultrasound. There was an abnormality found that could be the problem. It was Lacteal dilation (Lacteal dilation, also known as lymphangiectasia, is a condition where the lacteals in the small intestines to dilate), as well as mesenteric Lymphadenopathy (a condition where the lymph nodes in the mesentery swell and become inflamed). Ultimately Billy’s working diagnosis was Lymphangiectasia. With this as the suspected culprit of his ongoing issues, he was started on a low-fat kibble. Along with this, he was started on an anti-nausea medication and antacid.
Billy slowly started to have less and less vomiting, but the gagging continued for a while, but eventually, that started to disappear. He was now only experiencing this 1-2 x per week instead twice a day. Foster mom recognized that if Billy was gaggy upon waking up, she would get a handful of kibble into Billy before doing anything else, including outside time. This seemed to ward off a full fledge vomit session. It looked like the vomiting was under control. Now for the diarrhea.
Come back for Chapter Billy Chapter 8 – Diarrhea no more!

Billy Chapter 6 – Sick as a dog!

Billy had obvious GI issues the day he arrived, and initially, we thought it was from the worms and the treatment he was taking to treat those nasty things. However, after he was off the medication, the GI issues (diarrhea) and later gagging and puking continued. In fact, it seemed to get worse. The diarrhea was daily and would wax and wane in the spectrum from very soft to watery. This would happen without changes to his diet or environment. He had every parasite test along with a diarrhea panel, all of which was normal. His blood test was all relatively normal, nothing that pointed in any one direction. He had thyroid test, a test to rule out Cushing’s disease, and a host of other tests. He also had multiple x-rays done. The X-rays were done due to his vomiting. Billy would vomit almost daily. Because of this, he was seen in the ER 3 times to rule out aspiration from the vomiting. Usually, he would begin gagging in the morning just after waking up. The gagging and vomiting went on for about an hour each time. Billy would also start vomiting later in the evening, usually after his evening nap, just before bed. Again, the vomiting went on for approximately 1 hour each time. During this time, multiple different causes were questioned, reflux, megaesophagus, respiratory, was it his anxiety and fear he was experiencing? With those possible causes, different treatments and changes to his diet were tried. Nothing was helping. Foster mom started logging everything Billy ate, how much he ate, she logged the meds he took, the times of day his episodes started. She even logged the temperatures outside as it seemed that the vomiting was triggered after he went outside (He always was taken out after he woke up because he was being potty trained as you might have read in a previous chapter). There seemed to be no answers.

Come back tomorrow for the conclusion to the saga of the never-ending diarrhea and vomiting. Billy Chapter 7 – Resoluton and relief …. Could it be?

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Billy Chapter 5 – Making a friend in my new home

As stated in previous chapters, Billy's foster brother Larry was not thrilled that there was a new dog in the home, and was not very friendly with this new dog that was taking the human attention away from him. The rescue has protocol for situations like this. The protocol is to allow the two to see each other but not allow them to be together. This is to get the two dogs used to seeing each other. The next step was to walk them separately but at the same time (each on a different side of the street). Billy LOVES to take walks. When they were out walking Larry could have cared less about Billy being there, and soon we were able to walk the two side by side, at the same time keeping them at a safe distance from one another. After a few weeks of the walks, the foster dad had a talk with Larry and tested the interaction. Larry and Billy were good with each other. They were only allowed together with supervision, but they were doing well. Eventually, they became friends and played with one another for months.
Unfortunately, today, there is a bit of what we think is jealousy coming from Billy, but we will talk about that in another chapter.

In the next chapter, we will talk about Billy's GI issues and how he has overcome those. Come back later today for Billy Chapter 6 – Sick as a dog!

Chapter 4 of Billy – Learning to be part of the home

The fact that Larry was not having Billy as a housemate made Billy's first days a little stressful... As mentioned in the earlier chapter, Billy and Sofi got along pretty well, except for the p*e wars they were having on the Livingroom carpet. It also was clear that Billy was not fully potty trained. On top of that, he had the diarrhea. Foster mom made potty training priority one! Unfortunately, during his initial vetting, it was discovered that Billy had hook worms. This was not surprising since he was a stray and likely ate and drank things that were full of all kinds of parasites and bacteria. Foster mom quickly got the worms treated, but because he joined the other two in the yard in the days before the diagnosis, all three had to be treated. (fun times for foster mom!) It was great news when all three came back negative after the treatment.
The other thing that needs to be mentioned is Billy's fear of any loud noise or any noise at all that happened behind him. He would literally jump and run without hesitation and would sometimes end up slamming himself into a wall or door because he felt he ‘needed to get away’ from whatever the noise was. It was sad to see how fearful he was with just about everything. Billy was also very, very fearful of his foster dad. Billy would do whatever he could to NOT be near foster dad. He would run past foster dad when he had to get past him to go to another place in the house. It is clear that Billy related his new foster dad with some past trauma he had experienced. What happened to him? We wish we knew for sure!

In the next chapter, we will talk about Larry and Billy's budding friendship and how that came about. Stay tuned for Billy Chapter 5 – Making a friend in my new home

Chapter 3 – Billy meets his new foster family

Billy arrived at his new foster family in the evening of November 25th, and he came into the home like a wrecking ball. He promptly p**ped on the Livingroom carpet and then p*ed in the doggie bed that was there. The two new kids, Sofi and Larry, were wondering who this guy was. Larry did not like the situation. There was definite aggression towards the new guy from Larry. It was clear that Larry and Billy would need to be kept separate until they got used to each other and had time to be properly introduced to one another.

Sofi was good with Billy at first, but there was a little jealousy that took the form of who could be the best at p*eing on the new foster moms Livingroom carpet. That was not a fun game for foster mom, and the carpet ended up meeting its demise due to the repeated battle of the p*es after a couple of attempts to clean up. Once the carpet was removed, it appeared game over. Thankfully, they did not start the game over in another part of the house!!
Come back later today for Chapter 4 of Billy – Learning to be part of the pack