Derrick’s Story

When Derrick first arrived at Wanderers’ Rest, he was pretty shy and acted as if he was defeated (maybe because he was dumped by his owners?). By day two, Derrick was already coming out of his shell.  He would get very excited when he saw anyone! Every person he met was instantly his friend and we soon realized that this boy is nothing but a love bug that just wants your attention. He won our hearts over in no time.

After a couple of days of Derrick being here, and less hope that we would find his owner, we gave Derrick a much needed make-over (bath, nail clippings, etc.). A short while later, a staff member started noticing that Derrick was coughing and we were instantly concerned about kennel cough. Now, we wish that is what it was.

Derrick was soon assessed again by staff to check on his weight and draw his blood for his Lyme and Heartworm tests. We half expect all of the dogs that come into our shelter will be positive for Lyme with it’s increasing occurrences in our area. But our hearts sank when we found out he was Heartworm Positive. Now, heartworm is treatable, especially if it isn’t too severe or left untreated for too long. We know it was starting to effect him as this was the reason for his cough.

We scheduled an appointment with one of our veterinarians to determine the best course of treatment for this sweet boy (hoping that it wasn’t too late). Luckily, he is at a stage where treatment should work and they provided us a treatment plan for him. He is currently in his first stages of treatment and has yet to receive his injections, but we are in need of a foster family or foster-to-adopt family that can keep him calm during the course of his treatments and it is critical for his health.

A home without other pets would be best, due to the nature of this treatment and need to remain calm. Derrick also knows when his food contains pills, so he needs to be tricked using very yummy human food to hide the pills in. Staff tend to spoil him with very small amounts of human food that allow us to hide his pills (and he thinks it’s fantastic!).

You can watch Derrick’s video by clicking here. Please reach out to us at 315-697-2796 or place a foster/adoption application in on this website if you are interested in helping Derrick. If this isn’t an option for you, but you still want to help Derrick and other animals like him, we partnered with Tees n’ Transfers to create an online store open until 5/9/2021 to help raise funds for these animals. Click here to learn more about the store!