Just picked up this badass from Petsmart today through the local animal shelter.
He's 4-5 years old was found a stray.  Strong positive for heart worms so any input about that would be great.

This is the only picture i have of him right now, i wasnt able to bring him home today because he is getting nutered tomorrow. I guess it's some rule they have at the animal shelter.

They're neutering and releasing him to you with heartworms, or he's already been cleared of them?

I will be getting him with heartworms and is getting neutered on monday when i pick him up

Oh, that's unusual. You'll probably want to start treatment right away. Your vet will coach you through it. They're going to tell you to keep him from running around. It's not going to be easy keeping him from exercising. Poor thing. You can do research online about heartworm treatment, so you know what to ask your vet. I hope y'all get through it without any trouble.

eta: I hate to say this but maybe try to not get too attached yet. Some dogs don't make it through HW treatment and there's a reason shelters don't usually neuter HW positive dogs, especially those with heavy infestations.

Yeah, we knew the risks going into it but even if the worst happens it was worth it to give him a good home.
We are for sure planning on starting treatment asap, will talk to vet more about it on Monday.

It's really awesome you're adopting him. And taking care of his medical needs. He's beautiful.

I recently considered adopting a dog that had heart worms.  In the course of this I talked to a friend of mine who is a vet.  Treatment goes like this:

-dog goes on regular heart worm meds for 3 months to kill all of the immature parasites
-for 6-8 weeks, the dog goes on a stronger medication to kill the mature worms.  i think that this is arsenic-based
-you only have to restrict the dogs activity during the 6-8 week treatment for the mature worms.  during this time, it's important to keep the dogs heart rate from skyrocketing.  walks are ok, but free play is not.  

My friend told me that out of the couple dozen dogs she treated for heartworms, there was only one that died.  that dog's owner took the dog to the beach and allowed it to run around and play with other dogs.

cool. thanks for the info

Good luck!  Hope he pulls through; good for you taking on a tough case like him.

I have always loved German Shepherds. My female mya is around a year old now.

Finally got him home today lol with a cone around his head and ace bandage around his incision.
I quickly found out that he really has no manners, so im going to have to work a little with that.  But so far he's super chill, probably just from the surgery, im sure tomorrow he'll be a totally different dog lol

We rescued "Gunner" 2 years ago at 14 months old with heart worms. How anyone could neglect such a magnificent animal is beyond me. The treatment is expensive and difficult for an energetic dog. In our case it was certainly well work it. GSD's are not like any other dogs I've had in my life.

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a620/CYB29/663f6958301611e29b5b1231380491b1_7_zps7592c134.jpg
We rescued Boomer when he was a month old from the shelter. He turned 2 in November. He was the only male from the litter and one of his sisters was yellow, like his neck. Hands down the best dog i have ever had.

another pic of him.  your guys' shepherds follow you everywere? lol Tank does, i dont mind it but it drives my wife insane.

yep. if we move in the house, Boomers on it. Usuallly he will sit on the couch and watch the road to see if anyone pulls in lol

Mine did. Velcro dogs, I tell ya.

Good luck. God bless you and Tank.

mine loves to follow my 12 year old son and his buddies. When they want to play in the back yard and she is out there, they will sometimes trick her and bring her inside...since she follows them everywhere and thinks she is one of the kids. After they get her inside she just paces the floor and whines because she wants to play with them.

Talk to your vet. We had a rescue with heartworms and was treated, it's not cheap.

Beautiful boy, thanks for giving him the home he deserves.

This is our rescue.  (Backyard Breeder )  Klaus only weighed 4.5lbs when I picked him up.  He had fleas, tape worms, round worms, and some other kind which I have forgotten.  The fleas were so bad his tail was bald.  We thought it was mange, but no freaking flea damage!  I drove him home (about 2 hours) and he slept in my lap.  During the drive no less than 5 tape worms crawled out of his butt.    Today he is one happy boy who loves his mommy and daddy like nothing else!  I'd never trade this dog for anything.  No one can buy the kind of love that I get from him.

Note the tail.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b56/dubbya512/P1010366.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b56/dubbya512/P1010496.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b56/dubbya512/P1010534.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b56/dubbya512/P1010568.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b56/dubbya512/P1220298.jpg

Dubbya, you did right by that pup. OP, how's Tank's treatment going?

On the negative side, neutering male dogs
• if done before 1 year of age, significantly increases the risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer); this is a
common cancer in medium/large and larger breeds with a poor prognosis.
• increases the risk of cardiac hemangiosarcoma by a factor of 1.6
• triples the risk of hypothyroidism
• increases the risk of progressive geriatric cognitive impairment
• triples the risk of obesity, a common health problem in dogs with many associated health problems
• quadruples the small risk (<0.6%) of prostate cancer
• doubles the small risk (<1%) of urinary tract cancers
• increases the risk of orthopedic disorders
• increases the risk of adverse reactions to vaccinations

These people care very little about the health of the 'particular dog' and more about 'population control'.

They could have just as easy had an interview with the owner BEFORE allowing them to adopt and made a determination about how responsible the owner was/is.

I could also cite a metric boatload of studies that link aggression with spay/neuter surgeries but hey, Not my dog. I don't care if it becomes a biter so long as it is not anywhere NEAR me or my family.

Me personally, I would not have a dog around that had been 'altered' by the shelter police in the name of 'population control'. Science has proven that there are a LOT of potential long term health risks involved that these people care nothing about.

We haven't started yet.  The vet suggest we wait till after the neutering and he just got his stitches out yesterday. So we will be going in soon to start treatment.





I agree, we have no intentions of breeding and our other dog is already spayed, but its policy so i wasn't going to argue i guess.

Congratulations on rescuing Tank.  He looks great.  I have two GSD's currently, Vegas and Zoe. And have had 5 others throughout my last 30 years on the planet.   I wouldn't trade any of them for the world.  My ex girlfriend was a Vet and recommended putting both of them on Glucosamine when they turned 5 as they begin to experience joint discomfort around that time.  She also always tells her clients to get pet insurance ASAP.  It tends to save quite a bit of money down the road on GSDs, especially if you aren't sure of the bloodline.  My only piece of advice would be to keep stuffed toys away.  Vegas has a thing for tearing up stuffed toys and eating them which has led to a few expensive vet visits.  Either way, you are in for a great friendship with your buddy.

PS You're next GSD has to be named Rommel or Guderian since you already have a Tank!

That is interesting because people tell me they have more behavior issues and risk testicular cancer - so what is the risk of that for non-altered?  We have a lab who has been nothing but a good dog short of getting into stuff once in a while like a normal dog and no aggression issues, granted we spend the time to work and exercise our dogs.  Now after having unaltered female and male I just don't see the need to spend money on getting them fixed, even when the female has been in heat it hasn't been an issue with them besides a reminder to not try to procreate or letting them be alone.  Obviously the OP had no choice in this case.

OP - good looking pup!  And so are the others in here which makes me consider a GSD as a future family member.

heartworm treatment can be really hard on the dog. sometimes the treatment alone can kill the dog.

not trying to discourage you OP, just trying to give you a heads up.

Yeah, the vet gave us two choices. there is a long term treatment that lasts 1 year and a short term which i cannot remember how long it is. but the short treatment i guess is very hard on the dog and like 87 times more expensive.  I think we are going to go with the long treatment and hope everything works out.  I just dont want to put him in any more pain than he is already in. (not sure if heartworms is painful for the dog)