Diamond Dachshund looking to focus on rehabbing shelter dogs

Nonprofit part of this year's Big Give SA

SAN ANTONIO – Who doesn’t love a dachshund? They’re little. They’re cute. They love to chase squirrels, even right in the middle of an interview!

No one knows the love of dachshunds more than the volunteers at the Diamond Dachshund Rescue of Texas.

“What we do is we rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home dachshunds and dachshund mixes,” board member Cayce Kovacs said.

This year, the rescue group is hoping funds from the Big Give will really help them focus on the rehabilitation part. Lillie Kneeland, a volunteer and foster home provider for Diamond Dachshund Rescue, said heart worms have been a big problem this year.

Big Give SA is a 24-hour fundraiser for hundreds of nonprofits across South Texas. This year’s event will be on Tuesday.

“This year our big focus is going to be on heart worms and treating heart worms,” Kneeland said. “We currently have eight dogs in rescue with heart worms.”

Heart worms is a disease that is very easily prevented with monthly prescriptions. However, once the disease is contracted, it may be treatable, but that treatment is very hard on the dog and on the wallet.

“It’s something that you don’t want to have your dog go through,” Kneeland said. “It’s very expensive to treat. On average for a rescue, it costs somewhere between $375 and $400 per dog to treat for heartworms, which is actually six times more expensive than … just doing a prevention every month.”

There is good news, though. Many of the dachshunds at Diamond Dachshund Rescue have been treated and cured of heart worms. Prince was a dachshund taken in by the rescue and now he is his own success story.

“He was treated for heartworms and he was adopted and he has been happily ever after since,” Kneeland said.

The volunteers at the nonprofit rescue said it’s all about giving each and every dog a chance for a happily ever after.

“You know,” Kneeland said, “we take these dogs in and we don’t always know if they are going to be heart worm positive, but they need a chance. All of them need a chance. They need help and they’re wonderful dogs.”