Question for breeders around puppy health

[JewelC]

Hi 

I have a question for breeders. Our puppy flew from North Qld down to us at 10 weeks of age. He was itching from the minute we picked him up at the airport. A few days later we took him for his vaccinations and the vet said he had an ear infection and could have an allergy and they started him on a steroid medication. It broke my heart to see this listless puppy ( result of prednisone) who looked how i feel when I don’t feel great. Vet suggested I contact Breeder to see if any of his litter mates had issues. Response from breeder was no, “fit to fly” from their vet before he came to us, and watch out for vets talking about allergies because its a long and winding road. Another visit to vet, bigger dose of steroid. A month later, new vet for second opinion, another ear infection, antibiotics for secondary skin infection from  all the scratching. It settled for a bit and now at 5 months he’s back to bouts of scratching that is hard to watch. Im doing the regular wash, omega 3 supplement and now daily dose of loratidine as suggested by our groomer. Long story- thanks for reading but im now at the point where i feel helpless and annoyed. It’s cost a lot of money and i feel we’re back to where we were.

My question after this long story is: Would a Breeder know if a puppy of theirs was scratching abnormally  at 10 weeks of age? Like would they notice it’s not just a scratch here and there, could this puppy have a problem? Do the buyers of the pup have any rights in this situation? My partner feels this is unethical behaviour and that the Breeder would have known and we should report it or at least warn other people about our issue. I haven’t been in touch with the breeder since the initial contact but i am getting pretty fed up with the cost involved and the suffering my puppy is experiencing when he scratches and bites himself.

Any advice much appreciated.

Thank you.

[tdierikx]

What breed is your pup?

 

T.

[Rebanne]

8 minutes ago, tdierikx said:

What breed is your pup?

 

T.

And colour?

[Rebanne]

Ok. If the pup does have allergies the stress of the flight might have triggered them. So breeder and vet may not have seen anything out of the ordinary. Or if pups was not raised in the house and not a lot of time spent with them then excessive scratching might not be noticed. I think the best you could hope for, if you took this to the small claims court for instance, is refund of purchase price. 

I would be wary of giving cortisone to such a young animal and would be seeking a referral to someone who could do allergy testing. 

[JewelC]

Thanks for the reply. He is a springer spaniel- liver & white

[persephone]

1 hour ago, Rebanne said:

I would be wary of giving cortisone to such a young animal and would be seeking a referral to someone who could do allergy testing. 

This. 
Allergies are often from what is inhaled/eaten , so allergy testing is the fastest way to find the cause! 
I am so sorry you appear to have a 'problem puppy' - it must be so hard watching him is discomfort . 

[mackiemad]

Also if it is an allergy there is no reason not to suspect it isn't a plant or something in his surrounds that wasn't in his surrounds at the breeders. And as others have said, the stress of the flight could have triggered an autoimmune response, triggering the allergies. 

 

Get onto a specialist and look at testing to find out what he's allergic to and go from there. Because it could be a simple fix of keeping him off Kikuyu grass or excluding chicken from his diet.

 

The only recourse you have is to go through small claims/ civil tribunal court and get the purchase price back as the product you purchased was faulty, but to get a refund you have to generally give the product (pup) back to the place of purchase (breeder). So if you're emotionally invested then I wouldn't bother. 

[_PL_]

You'll save money in the long run if you take him to a dermatologist now.

And he probably won't have to be repeatedly on preds so young which is a worry  Right now you're not finding answers just being given bandaid solutions in my opinion.

It's frustrating and sad to watch, I understand your heartache.

[sandgrubber]

11 hours ago, JewelC said:

Hi 

I have a question for breeders. Our puppy flew from North Qld down to us at 10 weeks of age. He was itching from the minute we picked him up at the airport. A few days later we took him for his vaccinations and the vet said he had an ear infection and could have an allergy and they started him on a steroid medication. It broke my heart to see this listless puppy ( result of prednisone) who looked how i feel when I don’t feel great. Vet suggested I contact Breeder to see if any of his litter mates had issues. Response from breeder was no, “fit to fly” from their vet before he came to us, and watch out for vets talking about allergies because its a long and winding road. Another visit to vet, bigger dose of steroid. A month later, new vet for second opinion, another ear infection, antibiotics for secondary skin infection from  all the scratching. It settled for a bit and now at 5 months he’s back to bouts of scratching that is hard to watch. Im doing the regular wash, omega 3 supplement and now daily dose of loratidine as suggested by our groomer. Long story- thanks for reading but im now at the point where i feel helpless and annoyed. It’s cost a lot of money and i feel we’re back to where we were.

My question after this long story is: Would a Breeder know if a puppy of theirs was scratching abnormally  at 10 weeks of age? Like would they notice it’s not just a scratch here and there, could this puppy have a problem? Do the buyers of the pup have any rights in this situation? My partner feels this is unethical behaviour and that the Breeder would have known and we should report it or at least warn other people about our issue. I haven’t been in touch with the breeder since the initial contact but i am getting pretty fed up with the cost involved and the suffering my puppy is experiencing when he scratches and bites himself.

Any advice much appreciated.

Thank you.

Yes. A breeder would know.  But with puppy prices where they are, lots of people are breeding for $.

IMO the pedigree dog world pays far too little to allergies and skin problems in health testing.  A lifetime of itching is as bad or worse than old age cataracts.  There's a good chance it has a hereditary the component... inbreeding compromises immune system...but very little research has gone that direction.

Sadly, I doubt you're going to have much success in pinning this on the breeder because it is a blind spot in pedigree dog breeding.

[JewelC]

Thank you everyone for your input- much appreciated.

[Pucapo]

We sent a pup from Brisbane to Sydney and a couple of weeks later pup started scratching himself madly, it was driving the owners crazy.

They put up with it for a couple of weeks then changed his diet and took him off grain free kibble.

The itching then stopped within a couple of days.