Last Thursday we took home a beautiful purebred American Cocker Spaniel; we named her Bailey. Born in November, she’s only 10 weeks old. We drove quite far to see her, the breeder had a litter of 6 total, and we were able to see the mother on the spot. Our friends came with us and actually bought her sister as well, named her Daisy.
She had her first round of shots and papers to certify her pedigree. All seemed right in the world.
On Friday, she vomited a number of times – we assumed it was due to the change in diet (the breeder didn’t give us any extra food to ease her into a new diet). Saturday she was fine, playful, and didn’t have any vomiting whatsoever.
Sunday was a different story. She was lethargic, and in the morning had yellow diarrhea quite full of mucous. (hope you’re not eating). I thought it would be much better to take her in to the vet rather than wait and see. Within minutes we found out she has parvovirus aka parvo. Her sister is also positive with it.
According to Wikipedia, parvo is:
“a contagious virus mainly affecting dogs. The disease is highly infectious and is spread from dog to dog by direct or indirect contact with their feces. It can be especially severe in puppies that are not protected by maternal antibodies or vaccination. It has two distinct presentations, a cardiac and intestinal form. The common signs of the intestinal form are severe vomiting and severe haemmorhagic (bloody) diarrhea. The cardiac form causes respiratory or cardiovascular failure in young puppies. Treatment often involves veterinary hospitalization. Vaccines can prevent this infection, but mortality can reach 91% in untreated cases.”
The vet has her on an IV and said she’ll be hospitalized for about a week, with her sister, Daisy in the next cage over. As of today, she has bloody stools and is vomiting still. The vet is giving her a 50% chance of living.
I’m keeping my cool for now; hoping that things will turn out alright and she’ll pull through. But I’m obviously quite upset with the breeder. When I contacted him, he simply claims that all of the puppies were healthy when I saw them and that they must have contracted parvo after we brought them home. Excuse me? I picked her up on Thursday evening – within 12 hours she was vomiting and within 60 hours was hospitalized.
Parvovirus has an incubation period of 5-14 days, so it’s not even possible that she got sick AFTER we brought her home! The breeder also stated that parvo is an airborne virus – another fallacy. He simply claims that he’s not a vet and can’t guarantee the health of the puppies.
I’m pissed to say that least. After spending a significant amount of money for the puppies, we are now responsible for the expensive treatment they require – all within days of bringing them home. It’s also not fair to the puppies – how traumatizing to be quarantined at only 10 weeks of age.
How should I handle this. Being new to the Philippines I really have no idea if there’s any justice for something of this nature. This breeder should NOT be allowed to sell his puppies. What action can I take?
I know, let’s concentrate on Bailey and Daisy’s recovery. But still – this isn’t right.
Here’s the ad: http://www.buyandsellplus.com/Classifieds/169576/am-cocker-spaniel