Picked up my 6 week old Female Standard Poodle Puppy from this breeder on March 14 at a restraunt close to Nashville. I offerd to pick her up at the breeders home but she insisted on meeting elsewhere. The pup smelled like perfume with an under current of a nasty odor, we could hardly stand the smell on the way home. I bathed her as soon as I arrived at our house. I noticed scabs and flakey skin over her entire body, head and legs. When the pup wasn't sleeping she was constantly scratching herself and crying. Here's a copy of the email I sent the breeder two days later on 3/16/04:
I just got back from taking Casey to the vet and I must say I am extremely disappointed in what I found out.
The flaky skin you said you treated her for with medicated shampoo is not just flaky skin. He did a skin scraping and examined it under the microscope and it turns out she has scabies. He says she's had them so long that her skin is infected. Not only that the infection has spread to the inside of her body and caused her lymph nodes to swell.
I noticed the swelling and the constant scratching. So now she's on antibiotics and I've had to treat her with Frontline for the bugs at the vet's instance. I hope she doesn't have a reaction to the Frontline as you're supposed to wait until the pup is 8 weeks old. The vet says Frontline is safer than the alternative, dipping. I'll be watching her all night to be sure she's ok.
This puppy is miserable. My other animals are going to be fine as I keep Frontline on them. As you know scabies is highly contagious to humans too. I was not expecting a vet bill for something that is completely preventable and I certainly wasn't expecting a doctor bill for my husband and I after spending $600.00 in good faith for a pure bred dog from someone I trusted.
I know you said you didn't offer any guarantee's except for a life threatening condition. I consider infection throughout a puppy's body life threatening. Certainly if I hadn't insisted my vet work her in today instead of next week she could have died from it. Thank God I noticed her swollen lymph nodes when I turned her over on her back last night to play with her.
I don't know if you are aware that you have a major problem in your facility with scabies, if not I'm letting you know. If my pup has them, the vet says all of your dogs have them. I certainly hope you weren't aware of this. Hopefully you can have the rest of your dogs treated before their new owners have to go through what I'm going through.
I look forward to hearing back from you regarding this matter.
Her response 3/17/04:
My dogs are also on Frontline. I'm sorry you had a problem but the shampoo I used on her was for her skin and I don't guess it did much good to wash it off.
I certainly hope she will be just fine soon. Her brothers have stopped flaking and are doing good. I never saw any bumps on. All I can do is apologize. If I had though there was anything wrong with her that needed treatment I would have kept her longer.
My last email to House of Carmel 3/17/04:
I can't believe you are trying to place the blame on me for washing Casey when I brought her home and washed her! Medicated shampoo for flaky skin doesn't kill scabies.
You must have noticed there was a problem when her skin started falling off, especially when you say her brothers have quit peeling or you wouldn't have put medicated shampoo on her. Do you honestly believe it is normal for a healthy pup to have scabs and flaky skin all over them? I have never bred dogs but I've had several puppies over the years and have never seen one that had a problem like this. Even to my untrained eye it was obvious.
My vet said she as had scabies for at least 6 weeks for her skin and body to become so infected. He said the flakes were caused by the infected skin dying and falling off.By the time Dr. XXXXX finished his lecture on" back yard breeders" and "puppy mills" I felt like a fool for buying her. I was embarrassed to come home and even tell my husband.
You know I probably could have accepted your apology if you hadn't tried to place blame on me. Obviously I do not accept, as a matter of fact I'm now angry. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. I had a feeling you would try to shift blame to me for washing her although I was hoping that wouldn't be the case.
In closing:
During the first month of owning this dog we spent several hundred dollars on vet bills and doctor bills for my husband and I. The puppy also had infection from standing and laying in feces and urine on her legs according to my vet. Of course we also contracted scabies and not only had to treat her, ourselves and our entire home. Currently our Standard Poodle is healthy and shows no ill effects of her horrible infection. I firmly believe if we had not taken her to the vet as quickly as we did she would have died within a few days from the infection.
As you can see from the emails exchanged above, this unethical breeder does not stand behind her puppies and likes to place the blame on the unsuspecting buyer. The breeder was aware of my dogs condition when she delivered her to me and did not disclose that information.
0 comments