In early November I put a deposit on a puppy bred by the Kool's.in mid November our puppy became very ill and the Kool's brought her in to have emergency surgery due to a bacterial overgrowth in the intestine. Mrs. Kool was open about the illness and the surgery for intussusception, however she was not entirely open about the extent of it. Mrs. Kool kept in contact with us and constantly reassured us the puppy was recovering well, her diet was under control, and there was no reason to believe there would be any long-term issues. This is not uncommon in human babies even, and it CAN be fine.
On December 20th, three days after we picked up the puppy, it became very apparent she was not doing well. I called the Kool's residence before we went to the vet, they did not answer, nor did she return my calls for a day. They told us if any diarrhea or vomiting occurred, to get to the vet right away as it could aggravate her sutures. The puppy had both, violently, with bleeding. It obviously could not wait long. I left a message explaining the situation and that qualifies reasonable notice. I also left her my cell phone number.
I have a list of the six different medications/treatments we had to give her a day in order for her to keep food down long enough to absorb it. (which was all of 5-10 minutes). We incurred veterinary bills in the amount of $624.90 between December 20th and December 21st, due to an overnight stay at the veterinary clinic and multiple tests. Portions of these charges were to verify that she had not ingested a foreign object. Had the Kool's been honest about the extent of the surgery there would have been no need to run most of these tests. The receptionist at their vet gave our Doctor the full explanation about the intussusception surgery. Apparently it was VERY extensive. Our vet said he was shocked at how much intestine their vet had been wiling to remove from such a young puppy.
Medications / required treatments
Pancrezyme Power tps with each meal, 3 times a day
Amoxi tablets 2 times a day.
Amforal tablet tablet 3 times a day
Amfora Suspension (yellow liquid) 3CC's, 3 times a day
Anti Diarrheal (brown liquid) 2.5 CC's, 3 times a day
Canned I/D - 3 times per day
Finally, the next day we were in contact with the Kool's, she told us several times they would help with the vet bills and that they wanted to make it right. Then the next day, she followed those statements with lengthy telephones message left at home, while we were at work (so long in fact she had to call back twice to finish her story on the machine), stating that they would not be paying because the Kool's had not approved the visit or treatments beforehand.
In the end they allowed us to return the puppy a few days after Christmas, they drove halfway to meet us and refunded our purchase price. The puppy continued to be ill during that time.
DOCUMENTATION
I found my folder with all the documents from the Kools. It states that our puppy was born October 9. When we picked her up we received a package with many enclosures.
Copies of the parents' AKC records.
Mother: Montana the mountain lion, WR07218302
Date of Birth: September 6
Sire: Zeus XVIII, WP 83751506 10-00
Dam: Storm XXV, WP85514708 10-00
Breeder: Keith Dunham
Owner: Patricia E. Kool & James R. Kool
101 Banner St. SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49507-2907
Certificate Issued: June 23
Father: Silver Star the Shinning Star, AKC # WS01649602
Date of Birth: September 14
Sire -David's Goliath WP83751505 02-01
Dam David's Bathsheba WP 95803002 02-01.
Breeder, Davit T. Scott & Linda Scott.
Owner Patricia E. Kool & James R. Kool
101 Banner St. SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49507-2907
Certificate Issued June 10
Then there are a series of records from Animal Clinic, Inc in Grand Rapids with names and dates crossed out and written over with red ink. Mrs. Kool informed me the new receptionist at the vet had trouble keeping track of all the dogs, and this was her explanation for the corrections.
Examples:
(1) New Names pups is crossed out and changed to Montana dated October 20.
(2) Miracle's pups is crossed out and changed to Montana dated December 2.
(3) General Pup to Montana's Pups, dated September 22 (2 weeks before our puppy's date of birth)
Then there is a bill for Grenade (our puppy) dated November 15. Referencing her surgery. It also includes paperwork for Bella's surgery, on November 16, including medications: Cephalexin (to treat a variety of bacterial infections) and Deramaxx (for chronic Osteoarthrist). They continued to breed her after this date.
Then there are a series of puppy care sheets. On one named Large-Breed Puppy Food, she notes to only change her feedings from 2 times a day from 3 x day on our vet's recommendation due to her intussesception. They recommended until 16 wks old, so January 29. It also notes that as of December 15 she weighed 10 1/2 pounds. I was informed this was due to her illness.
There are policies, guarantees etc, largely they can be found on the website but have changed since 2005.
I have photographs of the Mother, Father, full litter and my puppy taken by the Kool's.
Follow up
Pat Kool called my home again in spring of 2007 offering us another puppy at no cost to us, I declined.
In October I filed my complaint with the BBB. She proceeded to call me a liar, and then offer me a puppy 3 times over, with a deadline of December. I declined this as an acceptable resolution.
I have every document noted above. I am not here to defame, only to inform others of my personal experience so that potential customers and make an informed decision. I have not been prompted to do so by any competitor.
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