Do not be fooled by Snarls & Wags Kennel, owned by William and Cheryl Abright. After purchasing a puppy a little over a month ago, I'm convinced that Snarls & Wags supposably "small" kennel was nothing more than a puppy mill.
On February 2 I purchased a brindle colored yorkiepoo from Cheryl Albright (Snarls & Wags). I found him in an ad placed on kijiji and then proceeded to check out the owner's website. I immediately fell in love with the little guy, and had to have him. Upon my first conversation with Cheryl, I thought she sounded like a fairly responsible and caring breeder who was not just breeding to make a buck, little did I know. Cheryl and I had a couple of conversations before I met with her in Cameron, MO to buy the puppy. She had taken the puppy to her small town vet and sent me a health certificate to confirm that he had no respiratory infection or heart murmur. After talking to Cheryl and receiving a health certificate, I was confident that the pup I was purchasing was in fact healthy. I purchased the puppy on Sunday morning, February 2nd, where I met Cheryl in Cameron to make the pick up. I was immediately concerned when Cheryl walked to the back of her car, opened up the back, and there was a cage with two puppies who looked very tired, and stressed.
I let my dad hold my puppy and take him into our warm vehicle so that he would not catch a cold in the freezing weather. I continued to talk to Cheryl and she explained that my puppy smelt funny because she had dipped him in a lice treatment because the puppy who he was riding in a cage with had lice. Cheryl continued to explain to me that she had started treating my little guy for ear mites because he had been exhibiting some symptoms that led her to believe he had them. Last, but not least Cheryl mentioned that my puppy had been coughing the night before we made the pickup (Saturday night). She said she had used a nebulizer to help treat the cough and hadn't noticed him coughing since she had used it. Immediately I was conerned. My little guy, Tyson, had an appointment to see my vet two days after I had purchased him. My vet confirmed that he did in fact have a respiratory infection, presumably, kennel cough. She also checked his skin and ears, and yes, he had both lice and ear mites. My vet prescribed Tyson Clavamox, which he took for two weeks to help prevent any secondary infections, a special shampoo for the lice, and otomite ear drop for the ear mites. Tyson was due for another visit the following week and I brought in a stool sample to check for worms, guess what, he did in fact have parasites! Tyson had giardia, and it would have been very unlikely Tyson would have gotten them while in my care, seeing as how he was not around any other dogs at the time, and was being paper trained.
Again, Tyson was prescribed yet another antibiotic, Panacur to help deworm him. The next week, Tyson was due for his first set of boosters, and his follow up stool sample was brought in to make sure his giardia had cleared up. At this point, Tyson's cough still existed but my vet was sure he was just starting to get over the kennel cough because his chest sounded clear. A few days later, Tyson became very ill. He began throwing up, had uncontrollable diarrhea, a fever of 104.5, was very lethargic and would not eat or drink. I took him into my vet immediately and he was put on an IV and given antibiotics to control the vomiting and diarrhea. Tyson was brought in Friday morning and stayed until Monday afternoon when my vet thought he could finally go home and hopefully continue to get better.
Unfortunately, within the first day Tyson was back home he continued to not eat or drink and was extremely lethargic. Again, I called my vet and took him back in. Tyson has been hospitalized for over a week now. His immune system had been compromised so much by having all of those problems that he eventually ended up developing pneumonia. Tyson has now had IV's in both of his front legs and has been receiving Baytril for the pneumonia. I have been visiting Tyson every single day, and had continued to hope and pray that he would get better. Yesterday, I showed up to the vet clinic to spend some time with my baby. My vet came in and sat me down, and I could tell that the news was not good. She had taken a radiograph of Tyson's chest and said it was much worse than it had sounded. She said the greatest chance he would have at surviving would be to see a specialist. I asked her how much it would cost and she explained that it would be very, very, expensive..in the thousands. I immediately broke down because I knew at that point there was very little I could do for him. My vet bill was already nearly $700 at this point and could not afford to spend thousands more on his treatment. I had to tell my vet that I could not afford to do that and had to step outside because I was crying so hard and was making such a scene.
It was so heartbreaking for many reasons. One of which was the fact that I thought I was giving him every shot at making it through, only to find out that if he wasn't transferred there was very little chance he was going to make it. I felt terrible. Tyson had been my life for the past month, and was like a person to me, he was my baby. My vet felt very sorry for me and actually felt very bad herself since she too had become attached to Tyson after all, she had been taking personal care of him for a week. My vet told me that she knew it was getting very expensive and that she wasn't charging me for the hospitalization anymore, just the medicine, since she knew that he absolutely had to be there. My vet explained that she didn't want to give up yet, but when it got to the point where she thought he was really suffering she would end treatment. The fight is still not over, and I hope more than anything that my baby can get through this, but I feel so helpless because he is so sick and weak and I can't do a thing about it. It's been yet another day, and Tyson is still hanging on, and at this point, we can only hope for the best.
I needed to write this, 1) to get out my emotions, and 2) to help make sure that no one else has to deal with the pain and suffering, as well as the huge medical expenses that I have. If there is anyone else who has bought a puppy from Snarls & Wags Kennel and has had a problem with their puppy, I do hope that you step forward and let others know. I know you're out there, let's make sure these guys don't get away with their care, or lack thereof of these puppies!
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