hello all Picked up our 7 week old puppy last week from breeder in NC and she has been losing fur, itching and white dandruff looking parts of her coat. We did not notice the small patch of lost fur on her snout until home but obviously we were very excited to have her and let it go. Few days later it was much worse. Took to a vet and the Demodex test was inconclusive but he prescribed her Cefpodoxime and Demodex treatment. We had an appointment with the Breeder the next day for vaccine so we waiting to start her meds. My wife tells me the Breeder did skin scrape and also Demodex was inconclusive (no mites). He gave her Cefpodoxime but a higher dose. She has been on this for two day (not a lot of time) but skin still same. I called the breeder and explained what the vet said. He said it would be tough to treat her now b/c a vet has seen her. I explained that we kept her on the meds he gave. He offered to switch out our puppy with another but we are attached with her now and that would not be a good option. He recommended the "wait and see" method. We just don't know whose advise to follow. This breeder was highly recommended and seems to know what they are doing. Has anyone had this before with their dog? If that is what she has and how long before we see progress. Just worried we got a sick dog. She has great energy and is loving. Very aggravating that this experience (with an expensive dog) was supposed to be filled with happy times and has just been frustrating so far. Any feedback would be great. KW
Welcome to the forum Demodetic mange is caused by a mite that lives in the hair follicles (as I'm sure you know) and pretty much all dogs have it to some degree or at some time. In healthy adult dogs the immune system keeps the mites well under control and there is no problem whatsoever and no visible signs. But puppies don't have a fully developed immune system and are more prone to being affected by mites and other things like ringworm that take advantage of a below-strength immune system. Some puppies/dogs don't ever develop immunity to the mites though...that is due to a genetic fault. Hopefully that is not the case here. The breeder should definitely be informing the other owners of pups from this litter - at the least to be on the lookout for the problem. Your pup is probably not the only one affected. Even though the test was inconclusive that doesn't mean it's not demodetic mites. They can quickly hide in the hair follicle when the scrape test is done and avoid getting caught up. If it is just demodetic mites (aka demodex) and your pup responds to treatment then I don't think there's too much to worry about. I'm not sure how long it'll take for the treatment to have a visible effect, but fur does take quite a while to grow back so expect that to be slow. As with all health issues this is best discussed with your vet. What has your vet said about the likely recovery time? Hope your pup comes good. I'm sure this is stressful and definitely was not part of the plan for life with your new puppy. Fingers crossed that it all ends up fine.
Thank you for your reply. The rub at this point is that the terms and conditions of the puppy purchase require that the breeder needs to treat first. We took to vet before considering looking back at the T&Cs. The vet gave us a treatment for the demodex "just in case". We have not started that b/c the breeder gave us the antibiotics and we told him we would stay on this course. The breeder seemed concerned we took the dog to the vet and said "pray she does not get Parvo". Also gave us the chance to return our dog and exchange. I told him this was not an option as we have become attached to our new puppy. I asked about next steps and he said we finish the meds and wait and see. I don't mean to paint the breeder as bad. They have a good reputation but we just aren't getting warm and fuzzies from them. We fill caught in the middle as to how to treat our puppy.
What are the breeder's qualifications to be treating a dog? Is the breeder a qualified vet? It's your puppy. If you think your puppy will get the best treatment from the vet (not the breeder) then take your puppy to the vet, no matter what the agreement with the breeder was. It's important to have a good relationship with a good vet. It's less important to have a good relationship with the breeder. Your puppy's health is Number 1 on the list of what's important. There is no reason that your puppy will get parvo from visiting a vet. Every puppy I've ever known of has visited a vet to get vaccinations or a check up, soon after coming home. I've never heard of one getting parvo from this. So don't worry about that.
I agree with Oberon. I've never heard of a breeder insisting on the right to treat a puppy in preference to a vet. I'm not even sure that's legal in the UK....
Our breeder actually insisted that we took our puppy to our chosen vet within three days of coming home. Our contract said that we could return our puppy if any issues came up at that check up and I believe there were also options of partial/full payment for treatment required. There's no way that our breeder would have insisted on them providing the treatment though.
If you are unsure about your vet's diagnosis, then please take your puppy to another vet. Unless the breeders are themselves professional veterinarians, they are not the best people to be giving medical advice. No matter how experienced they are. I would also be concerned about their quick offer to swap your puppy, which seems rather unusual. In addition to this, I believe that if you have paid for the puppy (and presumably registered it in your name?) it is therefore your property, and you are the person responsible for it's medical care. Regardless of the contract.
I'd look at it this way - If you're keeping the puppy then what difference does the breeder terms and conditions make? I'd just ignore them and do what was best for my baby. If you really needed to challenge them it must be an unfair contract term act to keep a puppy from adequate health care.
Is the breeder a vet? What qualifications do they have? If not qualified I wouldn't let them treat my puppy whether it was their vaccinations or any other issue.
I find the breeders attitude scary , and certainly would not allow anyone unqualified to treat my dogs x
Yes, that's a very good point. The other puppies from Ella's litter were already sold and there were still people on the waiting list for a future litter. If something had happened and we returned Ella (one of her litter mates was actually returned as their human child was diagnosed with a life threatening illness two weeks after they brought puppy home and they knew they couldn't take on a puppy) then there would be no way we could "swap" her for another.
I think it is a rather strange story about the breeder. The fact he wanted to swap your pup and added to it, sold you a pup too young to leave its mother (at 6!weeks!!)
As I recall we had to take Cooper to vet for a checkup within the first week, or the breeders guarantee would not be honored.
