bought a sick puppy from a breeder, any help?

[taji783]

Hello reddit,
I am 17, on my birthday last year my dad bought me a golden retriever puppy as a gift. i love this dog to bits, her name is Rosalee, she’s a beautiful trained dog whom i’m extremely attached to.

About two months after her first birthday, 02/17/21, and i noticed something was extremely wrong with her, i took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with cancer, T cell lymphoma to be specific, which is not curable. she is on treatment and her estimated lifespan is 4-6 months.

i’m about $4,000 in on medical bills and as a highschool student i can’t pay for this, the vet suggested since rosalee is at such a young age this could have been an issue with the breeders irresponsibly breeding their dogs. on top of the medical bills, my dad payed $1,200 to the breeders for rosalee when she was a puppy.

we’ve communicated with the breeders what happened to rosalee in a kind tone, not asking for anything but just informing, and they never offered a refund or any sort of compensation.

i looked over the puppy contract that was
issued by the breeders and there is nothing on it that talks about puppy heath or any sort of health guarantees.

my cousin also has a puppy from the same litter whom we are monitoring closely, and thankfully she isn’t showing any signs of health issues or cancer thus far. if she does show any of the same health issues, would it be a guarantee that this is an issue with the breeders?

i feel helpless without a lot of support from my parents or even from the breeders, is there anything i can say to the breeders or do to try and get help from them? or is this something that needs to be left alone or dealt with legally? thank you for any responses, they are so highly appreciated.

the location is Colorado, United States

 

[jeffwilly001]

@taji783 Quite honestly, it sounds like your father got a puppy from a poor breeder - whether it was off of a puppy mill, or simply a backyard breeder, I cannot say. That being said, what you're going through *sucks* and you have my condolences.

Proper breeders will go through painstaking effort to ensure that they are producing high quality puppies that are healthy and are expected to stay healthy. This is done via a multitude of methods - but the *most important* is genetic testing and health certifications of the parents. Of course, that only goes so far, and every now & again, a puppy will slip through that suffers from medical complications.

This is why health guarantees are a thing - and the vast majority (in fact, I know of none that don't) of breeders of high quality puppies offer these as a clause in the contract.

This is a long read, but will give you a lot of good information about health guarantees: https://www.pawprintgenetics.com/blog/2013/05/22/health-guarantees-when-buying-puppy/#:\~:text=Most%20breeders%2Fsellers%20offer%20a,the%20buyer%20and%20the%20breeder.

Breeders who do not offer guarantees generally cannot prove or support that the puppies they are producing are healthy - and will stay healthy. Usually, they will skip all testing and just breed the dog that "looks" good to them to another dog that "looks" good to them. This skips all of the "under the coat" things that can potentially go wrong.

And that, as crappy as it is, is right where you find yourself

It could be that this is a genetic defect in the parents of your puppy. It could be that this is just a genetic accident, a mutation. It could be so many things. At the end of the day, the only way to know with any reliability is testing...and unfortunately, it sounds like your breeder did not do that barest of requirements to breed healthy pups.

I am sorry for what you're going through. It's hard, no matter how little or long you've had a puppy. There's no good description for how much this sucks.

 

[taji783]

@jeffwilly001 i probably should have included this in my original post, but i learned the breeders preformed no testing on the parent dogs, and have absolutely no knowledge of their lineage. i definitely have learned my lesson on researching to make sure the breeder is responsible.
thank you so much for all the information and help you provided, i am going to give the article a read

 

[jeffwilly001]

@taji783 No problem - I'm very sorry that it turned out this way!

 

[akilah]

@taji783 I'm really sorry you are going through this. This is what has kept me from indulging in a golden retriever. Finding healthy lines takes some effort. They are soo popular and unfortunately, cancer is very common in the breed.

 

[taji783]

@akilah yeah, this will definitely keep me from getting another one in the future, i don’t think i could take another hit to the heart like that. it’s so so sad they have such high risk of cancer

 

[sujbox]

@taji783 It never hurts to ask for a refund. The worst they can say is no. Go at it very politely and explain the medical bills are very expensive and you would at least like that to put towards them. Offer vet documentation. They may have not tested their dogs but if they have any sort of morals or compassion they may surprise you and do this. It worth asking. I’m sorry you are going through this. What a heartbreaking situation.

 

[taji783]

@sujbox thank you so much, i am going to try to politely ask them

 

[allenschwartzmd]

@taji783 So sorry you are going through this.
Cancer is very common in that breed and without a health warranty unfortunately I don’t see any recourse.
Really sad for you, your family and your dog

 

[taji783]

@allenschwartzmd ah yeah it seems like i am at a stopping point as far as the breeders, thank you for your condolences