Question:
Hi,
I had a 6 month old mini dachund puppy who seemed completely happy and healthy. She was a strange eater, she would not eat out of her bowl but would bring a piece or two of her food to the middle of the living room floor and eat it.... She did urinate a lot but she also drank a lot of water so i chalked it up to having a very well hydrated dog. We got her from a pet store at the age of 3 and a 1/2 months. We always worried that she had vision problems as one of her eyes had a blue haze to it and she rarely saw and item even if you put it right beside her. Aside from this she was a wonderful, happy and extremely loving puppy.

A few months after getting her we got a male of the same breed from a local breeder. They were inseprable and perfectly named Oscar and Mya wiener...lol. One night we gave the puppies a bath... they had so much fun. About a half hour after bath time Mya began throwing up water... over and over... at least 10 times. I followed her around the house holding her in b/w vomits. I assumed she had just drank some tub water. Then she became very disorientated... and eventually fell over on her side... her toung hanging out of her mouth. She couldn't control anything... not even her toung. She began breathing very heavy, then very slowly... we ran for the car... in the car she stopped breathing a few times on the way to the vet. When we got to the vet she was barely breathing. They did CPR and gave her something to keep her heart going. But it didn't work. Our little Mya died. We were devastated and took her to be buried in our back yard. The vet said he had no idea what caused it... asked if the shampoo had flea stuff in it... it did not... it was tearless, gentle puppy shampoo and did no harm to the 8 week old male puppy. He said otherwise she looked healthy. We weren't smart enough to request an autopsy and are told that now it is too late. Does anyone have any idea what this could have been??
Since we got Mya from a pet store (costing us $1200 bucks) we would like to make use of the guarantee that came with her (2 years)... since she was financed on a store credit card and we haven't even begun to pay for her. We have been told we should have gotten an autopsy... but i was so devestated that the last think i wanted was my little baby cut open.
thanks for any help.
mya's mom

Answer:
for your loss, but I think your problem can be found below:

Originally Posted by mya's mom
We got her from a pet store at the age of 3 and a 1/2 months.

In general, puppies (and most pets) from pet stores aren't that healthy. 9 times out of 10, they're from puppy mills and is taken pre-maturely from their mothers to preserve that "cute" factor in the shop windows.

I also don't think making use of the guarantee is gonna help much because you'll just be getting another puppy brought up from similar conditions/environments as Mya and you'll be setting yourself up for another potential heartbreak.

Answer:
I'm so so sorry for your loss !

I'm sorry I have no good advice for you. I feel as though the pet store is liable here in some way and that your poor baby was not well to begin with but how to go about holding them accountable is another story.

Answer:
Without an autopsy, it's hard to say, but to me, IMO, it sounds like a heart defect. (Just my opinion, I'm not a vet)

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you wander around this website and learn how to pick a good breeder so this doesn't happen again.

Answer:
I am very sorry for your loss. Mya sounds like she was a sweetie. My only advice to you is to NEVER, EVER buy pets from a pet store or a back yard breeder. Pets that come from stores are brought in from puppy mills and those people could give a crap less about the health of the animals. There are TONS of dogs that are in shelters that are in desperate need of a forever home and it will not cost you $1200. Please consider going that route next time.

Answer:
She did urinate a lot but she also drank a lot of water so i chalked it up to having a very well hydrated dog. We got her from a pet store at the age of 3 and a 1/2 months. We always worried that she had vision problems as one of her eyes had a blue haze to it and she rarely saw and item even if you put it right beside her. Aside from this she was a wonderful, happy and extremely loving puppy.
did you ever go to the vet for these problems? did you have a vet check up done on her after you got her? did you take her for vaccinations? deworming? Or was the first vet visit on the day she passed.

Whenever I get a dog , does not matter if it is a puppy or adult from a rescue one of the first things I do is schedule a wellness exam with my own vet and take with me all medical documentation. Even with purebreds adopted from responsible breeders having been well and properly vetted does not guarantee perfect health, just like in humans illness and disease strikes young and old, from a reliable breeder though their is far less chance of genetic problems

If you had notice their was a problem 2 days before this incident, would you have been prepared to return her and pick out a different dog instead, and allowed the store instead to have her destroyed surrounded only by strangers?

Because that is basically what the guarantee involves, surrendering a pet that you have become attached to, there is no compensation for vet costs or emotional loss, that is why pet stores continue to deal in puppy mill dogs, even though they often have numerous health problems because most people who purchase one will not surrender the dog, back to the store once they have become attached to it especially when they are told it will be euthanized.

You do have my sympathies over the loss of your pup, yes completeing the payments on the purchase contract is going to hurt, but this pain will help to you make wiser decisions in the future in many ways, which could save you a much greater losses, whether it is with buying a car, getting repairs to a house or car, purchasing a house or even getting another pet, you will ask more questions, learn to ask others for opinions to learn what risks you are getting into and checking out sellers, home builders etc to see if they are reliable.


Like you I made mistakes that costed me a few hundred to a couple thousand they all hurted but they proved invaluable and taught me not to be too trusting which saved me from possibly making an $70-80,000 mistake later on in life when it came to purchasing a house where I learned that the builder who had built used different materials for the foundation and 20 years later major problems were found requiring that the foundations be completely replaced, luckily for me my past experiences and mistakes got me to asking questions and I got the answers I needed to spare me from losing my shirt and most everything else I owned

Answer:
I do acknowledge that I should not have boughten from a pet store... that is not why i want to utilize the warrantee... the warrantee gives an option of either replace (which now i know is not the option i wish to take) or refund. I have been researching online breeders for mini daschunds and will go that route. Believe me it took me quite awhile to even get to the place where i can imagine getting another puppy someday. But the little guy (oscar) deserves company and my kids deserve to grow up with the friendship that only a dog can provide while growing up. This was my first (and last) experience buying a puppy from a pet store. While i did my due diligence in researching the breed to ensure it was a good fit for my family i didn't do enough research into puppy mills. However, even though i only had mya for a short time, she was such a bright ray of sunshine in our life that i have no regrets....only sorrow for the life she should have had.

Answer:
Mya's Mom, I'm glad that you will not be purchasing from anymore pet stores in the future and even though a very reputable breeder is a better choice, please consider going to www.petfinder.com, put in your city and state and I'm sure you will find dozens of mini daschunds that are in shelters who are in desperate need of a good, loving home like yours
I'm sorry for your loss, again, and good luck!

Answer:
I am sure it was a hard lesson learned and I am truly sorry for your loss. We could all speculate what could have been wrong with Mya but will the pet store refund your money without proof of what killed her?

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