Last night my friend phoned me in a panic, she had come home to find her 14 week old Jack Russell pup, Sam, unconcsious on the floor. He came round but was still acting very strangely, she thought that maybe he had been playing rough with her Lab & had been knocked out, but from what she was describing it sounded like a fit to me. She asked if there was any probs during the night could she call me to come & sit with her kids so she could take him to the vet, I said fine. This morning she rang me & said that he had had 3 more fits during the night, the OOH vet had refused to visit as the dog could be moved but she hadn't called me & was waiting for a vet appoinment at 9:20 this morning. She asked me to come with & hold Sam in the car, which I did. Poor little guy was stiff, shivery & terrified, he had also lost at least some of his vision
The vet's are keeping him in, they said if she took him home he would not have survived till lunchtime, & the problem is very likely to be genetic. They have also said that at his age it would be unfair to put him on life long medication as the side effects are nasty
Now comes the maddening part;
Originally she had asked to go on the waiting list for one of Lu's pups when we breed her next year. I have put a lot of legwork in looking for a suitable stud, both parents will be health tested etc. However she has recently lost her pony & her cat, so this litter of cheap JRT pups came up & she bought one of those instead to cheer herself up. He is a sweet pup, but to be fair he looks as though he was put together by someone who was drunk at the time. Now it transpires that she never went to see either parent, despite the breeder owning both animals, she got him to drop the pup round to her. The bitch is now pregnant again apparently, same stud too. Her next door neighbours have one of Sam's littermates, as well as their older JRT who has chronic epilepsy! Apparently he was part of a litter of 5, of which 2 died within a week or so of birth.
I feel sorry for her, she is going to lose this pup, but can't really get over her stupidity at not doing any research into the breeder or the pup's parents before purchase Today is also the very first time he has seen a vet (at 14 weeks so no jabs, no nothing ) As for the 'breeder', he is a local person who lets just say doesn't have a great reputation anyway. She called him last night when Sam was bad, & all he could do was keep repeating "He's not inbred, he's not inbred" when she hadn't even asked him that (guilty conscience, anyone?)
So yeah, great. The lesson today is unscrupulous breeders + idiot buyers = total disaster + heartache

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Too true, I did have a few words for my friend today about responsible breeders & doing her research but to be honest she has been up all night with Sam & is heartbroken so didn't want to lay in to her too much Just waiting for the call from the vets, they are going to call around lunch time to let her know if he is still with us, he is in a very serious condition

Will be thinking of Sam today- but in the epilepsy front... My candi was diagnosed as a puppy. She has beennon meds her entire life and is still a silly puppy at over 11 years old! But with him not being vaccinated, is the cost of meds going to put her off? Candis meds are only £10pm.
(not to sound mean, but is she still going to be getting one of ur pups even though she has a 14wk old who has never seen a vet with her?)

Thoughts and prayers for sammy

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Hi, sadly the vet does not think that Sam's seizures are epileptic in nature, she is 90% sure that he has a genetic brain disease & if this is confirmed by the tests she has advised that he is PTS (if he survives the day at all ) And no, I'm seriously doubting weather she will be getting on of Lulu's pups. I will just tell her that since she got Sam others have taken her place on the waiting list. I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut if she had one & it wasn't cared for as I would like. To be honest I think she would be mad to get another animal after recent events, even after losing her pony, cat & probably Sam she still has another horse, another cat & a Labrador bitch, all of which have incurred substantial vet's bills recently too. I have never known anyone with such sickly animals! What this says about her general animal husbandry vs pure bad luck I don't know. If I were her I would not be looking to replace poor Sam.

Poor Sam. what an unfortunate little pup. I fail to ever comprehend how people can buy pups with such disregard.

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Just an update;
Poor little Sam was PTS about an hour ago, the vet felt that he had suffered brain damage & would never recover, & that it was unfair to keep him alive even until the test results came back. He had been given Diazepam but was not responding
Meanwhile his 'breeder' will have another litter soon, from the same dog & bitch, so plenty more genetically inferior pups where he came from Tried to talk to my friend about reporting him, but sadly these are not the sort of people you want to get on the wrong side of & her life would be made a misery. Hopefully she will not be so blase about buying any animal in the future.

RIP little Sam xxxx

That is so tragic....poor Sam RIP little man

I'll never understand why people leave themselves wide open to potential disaster and heartbreak, I think its must be the "it'll never happen to me, everything will be fine" attitude....unfortunatly unless people's way of thinking changes all these poor dogs and puppies continue to be the ones who pay the ultimate price for the stupidity, greed and ignorance of some humans!

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Lisa x

Mummy to : Leila, Sophie and also Nikita the Siberian Husky.

RIP - Koda-Bear the Bernese Mountain Dog (my best furry friend and canine soulmate), Scott the Newfoundland (miss ya big guy) , also Fliss, Tara, Sophie, Ben, Poppy and Scamp.

This is who I really am - 30 Seconds to Mars (The Kill)
I am not afraid…I was born to do this - Joan of Arc
Love is being stupid together - Paul Valery

Such sad news, poor Sammy. RIP litle man x

RIP Sam. Poor little mite, didn't stand a chance.

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Remember, winners never quit and quitters never win!