Do NOT buy a dog from a backyard breeder | Page 4 | Animals | Forums

Isn't it amazing what we'll do for our dogs. They become part of the family so quickly. It's not just the backyard breeders, though. We got out newfie from a reputable breeder. Two months later we were dishing out $1600 on elbow surgery. Now (7 months later) we will be spending $2200 on an eye surgery and to get her spayed. Sometimes it's just the luck of the draw. I now know that pet insurance is more than worth it

Sorry you have to deal with all that. What a pain. Poor pup.

KVR said
Wish we had listened to that advice. We bought our german shepard from a local guy. He showed me the papers on her lineage, all looked good to me. Paid 500 dollars for her, that should have been my warning sign right there.

Don't get me wrong, I love this dog, she is very protective of my daughter and has one of the best personalities I have ever seen in a dog. She will come up and just hug your leg looking for love.

But, the amount of health issues she has and vet bills we have paid is through the roof. She constantly gets ear infections, she can't get fixed because of a heart defect that when they start putting her under her heart goes crazy, so we have to deal with her being in heat. She got a skin irritation where it was thickening and gave off a horrible smell, been battling that for the last couple months. Since rufus passed she has seemed depressed and not her normal self, so I took her to the vet today.

He was concerned with lyme disease so we drew blood to check, everything came back clean except her cholesterol was high. Vet said I think I know what the issue is, I need to run another blood test.

10 minutes later he comes out and says I found the problem, she has no thyroid. What? How can a dog have no thyroid. She does he says, but it's just not producing anything. So he gave me pills that she is going to be on the rest of her life, which should clear up all her other problems, but for what we have paid and will pay for pills the rest of her life, we could have 2 or 3 dogs from top breeders in the US.

but I love her and wouldn't trade her for anything

She started limping one day and couldn't put any pressure on that leg. Turns out a tiny part of the bone had broken off (due to a growth plate) and was loose in her tissues.  They removed the piece of bone (probably 1/2'' long) and that solved the problem.

Now her eye gets a lot of discharge and swells shut on a daily basis. They say she has entropian - which is common in newfie's. Niether of these problems have been noted with her parents or siblings. Luck of the draw...

KVR said
very true, what was wrong with the elbow?