New Puppy, and our disaster story, I am not looking for a debate or bad comments , just wanted to share our story.

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New Puppy, and our disaster story, I am not looking for a debate or bad comments , just wanted to share our story.

Hi everyone, I don't post often but I felt the need to tell our story of our new addition Howard.

On February 28th my husband and I decided it was time to add to our family of animals(we currently owned one dog) . So we ventured out to go look at the local pet store our whole family had shopped before.( Don't bash for the decision, just read on)

So we walk into the puppy area( cages of dogs the usual conditions) and we see Howard, a "mini bull dog" (Whatever that was supposed to mean) So we first ask if we cans see him, and we are told, "No, he is sick) We sit at his cage just looking at him and talking, and we decide sick or not sick we'd like to take him home. We go and find someone and tell them, and the story changes "Well, he isn't actually sick, we just told you that because we didn't think you were serious"

So we fill out all the paper work and ask the usual questions, "did he visit a vet, can we see his paper" He didn't have papers because he was a "mixed bread" 3/4 English Bulldog and 1/4 Boston terrier. We pay, we leave.

Monday Howard goes for his first visit, he has a respritory infection and worms. O.k. what we exspected, gets antibiodics and go home. Call the pet store they say they'll pay for the medicine.

Fast Forward to Thursday night. Howard starts struggling to breath at about 7pm short fast breathing and extending his neck to breath easier. We rush him to an emergency vet in E Setauket, where they do x rays . While doing the x-rays Howard turned Blue and was rushed onto oxygen. The doctor diagnoses him with Pneumonia, and direct refers us to a 24 hour emergency hospital. We pay ($230) and we leave.

We drive 15 minutes to the 24 hour hospital and when we get there they rush Howard into the back where he is put into an oxygen chamber. The Doctor looks at him and draws up an estimate and we pay and head home. (1800)

Howard had ups and downs for days, he was at the Emergency 24 hour hospital for five days. He was finally healthy enough to come home Tuesday night March 9th, under a few circumstances. Howard was to be on oxygen at home and he was to be nebulized every 6 hours. Tuesday morning we go and buy oxygen(NOT EASY at all and was $150) We also bought a nebulizer for $70. We picked him up paid the new balance ($2500) and bring out baby home.

It has now been almost a week and he is thriving, still being nebulized but is off the oxygen. He has his first follow up visit with a Bull dog specialist tomorrow am. Everything is healthy with him besides the usual bulldog abnormalities .

We contacted the pet store and we got every penny we paid for Howard back. I want to emphasize that yes I did put how much everything costs in my post but just want to let everyone know the expense. Through out the whole ordeal I told the Doctors get him healthy at any cost. I told them if he is fighting we'll keep fighting. There were times we thought we might loose him. It was stressful, scary and nerve racking.

I just wanted to tell everyone on here and spread our story, We will never step foot into a petstore again, I asked the Vet what we could do to have the store looked at and they said it isn't worth it. If anyone knows a way I can help fight these animal stores please FM me. I didn't realize the extent of pet stores until we had our own personal experience. Please don't bash me, I have learned my lesson. This was/is a very hard tramatic experience for my huband and I. Attached are pictures of Howard and his recovery. Thank you all for reading.

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would give you an update. Howard is doing so well, he is a crazy puppy, peeing and pooping everywhere he can!! He is so loving and playful and so happy to be part of our family !
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Message edited 3/29/2010 9:41:05 AM.

Posted 3/15/10 11:47 AM