PuppyGal's Health Guarantee
Dated 12/18/02
This is being written to explain why I find it necessary to have a formal Health Guarantee
after all this time. Unfortunately, the world has changed a great deal in last few years
and I now find it necessary to protect both my pocketbook and my heart. The later is
what I'm most concerned about.
During the last 12 months, I have had the following situations to occur:
- A person request the return of the purchase price of their puppy although their Vet told
them that their 6 month old puppy had died of "just one of those things". He was "up chucking" and
when he did it somehow interfered with the rhythm of his heart and he died. He assured
them that it was not a genetic problem. They told me this at the time it died, but later
came back to me requesting the return of their money. I can't be responsible for a Bully
if I have no control over his environment. The Bully could have eaten
something that disagreed with him; a toxic substance, a spider, a bug, licked a frog,
just got too hot or whatever. Never had the people complained to me that the bully had a
tendency to "up chuck" or had a digestive problem.
- Another person contacted wanting me to replace a 2 year old Bully who had been "put down"
due to complications from the "sudden onset of a rare form of genetic cancer not usually seen in
animals". I had no opportunity to be a part of the decision to take this action and was
very much distressed by the event, much less the fact that they were wanting me to send a
replacement Bully to a foreign country, which I had no idea how to do. The Bully had been
attended to by a University Veterinary School Staff in the foreign country. I asked for
the medical records to be faxed to me to review. I was advised that they
were of course in a foreign language but I told them that was fine. In addition, I asked
about the symptoms, etc. and carefully recorded all I was told. After speaking
with my Vet and researching the Internet, I forwarded to the people a medical
article/report which contained the exact symptoms they had described, to the letter, but
the cause was Rat Poison, not a rare form of cancer.
- A Vet specialists recommended The Champ be "put down" because he concluded he had a rare
genetic spine disease and was going to die. The only positive proof of this "diagnosis"
was an autopsy. A Veterinary Neurologist concluded he had a rare non-genetic disease and
wanted to do $700 more in tests to determine which one. The
former owners probably spent $3,000 for tests, x-rays, etc. Both of these high priced
Veterinarians were wrong - The Champ had sustained an injury, exactly what I thought all
along. Within 1 1/2 weeks of us getting him back, he was on his way to recovery. After 8 weeks
of physical therapy he is 95% back to normal and is expected to completely recover. The
former owners thought these Vets knew more about my babies, than I did, so they ignored my
advice, refused to release him to me and paid money for invasive tests, then demanded I give them a refund.