Hi everyone, I'm not a GSD person but I'm looking for some advice as all my experience has been with Siberian and Alaskan Huskies. My little sister found a free to good home GSD that was being retired from a breeding program and she was really excited because she loves GSD's and has always wanted one. Unfortunately I think that this breeder is less than reputable despite the supposedly stellar pedigree. This breeder would not let them off her front porch to see the rest of the property which was the first red flag for me ( I, unfortunately was at work and unable to go or I would have called this lady out on some of this stuff). Then when she brought the dog out my mom commented that the dog looked too skinny. The lady responded that this was the normal body type of the GSD. My first response when seeing the dog was also that the dog was too skinny. Now I do know what a working dog looks like and this dog was emaciated, not a thin working dog.
She mourned for her lost home which was understandable, but heartbreaking. Then she stopped eating. We were concerned about this so took her to the vet. Now we had only had this dog for maybe two days and the vet was horrified at her condition. She was emaciated and was having trouble with her hips. They took x-rays of the hips and they appeared fine but it was almost like the dog was drunk is the only way I could describe it. She just couldn't get her hips to respond or would fall over. The vet did some blood work and found that her sugar was very low and told us how to force feed her to help get that back up along with a regimen of sugar water. Now this dog also had both eyes infected and so we had to get her meds for that as well. Very traumatic for the poor pup.
She began improving, started being able to walk and put on weight. She began to play with my husky and started to act like she was going to bounce back and be part of the family. Then yesterday she took a sudden turn for the worse. She rapidly lost the weight we had put on her (like it just disappeared, I've never seen anything like it), began having seizures, was bleeding from the mouth, and became unresponsive to visual and audible cues. We rushed her to the vet first thing and there was nothing we could do to save her and so we had to let her go.
It was heartbreaking and absolutely horrifying. We get the general vibe that this lady sent this dog away to die so that she didn't have to report health problems with the dam. I'm just looking for advice on how to proceed here. We feel strongly that this dog was wronged and that there is something potentially wrong with this breeder, but are unsure of how to go about getting justice for this poor dog and hold the breeder accountable and to potentially alert the owners of the puppies that came from this dog that there may be some severe health problems with the puppies.
Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks.
((I wasn't sure how much information on the breeder I could include so I left everything identifiable out. I would also like to note that this dog has an AKC pedigree and is supposedly from some really good bloodline? The breeder also does no work with these dogs aside from some basic training and gets a couple grand for each pup...which was another red flag to me as the breeders I'm used to are actively involved with working their dogs in some form or another. Also if this is in the wrong spot I apologize feel free to move it somewhere else if needed.))
She mourned for her lost home which was understandable, but heartbreaking. Then she stopped eating. We were concerned about this so took her to the vet. Now we had only had this dog for maybe two days and the vet was horrified at her condition. She was emaciated and was having trouble with her hips. They took x-rays of the hips and they appeared fine but it was almost like the dog was drunk is the only way I could describe it. She just couldn't get her hips to respond or would fall over. The vet did some blood work and found that her sugar was very low and told us how to force feed her to help get that back up along with a regimen of sugar water. Now this dog also had both eyes infected and so we had to get her meds for that as well. Very traumatic for the poor pup.
She began improving, started being able to walk and put on weight. She began to play with my husky and started to act like she was going to bounce back and be part of the family. Then yesterday she took a sudden turn for the worse. She rapidly lost the weight we had put on her (like it just disappeared, I've never seen anything like it), began having seizures, was bleeding from the mouth, and became unresponsive to visual and audible cues. We rushed her to the vet first thing and there was nothing we could do to save her and so we had to let her go.
It was heartbreaking and absolutely horrifying. We get the general vibe that this lady sent this dog away to die so that she didn't have to report health problems with the dam. I'm just looking for advice on how to proceed here. We feel strongly that this dog was wronged and that there is something potentially wrong with this breeder, but are unsure of how to go about getting justice for this poor dog and hold the breeder accountable and to potentially alert the owners of the puppies that came from this dog that there may be some severe health problems with the puppies.
Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks.
((I wasn't sure how much information on the breeder I could include so I left everything identifiable out. I would also like to note that this dog has an AKC pedigree and is supposedly from some really good bloodline? The breeder also does no work with these dogs aside from some basic training and gets a couple grand for each pup...which was another red flag to me as the breeders I'm used to are actively involved with working their dogs in some form or another. Also if this is in the wrong spot I apologize feel free to move it somewhere else if needed.))