Here is a question. My best friend bought a dachshund from a 'breeder' in Missouri about 3 weeks ago. A week and a day later the dog started with explosive diarrhea and vomiting, was diagnosed with parvo and started on treatment. The next day her chihuahua that was vaccinated, but under a year old got sick as well as her 8 month old dachshund. They were treated, and survived.. only got home yesterday. The breeder provided papers and records of shots/wormings being done.. which obviously weren't. Do we have a leg to stand on in terms of getting reimbursed from this woman for vet bills? This is ridiculous. She paid 300 for the puppy, and is out about 400 dollars in vet bills plus pain and suffering.

It all depends on wether or not she had a health guarantee and wether parvo was listed on it. Usually a breeder will list genetic defects, but not things like parvo, Guardia, or Coccida. And even if there is a guarentee, its hard to enforce if the breeder refuses to help. She could fight it in court, but would have to go to the state where the puppy was purchased to do that.
All she can do is contact the breeder and see what, if anything, she is willing to do. If it is nothing, your friend may find out that it will end up costing her more in expenses trying to recover her vet bills, and she could still end up not getting anything back.

One of the problems with vaccinations in puppies, is Mamas anti-bodies take along time to dissapte from the body. this takes up to around 3-4 month. the anti-bodies will attack vaccinations as if they were disease, rendering them ineffective. Also, vaccinations are not always effective. Handling of the vaccine prior to adminstration can cause them to lose effectiveness. Also, vaccines only protect against upto a certain concentration of viral particles. For the sake of argument we will use the 100,000. If the dog comes incontact with 100,000 viral particles but the vaccine is only effective up to 90,000 the dog will get sick. The only way I have ever seen someone have leg up in court is if they can prove the dog got sick prior to delivery, this is hard to do. Also the only way I have seen anyone prove this is if the dog had symptoms upon delivery.

And MO state laws suck for pets, that's why there are so many puppy mills ther.

Yes, she had to be put to sleep because she was suffering. Being 8-9 weeks old she was extremely tiny to start with. After the parvo, she withered down to a lb. The vet suggested putting her to sleep to end her suffering, we could have kept her on the IVs but odds are she would have never survived it. She was too far gone.

The 9 week old dachshund was not mine, I was talking of -my- personal dogs.. of which I have 3. All are over a year and always vaccinated, none of them became sick. My friend has a chihuahua, a schnauzer and a dachshund.. then there was the puppy. Two of her dogs got sick, and only just got home a few days ago.

If the pup got it after being with the new owner for a week and a day, I doubt that there's anything she can do. That time frame is in the middle of the parvo incubation period, which is 3-10 days. So what I'm saying is that the breeder could have sent the dog home while having no knowledge that the dog was sick or even in danger of getting sick.

In fact, it's even possible that the puppy contracted parvovirus during the 8 day period that your friend had the dog. Did she go to a pet store or pet supply store, like Petsmart or Petco to buy supplies, dog food or toys? Then there's a chance she picked up the virus while there. Heck she could have brushed up against another customer in the grocery store and brought the virus home with her.

You said that the breeder provided evidence of shots and wormings being done, and obviously they weren't... but your friend's other dogs also contracted parvovirus, and they were for sure vaccinated. Why should the little puppy have had immediate and full immunity to parvovirus after vaccinations when the older dogs didn't? The parvovirus is effective in combating the disease, yes, but there are many things that can weaken a dog's immunity and make them more succeptable. A scratch, exposure to a new environment or a new area of the country, heck exposure to new dogs, all of these stress the immune system. It sounds like in your friend's case, only 1 of the 4 dogs had an immune system sufficient to fight off exposure the virus.

All of the other dogs only became sick after the dachshund was in her home. The little dachshund had runny stool from the day it arrived, but we contributed it to stress. She didn't take the dog anywhere besides her front yard, if it had been there previously don't you think her vaccinated dogs would have gotten it -then-? It's odd that her dogs were never -ever- sick, then this puppy is the first to be diagnosed with parvo.. and then a few days later her other dogs get sick.

Her previous dogs' immune systems might have been fine until she brought the new dog home, then they became excited and stressed from the addition of the new puppy, and that alone may have weakened their immune systems. And again, even if she didn't take the puppy anywhere, your friend herself could have carried the shed parvo cells home to the dogs from another source, like the local Walmart where another customer had it on them, or the local Petsmart.

Did your friend take the puppy to the vet within 48-72 hours of getting the dog home to have the diarrhea checked out? I'm just saying that legally I strongly doubt there is anything your friend can do, as there are too many other possibilities for where your friends dachshund pup go the parvovirus other than from the breeder.

If the pup had the runny poop, she should have taken him to the vet within the first 2 days, she didn't.

Parvo has a 7-10 days incubation period, therefore, since she had the pup for 8 days until it became sick, the parvo came from there.

I feel sorry for your friend and her loss. I'm with minn, I don't think there is anything your friend can do.

Tell your friend to decontaminate the place. Parvo incubates at areas where dogs come into contact. I'm not sure if this is true but better play it safe.

Yes, the pup was taken to the vets for a checkup on the runny poop. There were stool tests and the likes, only to find no worms or parasites. It wasn't really explosive, it was just soft.. they contributed it to 'stress'. They gave us a syringe of diarrhea medicine and sent us home. She never had solid formed poop, it was more like really soft soft. She never showed any signs other than a little soft poop, she was always playful and always ate... we had no reason to suspect parvo. She became extremely sick within' 2 days, and was hospitalized in less than 24 hours when the diarrhea become extreme and she started vomiting along with that.