Puppy mill dogs and health issues

I have been talking to Dagmar alot recently about this little pug mix that she had to put down due to renal failure. I'm copying the email she sent me today. Not surprising, but interesting in a very depressing sort of way:


AS I always say—each dog teaches us something. I of course, have been speaking to many vets, getting “free advice” thru this process. My friend Ronia had her vet (he’s a mobile vet that comes to her house) stop in at her place, and I had her ask him. This was after the diagnosis on thurs night. He said that this type of renal failure, and general organ “malaise” is incredibly common in puppymill dogs---and that it is a product of very tight line-breeding and basically incest. That Kody’s case is “classic” of this type of breeding practice. Damn sad.

I did not know that—and thought I’d share that with you. I mean—incest is bad, self-evident…..but here we have 100% definitive evidence of what can happen.

Blanche, Thanks for the info, it is very sad. I'm gonna share a little something here. When "Midnight" came into rescue which was in June she was pregnant with her brothers pups. We also took Shadow as well. We rescued her on a Saturday she went to the vet Monday. After an ultrasound was done, she had three babies. She was showing so was well into the pregnancy. We had the pregnancy terminated and she was spayed. I asked Dr. D if there were any outward deformities he said no but Jerry & I decided that it just was'nt a pregnancy we could let her carry through with. All we could think were the issues those pups could possibly have, there was no way I would put a family though that heartache. It's just wrong to let that breeding happen!!

Now mind you Midnight will be two in May is all of about 11 pounds has major food allergies is about half bald and she and Shadow were bought from a petstore in PA.

Frankly, I'd have done the same thing, Carol. Our adopters really go above and beyond in the care of their animals, but there is a point when you just can't risk it. and a brother/sister mating is a nightmare and a heartbreak waiting to happen.

how terribly sad. :(
it's so unfortunate that it happens. I hope that it can be eliminated some how and some day. Poor dogs!

Thank you for sharing this information with us!

It's just too sad. They're even seeing this in cross-breeds from puppymills?

Aussie Witch wrote:It's just too sad. They're even seeing this in cross-breeds from puppymills?

I assume so, Rona, since we are pretty sure this little Kody was either a pug/chi or possibly a pug/min pin. If he was pure pug, he was really WAY off the charts in terms of conformation.

And we've had several mixes that had HUGE health problems--including two that died of PDE--both likely pet store dogs.