A puppy has died from multiple organ failure despite his owners having received Kennel Club papers.
Owners Dionne Sayers and Mark Kelly bought French mastiff pup Billy from a breeder in Rochdale on the 2nd March this year, but he sadly died just two months later.
Dionne and Mark, from South Lanarkshire in Scotland, went through website Pets4Home as they wanted to buy from a legitimate dealer and were even sent official documents from the Kennel Club.
Advert
However, it soon became clear that Billy had some serious health issues from breeding that Dionne and Mark were not made aware of before they took him home.
Dionne said that when Billy first arrived, he seemed very nervous.
"Billy would go straight into the corner of the room," she explains.
Advert
"He wouldn't play about like a normal puppy. He would tire out a lot. He wouldn't walk anywhere. He was constantly sitting or lying down.
She adds: "We would take him on walks and he would get tired. He couldn't walk 10 yards. He was so lethargic."
Dionne also noticed he would chew stones, a tactic dogs use to relieve anxiety, she has since been told by the vet.
Advert
"Some things didn't sit right with me," Dionne explains. "He wouldn't really eat his food, he had one small meal a day instead of three. He had hiccoughs four times a day, sometimes more."
"During the Easter holidays, Billy started to become poorly. He was sleeping a lot. He didn't eat or drink at all. He also had severe diarrhoea."
When Billy's breathing became laboured, Dionne took him straight to the vets, who discovered he had fluid in his lungs and put him on oxygen. The vet wanted to operate as they thought that the stones, which can clear on their own, could have been obstructing his breathing. However, when they went to put him under, things began to go wrong.
Advert
"As they went to operate on him, he started to lose his life," explains Dionne, "so they brought him round."
The vet asked Dionne and Mark if Billy had ever been pulled aggressively on his neck by a collar or grabbed by the neck, as they found he had edema of the neck as well as edema of the lungs.
Mark rang the breeder to ask for the information on the vet he'd used, but this was when the breeder swore at Mark and subsequently blocked his number.
Advert
Billy's breathing improved after being on oxygen in Glasgow's veterinary hospital for a few nights and he was allowed to come home again a few days later. However, after only two days, he got ill again.
Sadly Billy's lungs had filled up with fluid again and he was transferred to a veterinary hospital in Edinburgh this time, where he stayed for 10 days.
As the fluid on Billy's lungs cleared up, the vet found that he had right sided congestive heart failure as well as an enlarged liver, a condition that he would have had since birth.
The vet also told Dionne that Billy's siblings would have the same condition.
"He was dying from birth," Dionne said.
Billy was then sent to a cardiologist, but as the days went on, it became clear the situation was becoming critical and Billy died on Tuesday.
"In total we had two months with Billy, a fortnight of which he was in hospital. So we only had six weeks with him," Dionne says.
Dionne and Mark add that although they spent £10,000 in vet fees, it wasn't about the money for them and that Billy was a very special dog. They now want to raise awareness of this issue in order to help others and try to find the person who sold them Billy.
When Billy's documents arrived from the Kennel Club, Dionne and Mark said that some papers were missing and that his red card hadn't been stamped properly.
Mark added that he was angry people could pay to have membership papers from the Kennel Club, and questioned why the Kennel Club were not vetting these people first.
Mark adds: "What these breeders are doing is breaking the law. People can sell dogs and get a fortune."
A Kennel Club spokesperson told Tyla: "This is an extremely sad story and we urge the owner to contact us so we can investigate Billy's registration and look into the circumstances.
"We take steps to ensure that new owners buy puppies from breeders who are taking the right steps in relation to health.
"We provide resources and tools for breeders to help them produce healthy puppies and there are required health tests for all Kennel Club Assured Breeders. We include health test results for Kennel Club-registered puppies online, so that buyers can see the steps taken by their breeder health-wise, before buying a puppy.
"Health problems can also be caused by poor conditions and care. We can only physically check the premises of Kennel Club Assured Breeders - outside of this scheme, breeder welfare and premises checks are monitored by Local Authorities.
"Any welfare concerns must be reported to the RSPCA, and if it is a Kennel Club-registered dog and there is wrongdoing, we can take action."