Hi all,
My fiancé and I recently purchased a little girl cavalier, Marley, she is about 12 weeks old now and a little thing, about 4 lbs. First, a short, long, story. We have already started off on a bad foot with Marley girl-before we got her we did all the research and felt very well educated and confident about our upcoming purchase. We knew what to look for and what to avoid, unfortunately we couldn't wait and the very first time we got to see her, we feel in love. The man that we got her from is from Ireland and he goes back frequently to visit his family-one of cousins has been breeding his cavaliers for a long time and when he goes back and there are puppies, he brings them back with him to the states. The puppies are all IKC certified and micro chipped but only have their Parvo shots because the Irish feel that Americans and their animals are all over medicated...The man was EXTREMELY nice and informative and we did receive a 1 year guarantee on her health. WELLLL...The first trip to the vet was a sad one, Marley had 2 types of worms and 2 ear infections (all very common and very treatable) but she also has a bad knee and a heart murmur (grade 2) and lazy eyes.....!!!!!!!!!! We called the man back and told him everything, needless to say we were devastated, but we love her and we had grown so attached in just the couple days we had her, we felt sick about returning her. Luckily we were able to get the majority of our money back, but that really wasn't the point, we paid lots of money for a happy healthy dog, but we love her so much!! In addition to the refund we also got another written contract that states if her heart gets worse he will replace her...The man was very understanding and apologetic. So now, what’s done, is done. We did our research but we managed to forget about everything, when we met her. Now she is apart of our family and we are moving on to the next step....Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I am sure you all are rolling your eyes in disgust, how can we be so ignorant, we know, but we are trying to make lemonade out of lemons, nothing is perfect and everything happens for a reason. We have Marley for a reason and we are going to give her tons of love! We are considering pet insurance and we read the recent posting and that was helpful, but we also know that it won’t cover pre-existing ailments-is there a way to avoid this? Also which plan would be the best for her considering her knee and eye problems? The vet was very optimistic and said that she could easily grow out of all of these problems… Currently we are kind of worried about her eyes, because she doesn’t look straight ahead like most dogs do, or if she does it just doesn’t look like it. The vet said she has lazy eyes...the muscles in her eyes aren't that strong, which makes her pupils go towards the side...does anyone have any feedback? Is there a surgery or will they get better with age? I don't have a picture of her with me but I will post one. I need to finish this off with a positive note, aside from all this bad news-she has a great personality and she is a breeze to train!!
Thanks so much. Hannah
My fiancé and I recently purchased a little girl cavalier, Marley, she is about 12 weeks old now and a little thing, about 4 lbs. First, a short, long, story. We have already started off on a bad foot with Marley girl-before we got her we did all the research and felt very well educated and confident about our upcoming purchase. We knew what to look for and what to avoid, unfortunately we couldn't wait and the very first time we got to see her, we feel in love. The man that we got her from is from Ireland and he goes back frequently to visit his family-one of cousins has been breeding his cavaliers for a long time and when he goes back and there are puppies, he brings them back with him to the states. The puppies are all IKC certified and micro chipped but only have their Parvo shots because the Irish feel that Americans and their animals are all over medicated...The man was EXTREMELY nice and informative and we did receive a 1 year guarantee on her health. WELLLL...The first trip to the vet was a sad one, Marley had 2 types of worms and 2 ear infections (all very common and very treatable) but she also has a bad knee and a heart murmur (grade 2) and lazy eyes.....!!!!!!!!!! We called the man back and told him everything, needless to say we were devastated, but we love her and we had grown so attached in just the couple days we had her, we felt sick about returning her. Luckily we were able to get the majority of our money back, but that really wasn't the point, we paid lots of money for a happy healthy dog, but we love her so much!! In addition to the refund we also got another written contract that states if her heart gets worse he will replace her...The man was very understanding and apologetic. So now, what’s done, is done. We did our research but we managed to forget about everything, when we met her. Now she is apart of our family and we are moving on to the next step....Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I am sure you all are rolling your eyes in disgust, how can we be so ignorant, we know, but we are trying to make lemonade out of lemons, nothing is perfect and everything happens for a reason. We have Marley for a reason and we are going to give her tons of love! We are considering pet insurance and we read the recent posting and that was helpful, but we also know that it won’t cover pre-existing ailments-is there a way to avoid this? Also which plan would be the best for her considering her knee and eye problems? The vet was very optimistic and said that she could easily grow out of all of these problems… Currently we are kind of worried about her eyes, because she doesn’t look straight ahead like most dogs do, or if she does it just doesn’t look like it. The vet said she has lazy eyes...the muscles in her eyes aren't that strong, which makes her pupils go towards the side...does anyone have any feedback? Is there a surgery or will they get better with age? I don't have a picture of her with me but I will post one. I need to finish this off with a positive note, aside from all this bad news-she has a great personality and she is a breeze to train!!
Thanks so much. Hannah