Health Guarantee & Puppy Care Instructions

Please read this page very carefully.  If you buy a puppy, you will be required to sign a statement saying that you have read it, understand it, and agree to make sure your puppy has all required vaccinations, health checkups, etc.. 

Printable Version of Health Guarantee & Puppy Care Instructions

We guarantee that every puppy is healthy when it leaves here.  If you take your puppy to the vet within 3 days after you pick up the puppy, and the vet finds an unforeseen congenital abnormality, we will either refund your money or allow you to pick out a different puppy, as available.  Our puppies & dogs have not been exposed to infectious diseases here.  If your puppy is exposed to an infectious disease after it leaves here, this is not covered under the health guarantee.  Please pay particular attention to this if you have recently lost a dog or puppy!  Infectious diseases are not covered by our health guarantee, as we have no control over what the puppy is exposed to after it leaves our home.  We also cannot guarantee that your puppy will never develop any health problems, just like a pediatrician cannot guarantee that a child will never develop any health problems in the future. Some things are just not able to be predicted.  Our parents are free of diseases, disorders, and health problems, or we would not breed them.  That means the puppies are less likely to develop problems.  However, it doesn't guarantee they will never develop a problem.

Regarding OFA Certifications

Regarding CERF Examinations

What is Mitral Valve Dysplasia?

We encourage EVERY buyer to make an appointment with the vet before you ever pick up your puppy.  We also encourage everyone to set up a regular veterinarian care schedule and make sure you keep up with the puppy shots.   Have your pet checked regularly for heartworms.  Use a good de-wormer that is recommended by your vet on a regular basis.  Our vet recommends Nemex-2 (pyrantel pamoate), and that's what we use.  Use a good flea protection program.  Here we use Advantage, on the advice of our vet.  Front Line is also a good product.  Ask your vet what he or she recommends.  Flea collars do not work, so don't waste your money.

Please Be aware that vaccinations sometimes fail for various reasons, and a dog does not develop full immunity to some diseases until they are a full year old and have had all their puppy shots, including a booster at the age of 1 year.   If you are not willing or able to make sure that your puppy gets ALL of his scheduled vaccines and boosters, please do not purchase a puppy.  The ideal method of guarding your new puppy against illnesses is to keep it away from other puppies less than a year old, older dogs who have not had vaccines, any dog who is ill, and places where other dogs have been doing their business or other dogs have been ill until your puppy is at least a year old and has his/her final booster.  This isn't practical or possible, in many cases.  

Being informed is a good alternative, and a strict adherence to all vaccination schedules and a veterinary program is a must.  There are many illnesses that can affect dogs.  For a more in-depth look at health, vaccines, and how various illnesses can affect your dog, symptoms, etc., please see:  "The Dog Owner's Guide, Dog Diseases".  Once you take your puppy home, you can also refer to Page 36 of your Purina Puppy Care Guide.  Puppies under a year old are especially vulnerable to a few diseases.  If you keep yourself informed, you can avoid health problems and illnesses in your puppy.

Don't wait a few weeks or a month and then take the puppy to the vet.  Do it right away, as soon as possible.   Don't wait until your puppy is sick to introduce him to the vet.  Get into the habit of seeing your vet on a regular basis.  Think of him as your puppy's "pediatrician".  The vet is a good person to get to know, and taking your dog to the vet for shots, health checkup, etc., is a good habit to get into right at the very beginning.  Puppy "babies" require the same attention and care -- vaccines, well checkups, vitamins, etc. -- as human children.  Maybe more.  If you are not willing to commit to doing this, please buy a hamster or some other animal that does not require the care and attention that a puppy will require.  

If we ship a dog to you, we guarantee the health of the puppy when he or she is placed on the transport.  This is guaranteed by virtue of the fact that a veterinarian's interstate health certificate is required by law to ship a dog across state lines.  However, we cannot guarantee the health of the dog after it gets on the transport, as we have no control over what the puppy is exposed to in transit.  Certainly, all the animals on the transport have to have an interstate veterinarian health certificate, though, so exposure should be minimal.

We have our own vaccination program, and most puppy shots are given on the premises.  If we ship a puppy, it receives additional vaccinations specifically for the purpose of shipping.

When you buy a puppy, you will receive a very nice shot record envelope, with dates, ages, and even the labels from the vaccination bottles.  You can put future shots, and vet information inside the envelope and keep it for future reference.   Always, ALWAYS, take the envelope with you to the vet's office.  That way, he will know the vaccines, wormers, etc., that your pet has already had and will not inadvertently give him something the puppy doesn't need.  We normally do not allow a puppy to leave here until 3 days after receiving wormer treatments. 

Stress & Low Blood Sugar:   Toy-breed dogs can be susceptible to stress, which can cause a condition of low blood sugar, called hypoglycemia.  In small breed puppies from post-weaning to 4 months of age, the most common form of hypoglycemia is called Transient Juvenile Hypoglycemia: "Transient" because the symptoms can be reversed by eating; "Juvenile" because it is seen in young individuals.  Glucose is the "simple" sugar that the body uses for "fuel" to run its various functions. Table sugar, or sucrose, is made up of two simple sugars, glucose and fructose, and can be broken down rapidly after eating. All sugars are carbohydrates. Grains are also carbohydrates but are considered "complex" carbohydrates because they have many more components and take longer to be broken down. The body uses glucose as its primary energy source.  All the parts of the body except the brain can, if needed, use alternate energy sources--fatty acids, for example, which the body accesses by breaking down fat stores.

The brain, however, is completely dependent upon glucose to function. If the glucose in the blood is lower than normal, the brain function is the first to show signs. In dogs, these signs may be seen as weakness, behavior changes, confusion, wobbly gait, or even seizures. In fact, in young dogs who have had what may appear to be an epileptic seizure, low blood sugar is generally ruled out before a diagnosis of epilepsy is made.

How are small breeds different?  Puppies of very small size and toy breeds of dogs have characteristics that make them more prone to the development of Transient Juvenile Hypoglycemia, which is brought on by fasting. Pups of any breed are more likely to develop hypoglycemia than adults, because their skeletal muscle mass and liver size are smaller and brain size, larger, in proportion to the rest of their body. Therefore, there is less glucose being put out into the blood and more being used by the brain, which is dependent upon adequate glucose in order to function. In small and toy breeds, this discrepancy is more pronounced. Even a brief period of fasting in a toy breed puppy can trigger a hypoglycemic "attack." As discussed, one of these attacks may appear as weakness, confusion, wobbly gait, or seizures.  If your puppy is lethargic, listless, or not interested in eating, stress and low blood sugar may be the cause.

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