Hi all,
my sister has a 12 month old gundog, she got her from a well known accredited breeder. It turns out that the bitch has a seriouse allergy problem, she has allergy to most food , grass, mites basicly everything you can imagine. She has been treated by rutland house in liverpool who specialise in this type of thing and in the 12 months my sister has spent £3000 and money is running out. They have now found a treatment that is working a bit but she will have to stay on this treatment for the rest of her life which will cost £300 per month. the vet said she has the most severe allergy problem that she has ever seen. My sister has told the breeder and she doesn't want to know. My sister doen't expect her to pay for the treatment but i think she would like the cost of the dog back. she was bought for showing and working and can now do niether of those.
Is allergies a reditory?
what do you think the breeder should do?
i know the breeder has not intended for this to happen but is she under any obligation to do somthing about it?

To be honest nothing with a living creature is guaranteed.  If the breeder had bred from typical healthy and health tested examples of her breed, something like this unless it can be proven that the parents have this problem, it is just plain bad luck.

If she was healthy and unaffected at time fo purchase then the breeder has done all they can.  Who knows what triggered her immune system nto over reacting and causing her to be allergic, many believe vaccines can cause this.

My oldest here is over 13 1/2 and has been fit as a flea in that time other than a case of conjunctivitis at 12 weeks and a warty growth on her eye lid and ear at 12.

On the other hand her sister a few years ago had a random virus that started a breakdown in her immune system. she ended up with severe pancreatitis, hypothyroid and lost all her coat through demodectic mange, all problems associated with the immune system, and was on steroids, thyroxine and monthly mange treatment, she managed to live to almost 13.

All a breeder can do is ensure that the puppy *at point of sale* is fit and well and healthy.  They can't be held responsible for anything beyond that. 

However, a breeder should be interested in hearing about the offspring and about any health related issues which develop, just in case they are hereditary. 

The puppy should have been insured and under a 'for life' policy, at least for the first couple of years of life, when serious life-long issues can develop - your sister should have insured her.  :(

I do know that my sisters bitch is the only pup in the litter to have sufferd from this problem, she knows this because they all keep in touch, so it probably is just bad luck. But she has been told that the mother of the pup has had a previouse litter to the same stud and she did have a pup with allergies. I wonder what causes this, it really upsets my sister because the dog is constantly frustrated and itchy bless her, she is sooo restricted in what she can eat, she can't even have treats it is such a shame. My sister does have a good relationship with the breeder and they talk often but she is not interested in her allery. I think my sister thought it would be morally right to offer her somthing but she certainly does not want any bad feeling with her.

I don't think the breeder is obligated to return any money.  You would want and hope that the breeder is interested in the condition as it's useful data for them, and the stud dog owner, but this may just be bad luck.  Allergies are on the increase for people and animals

If allergies are relatively common in the breed (do you want to say which breed it is?) it's important that the breeder does discuss the possibility with every potential owner but there are no guarantees either way.  The single most important thing a breeder can do is to encourage (or make it a condition of sale) that the new owner takes out good lifetime insurance cover for every dog.

I have a dog with allergies, so I know how it feels and I know exactly how expensive it can be, but it would never have occurred to me to think of claiming against the breeder.  I have great insurance cover, and that's expensive too, but we do currently claim more per year than it costs us in premiums (only just).

There are ways of managing things for most dogs with allergies, to improve their levels of comfort, but it can take a bit of time to find a regime that works.  Showing or working should not be impossible.  If you want to suggest your sister sign on to Champdogs there are a few of us on here that might be able to advise what we do to reduce the burden on our dogs.

> All a breeder can do is ensure that the puppy *at point of sale* is fit and well and healthy.  They can't be held responsible for anything beyond that.

Sale Of Goods Act 1979

You have the right for your purchase to be
free from faults
last a reasonable length of time
be fit for purpose
not misdiscribed

Under law you can take the breeder to court. The breeder if proven to be at fault is likely to be asked to do one or more of the following:

refund full purchase price
replace faulty item
cover any additional costs incurred

Despite all the aforementioned, any legal case will take into consideration : if the breeder could have avoided these problems

and as Brainless said....the fact that dogs are not machines and can be expected to go wrong.

I have to say I am dubious of allergy testing. It used to be all the rage at home, where many dog owners were told the dogs were allergic to pretty much everything, including to HUMANS -yes really. The vet I worked for very successfully treated several such dog by a change of food, cutting out all manufactured dog foods. The company that was the first in the UK to start allergy testing for dogs has stopped doing it bu was recently on the BBC's Watchdog for doing allergy testing for humans, basically just making it up as they went along to make money.

Has your sister tried feeding nothing but raw meat and bones?

She is a retriever,
she can only eat pork and salmon at the moment. My sister probably wouldn't even think of taking the owner to court, she is very unconfuntrational and she really wouldn't like to fall out with the breeder, i think she just thought it would of been the decent thing to do to offer her the money or another dog. She waited a long time for this dog and was sooo excited to show and work her. It is such a shame all round

I think many breeders are dubious of vets diagnoses as well, plenty scare new owners to death or have them doing test after test, gosh £3,000 spent on diagnosing allergies! Many breeders get cynical that vets are just lining their pockets..........

As breeders we can make sure that we choose good healthy lines and suitable studs for our bitches along with all health tests and if we do all that, sometimes bad luck just happens.

Speaking for myself, I have to admit though if one of my pups turned out to have a lifelong problem, (verified by a second opinion from my own vet) I would feel morally bound to refund the price or even have the pup back for me to care for until it passes. (If this happened, I would have your sister on my waiting list for another pup if she wanted) So I don't personally feel your sister is unreasonable to feel the same, I think many of us would.

If only we didn't get so attached to our animals it would be easy for me to just say the dog is not fit for purpose of showing and working as wanted and has an illness, so return it and get another, but I know that would be too hard after a year, for most after a week!

If your sister is not likely to ask if the breeder would refund the price now due to this being a lifelong illness and insurance being difficult, or take things further and the breeder has no conscience to do so either, there is little to do really other than try to move forward with the problem......

Perhaps it would be helpful to talk on the health board as to how others have coped with their dogs allergies and which insurance companies they have found the best etc as this is a long term problem the more advice the better for your sister and her dog. :-)

there is five catagoires that dogs can be allergic to we had a dog (died last year at 12 1/2) we had blood tests done to see what she was allergic to and when the results came back she was allergic to four out of five among them the house, dust mites, and grass among others and our vet advised us to find a homopathic vet as all she could do was prescibe steriods that as the dog was only 15  months old she was not prepared to do and although we could not cure them we found we could control them with tablets, creams on the bad spots, shampoos certain addivitives to her food and a totally organic and holistic food with no gluten and e numbers or preservatives google in your area for homopathic vets and i would certainly asked one for an second opinion and just like you she was the only one in the litter like this

Thanks so much everyone for all your advice. Your right my sister couldn't send her girl back now she is a massive part of there family lol. She has had several opinions with different vets and unfortunatly they are all the same thats why she ended up going to the place in liverpool, each vsit has been minimum of £350 per visit. She is very bald at the moment and none stop itching, she has lots of different lotions and potions to help but to be honest there is never much difference. I will let you know if there is any developments in the future xxxx

Evening Primrose Oil may help because its a natural anti-histamine. :)

If not try piriton or similar for a while.  i didn't know Evening primrose was an anti histamine, thats good to know.

Could they feed her on chicken and rice for a while to settle her system down.  My Goldie has an allergy apparently, he belly is usually black, only found one food that stops this and her ears went a little scabby.  The vet offered to give her a steroid injection to calm her skin down.  Has that been tried.  hope it helps.  Have they checked for mites ect.  Can she have bones to make sure her glads are clear, mine loves her bones and it keeps that end taken care of.

Hope that helps.

Do you give tap water for drinking? If so stop now, use a low sulphitie/chlorine bottled water, those of us who live with allergies/intolerances learn very quickly how dangerous the 'cleansing' chemicals are in our drinking water, its is the first thing your specialist tells you to take out of your diet.  Unfortunately Allergies are so little understood and in no way predictable, you could go to bed tonight allergy free and wake up in the morning suffering multiple allergies. Something switches the immune system into overdrive and there you go with progressively worsening symptoms.

Many allergies/intolerances are down to additives and chemicals or natural histamines in the skin of fruits, root veggies and grains ingredients used in many commercial foods these days.  Unless you buy organic even the raw foods can have additives in that cause reactions, I can eat lamb and chicken from my local butchers but not from a supermarket or frozen food outlet.  Stress worsens my skin problems, not emotional stress but the physical that comes with my intolerances/allergies, they don't necessarily cause a full blown reaction but put enough stress on my system it shows symptoms.