Hi, I am posting this for a friend, She bought a Bulldog from a breeder advertising in the local paper, he is now 5 months old.
When she bought the dog she had no knowledge of hips scores and health checks etc for the parents (If only she had told me she was buying one!) Anyway, she has been doing ringcraft for a few weeks and the dog has been fine, on the last class he collapsed.
She took him back to her vets who has been seeing him since she got him and they have discovered a lump behind his rear leg and he has awful hips and is having to have pain killers and is to have an operation when he is old enough.
My question is What now? I have advised that the breeder shopuld either offer to pay for the operation or refund her money, what do you all think?

errrrrrmmmmm................. probably haven't got a chance in hell of getting one penny. This obviously is not a reputable breeder with no scoring or health checks.  Legally there is nothing your friend can do, it will turn out to be a very expensive lessons for her to buy from someone reputable.

I feel very sorry for the poor pup, bless him only 5 and a half months and already having problems, very sad.  So sorry for your friend too. Maybe the insurance company she is with will pay out (there are always clauses so not sure) the breeder only needs to do so if he/she has a conscience,  and wishes to help out, but I expect he/she will wash their hands of it all.

It's a very sad situation, my sympathies to your friend.

Has the vet x-rayed him to determine the state of his hips? How long has she had him?

Bulldogs arent hip scored.

Get in touch with bulldog rescue and they can advise you.

Do they know why he collapsed?Had he over exerted himself?

PM me and I will give you the details you need.

She has had him since 8 weeks old, the vet said thet his hips are not in the joint properly and that he will need an operation when he is old enough.
What does PM mean?

PM means- click on the user name and you will then have a 'send message' option- to send a private mesage that is not diswclosed to everyone else on the board :-)

Stacey x

Try the TRading Standards Officer.  Beleive it or not dogs come under the sale of goods act. (how awful)  Technically they have sold you friend a 'defective item', can't get round thinking of a dog like that!!!!

The thing with the sale of goods act is it tends to put an emphasis on returning faulty goods for a full refund because they are not fit for the purpose that they were bought, is your friend prepared to return the poor boy to get her money back? You could try to use it to get some money towards the operation but there is a big but.

It's unlikely a court would order the dog be returned in order to get a refund - there have been several cases where it's been recognised that dogs/puppies are special cases and the owners have been allowed to keep their dog as well as getting compensation under the S of G Act.

Some bulldogs have been hipscored according to the BVA list.

Unfortunately there are many problems with this breed as there are with any pedigree or non-pedigree.

Many of the problems are well documented in this breed, including hips, breathing etc. 

I would think that as they are well known that your friend wouldn't have a leg to stand on as there is enough documentation around for them to realise this.

Hope that the pup is OK.  It could be that they are doing a bit too much with such a young dog?  Do you know how much walking etc, they are doing with it?  Do you know what the lump is?

Hope it's OK soon.

The fact that problems are documented does not always apply.  I have posted before on something similar so sorry for repeating myself.  A Labrador breeder was taken to court and the puppy owners won because the Breeder hadn't told them that the breed has a problem with hip dysplasia.  The owners arguement was that if they had been told by the breeder of a potential problem they would not have bought a Labrador!!!  The breeder got slated and she had bred from dogs with welll below average hip scores.  Still think that it is worth a phone call to Trading Standards just to ask the question.  They may be very interested in this breeder.

We haven't heard whether or not they have tried to contact the breeder.I would go down that road 1st, then maybe the trading standards if they don't have any joy with  the breeder.
Hope the pup is ok.

Jimbob