I went around to visit my friend the one I had Starsky off. There was a 8 week old Jack Russell puppy- I said gosh one out new one in :-( I couldn't help myself, it seems to be the daughter brought this pup off someone from a horse market ?? only £70 the young girl asked me about getting all the fleas off it, I said a flea comb being so young, They brought a bob martin flea pipette and put that on it but is still crawling with fleas, When she was leaving I told her to get rid of the fleas as it will suck the puppy dry being so young and might end up dying. The most annoying thing is that this girl brought a kitten and after 2 weeks has given it to her mother- Wonder how long this will last! No mention of taking it to the vet for its jabs just being dragged about on a lead now.. Cracks me up some people

Sorry, I know this is your friend, but some people do need a shake. I bet if anybody asked her, she would say that she loved the puppy and would probably mean it, but it sounds like she just thinks about what she wants at the moment, rather than the animal's future.

It's a good job that so far someone else has been around to take the animals when they get bored with them. Pity the poor pup who won't be so lucky.

Pups this young really shouldn't have the pipette type of treatments, pups are too small and vulnerable for the strength of them, you need to advise them to get frontline spray for a pup that young. Frontline will kill the fleas and eggs, the home will also need to be sprayed with a house spray as the fleas may well have laid eggs in carpets etc by now. The dog can go onto the pipetts when approx 12 weeks of age, but again get frontline or a vet sold flea treatment as they kill the eggs, other flea treatments don't, so when the eggs hatch you have to do it all over again.

I'm shocked that they got another dog, mind you, you said they would when you took on their other dog didn't you, some people are beyond help, they got a JR too, oh dear, I expect you may end up with another dog. :-(

puppies and other animals seem to be just a flash in the pan for some, the poor little soal, it must be very uncomfortable invested with fleas, this can make the puppy seriously ill and i am sure they can develope tape worm from this, yes she definately needs to use the frontline spray as has already been said its very effective, and something like acclaim for the rest of the house. i personally would be worried about going around there they must be itching like hell there selves i would not like any to pop on my dog or be accidently carried into my own home,nice place to buy a puppy no wonder its full of fleas, it obviously has not been wormed either, god knows what else the poor mite may be carrying.she needs to get the pups vacs a.s.a.p seeing as she is dragging it around on a lead,it makes me angry and if i were the mother i would not have allowed my daughter to have it in the first place.

How old is the daughter, out of interest. From the opening post I had assumed she was a young adult, old enough to go out and buy her own pets but young enough for mum and dad to step in when she need bailing out (though are they ever too old for mum and dad to bail out???)

The daughter has just turned 18 has a year old son living alone in a flat since the past month.

I spoke to the mom today at work as I could not stop thinking about this poor pup crawling with fleas. I told her about front-line and have offered to help the young girl out with paying for this pups first injections.

I also found out the full story about how this puppy came about. Her older daughter who is 23 works at a racing yard the owner brought this puppy at 5/6 weeks and has just been leaving it in the stables so this young groom will buy it off him ! Obviously the older daughter is a bit more together and realised that she could not take care of this dog as her mum said no with getting rid of Starsky so soon.  So it has been past along to the younger daughter that gets animals then gives them up in no time!

Well as I could be cross with this family for this in the long run I am thinking of the pup so am going up there tonight to remove all its fleas with a comb and talk the girl into booking him into the vets on Monday. I also found out that the girls best friend brought herself a staff so maybe this has a lot to do with it. Her mother told me she was talking about getting a staff as well so she is glad it is only a jack Russell so might not be as hard work to raise? Her friend said the puppy jabs were only £40 which I thought were very cheap?