ATV Florida Forum

Long story short - I bought an American Staffordshire puppy from a breeder in Merrit Island last October. He turns a year old this weekend :) The past few weeks he had been limping, so I took him to the vet on Wednesday for some Xrays, thinking he may have a sprain or pinched nerve. To my suprise, they discovered he has Hip Displasia :( Happy birthday to him! :( I have not contacted the breeder yet, but I feel she needs to know about this. She shouldnt be breeding dogs that have this disorder in their genes. Eventually Sully is going to have to have surgery and possibly have to have his hips replaced someday. I dont even want to think about how expensive these surgerys could be and I'm curious if anyone has ever had an issue like this. And just cause I love him and have to show off - here's a pic of Sully and also a pic of the X-rays showing his lovely squared off joints :(

(http://i35.tinypic.com/11aiu6s.jpg)
(http://i33.tinypic.com/2hyvr42.gif)

i dont know the law for a breeder but when i got my masstiff  the breeder got his hip xrays  cirt  to make sure he did not have it as a puppy   sorry to here that about your dog   some breeders just do it for the money   and dont care about the dogs and the feelings of the person buying the dogs  :'(

Unfortunately many unscrupulous people are out there doing this that just don't give a damn about the animals or the buyers. It is very sad.

Just had this issue with my Chocolate at the age of 1, we were quoted approx. 10,000 for the whole replacement or 4,500 to just remove the ball joint from each leg. We did one side at a time and gave him 3-4 months in between so we could retrain him and allow him to build up the extra muscle to support the weight, he's 90lbs. He is absolutely fine now, just cant make the big jumps anymore. Unfortunately my wife took him in for the second surgery while I was at Da Plex for a feature weekend and decided to have his other ball's removed, and he had a sac to be proud of. So I apologized profusely and commisserated with him during his recovery :'(

lol, how dare she do that! I had Sully neutered a long time ago, he was so young he hadnt even realized he had them yet, lol. Luckily, I didnt pay a whole lot for Sully. The breeders house had burned down and she needed to home the puppies more then she needed the money. I do have health papers on him, but X-rays werent done. I'm giving the breeder the benefit of the doubt - its possible her dogs werent showing signs and maybe she just didnt think to do X-rays because she thought her dogs were in the clear - obviously they're not. I'm not mad at her or anything like that, things happen, and the breed is known for those issues. I just wasnt expecting him to have the issue so young :( I'm trying not to even think of the cost of surgery - hopefully he wont need that for many years - I just know if I can get her to help with the cost then it may be worth looking into the whole lemon law thing a little deeper.

I am sorry to hear about your pup.  There are a lot of new treatments out there. Good luck!

Here is some information for you:

http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/ai/main/pet_main.shtml

http://www.floridaanimallaw.com/2007/08/floridas-pet-lemon-law.html