We bought our FIRST family dog from Shake-A-Paw on or about October, 2005. We fell in love with her when we first saw her. We knew nothing about this particular breed. She was a french Mastiff, the dog from the movie "Turner and Hooch." Immeidately she was sick with "kennel cough." Of course, we took her to the "recommended vet" that Shake-A-Paw recommended. She got better over time. ABout 2 years ago, she started to vomit pretty irregular though. BUt mind you, she was only 2 when these symptoms started happening. We ALWAYS took her to the vet for her shots, sick visits and never let her down in that way.
This past December, 2009 she again started vomiting YELLOW and WHITE with yellow foam. We were, at this point, so fustrated, that we took her to the "recommended vet" again. They told us that NOTHING was wrong with her that he was just going to have stomach problems for the rest of her life. Well we admitted her a few days before Christmas as she was dehydrated and not eating or drinking. Now mind you this dog was about 110 pds and for her not to eat it showed right away as you could see the weight loss. We went and picked her up on December 26, 2009 with a $2, 500 bill we were told "borrow the money" and also told "she is just one of those dogs who is gonna have stomach problems for the rest of her life." That was not too settling for us, but we TRUSTED the vet and took her home. 2 days later, same problem again. back to the vet and now this time they put her on prednisone. she got better, i mean really better. she was eating a lot, jumping around...our dog was back.
after i started weaning her off the prednisone, she got worse again and i took her for a 2nd opinion and within 20 mins they told me either she has cancer or her stomach is twisted...a twisted stomach is normal for big dogs...it was recommeded that she see a specialist so we did, the next day took her to a specialist. by the time we got there she was in shock and had not eaten or drank anything in 4-5 days. her body was shutting down. they felt her lymph noids and found that they were extremely swollen. some bloodwork and 30 mins later, it was confimred...she has lymphoma cancer. we made the harsh decision to put her down that day. she was only 4 1/2 years old. we have 3 children and they cried for days as did we. i want to start a class action suit to sue shake-a-paw for the puppy mill that they are running. if anyone knows how to do it, please let me know.
thanks
carole and charles murphy