Ok so I ‘adopted’ a dog from Craigslist. While I know that comes with its own dangers, the puppy seemed fairly healthy and I was told he had his first series of shots. Well jump to today, a week later and turns out the poor thing has parvo. Which has an incubation of 10-14 days so that means he had it before I got him. Legally, if I had BOUGHT him from a merchant, I would be due back my purchase price by Oregon law, but since this was a private seller and not a merchant, do I have any recourse? The ‘rehoming’ fee was a couple hundred dollars so it wasn’t small change. I’m going to treat the little guy and hope he pulls through but it’s not going to be cheap. I’m going to email the seller and let her know and hopefully she’ll do the right thing but if she doesn’t, I’d like to know if I have any legal recourse. 
You can ask the previous owner to take back the dog or pitch in for the costs, but if you weren’t defrauded, say the dog never got it shots, then the right thing to do isn’t that clear. You did adopt the dog, you were assuming all of the costs. If you were told the dog had shots and the seller can’t prove that you should have legal recourse, but then the seller can just take the dog back if they want, and you may never see him again or know if he was treated. Tough spot to be in, hope it works out for you and the dog.
Was it through a rescue? If so, you should have a contract that outline responsibility. If not, you may be able to pursue in small claims.
Good luck.
Yeah it was just someone through Craigslist. I was trying to avoid there when searching for a dog but all the rescues and shelters around here required a fenced yard and adoption fees ranging anywhere from $300-$500. She did tell me he had gotten his first series of shots, since he was just 8 weeks old. I sent her an email informing her of what’s going on and asking for the ‘rehoming’ fee back. We’ll see how that goes. In the meantime…I’ve got my hands full trying to keep a 2 lb puppy alive
If the pup was 8 weeks old and had just had his first shot, it’s possible that he was exposed to the virus before the vaccine had reached full strength. In other words, it may be a more recent exposure than two full weeks ago. It’s a hyper aggressive virus. Be sure all the family members and pet owners you come in contact with know about this so they can double check the immunity on their own beasts.
Poor baby. I hope he pulls through.
Yeah he’s too tiny for them to put in an IV the vet said. So there’s no benefit to keeping him hospitalized when I can do at home what they’d be doing there. Subq fluids every 2 hours and Tamiflu…Obligatory pic of sick puppy
Oh, honey. I’m glad you’re trying the tamiflu. It’s still experimental but hopefully he’ll catch a break.
Some states have “puppy lemon laws” https://www.avma.org/Advocacy/StateAndLocal/Pages/pet-lemon-laws.aspx
but basically you bought a puppy from an irresponsible breeder, so um, what do you expect? It’ll be sick now or later.
From what it looked like on the ad, it was a case of someone having an ‘accidental’ breeding. I agree it’s irresponsible to have an intact male and female dog in your home but it really didn’t seem like a backyard breeder situation. He was the only puppy and I had been scouring the ads for over a week and hadn’t seen her post any other puppies before. Yeah, I didn’t expect a perfectly healthy puppy. I was expecting one with fleas and worms but I thought that would be the worst of it as most people with dogs don’t have parvo at their homes. I did look into the lemon laws and there is one for Oregon however it keeps saying ‘merchant’ and she’s clearly not one so I don’t think I’m going to have a leg to stand on. To add to it all, she’s not responding to emails (shocking, I know) and I don’t have any information about her except her name and a vague idea of the area she lives in. If there’s a legal recourse for me, I’ll try my damnedest to track her down though.
parvo is everywhere. It can live for up to a year in soil. Most parvo outbreaks today occur among people who don’t vaccinate their breeding bitches. A well-vaccinated bitch will transfer immunity to the puppies until they can develop their own immunity around 10 to 12 weeks after being vaccinated.
Did you get OFA certificates from the “breeder”? I really don’t understand why anyone would consider investing 14+ years in an unhealthy dog purchased from a very questionable breeder when they could buy a healthy dog from a good breeder. Or of course there is the rescue route, where you get what you get, but at least you saved a life.
She wasn’t a breeder. Again, I knew getting a puppy off Craigslist was a bit of a gamble but my attempts through shelters and rescues had been repeatedly unsuccessful. I tried to do it the ‘right’ way but it was next to impossible for me to do for reasons stated above. Hell, if I couldn’t pony up the $500 the shelter wanted for a mutt, there was no way I could afford the $800+ for an actual breeder. This puppy has already stolen my heart and I’m doing everything in my power to save it. It just makes me angry that she more than likely knew about this and didn’t say a word.
So sorry this has happened to your baby, but there’s something I don’t understand. Why do you think a non-breeder most likely knew about it when you say the puppy seemed healthy? How would she know?
First of all 8 weeks is too young to have even had the first parvo shot. It’s not recommended until 10-12 weeks. So even if this person was honest about the shots (did you receive the shot record?), parvo would not be included at that young age.
Of course, the reason rescues charge what they do for adoption fees is because you get a healthy dog, with records of all it’s vaccines and a guarantee that they will take the dog back.
Please tell me what shelter you went to that charges $500 “for a mutt”. I simply don’t believe you.
I’m sorry your dog is sick. I hope it makes a full recovery. You get what you pay for.
What kind of dog is that? I ask because it looks like a doberman and unless it’s a toy or has some other issue, at 8 weeks it should be more like 15 pounds.
Whatever it is, when you said 2 pounds, my first thought was that you didn’t get an 8 week old dog.
I’m pretty sure it’s a dachshund pup.
A lot of places have a law that dogs must be at least 8 weeks old before being sold or adopted. A lot of backyard breeder and “neglectful breeders” (didn’t bother to spay or neuter) will lie and say a dog is older than it is to get around the law.
Or, like I said, he might have come down with this because he’s such a baby that his immune system isn’t running at full strength.
I know you’re angry, but it’s going to be hard to keep up with the injection schedule. For the moment, save your energy for that. Try to keep him near you, whenever you’re sitting down, quietly, and let him hear your voice.
This 1000%. I’m sorry you got suckered and I’m even more sorry for the puppy. Parvo is quite deadly for young pups. It’s much better to work with a reputable rescue group rather than some random Craigslist poster who tells you what you want to hear and offers no guarantees. Please consider this a lesson learned.
Let’s focus on the dog, here, for the moment, rather than AngelSoft.
He’s a little chihuahua/miniature pinscher mix so the 2lbs isn’t super small. As for people saying I should have gone to a shelter, I know. I honestly did try. For various reasons I am only able to have a tiny dog and the shelters were charging way more for them. In hindsight, given how much I’ve had to spend on vet bills so far, it would have been cheaper. But I made a mistake and I’m not gonna let this little guy suffer because of it. I also doubted his 8 week status when I got him but when I asked the vet about it on his checkup he said he was just barely 8 weeks.
I understand why you wouldn’t believe me. I was in shock too. But if you want examples of what I ran into, this puppy was $350 to adopt when she was available. this one $500. This shelter has a base rate of $300 for dogs. So, I wasn’t making stuff up. I did try to go through a shelter but be it because of their cost or their requirements (fenced yard) or dogs available, I wasn’t able to find anything.
But in better news, an update on little Toby. I’ve been giving him subq fluids every 2-4 hours since yesterday afternoon. Keeping him on his Tamiflu and keeping his fever managed and he actually ate a little baby food this afternoon and walked around. There’s no bloody stool but oddly enough lots of worms coming out which confused the vet but fingers crossed it’s just a mild case and he’ll get through it.