Yeah, sleeping is the best thing for him, at the moment. Don’t let him run too much, just yet, even if he wakes up tonight feeling frisky. I’m glad he’s keeping his canned food down. Between that and the pedialyte, it’s good to know that he’s getting some nutrients.
I’m sorry if I’m coming off too bossy. I’m just nutty about that little dollface, there.
No you’re fine 
I love him to death too and I just barely have had him a week. This is day three of the parvo and he’s hanging in there. I’m still worried about him, and I just noticed he’s starting to get dehydrated again so back to fluids under the skin 
Poor guy.
Re: 300-500$ fees–> Go to a city/country animal control kennel (rather than SPCA or the like) and I’ll guarantee it that you’d be able to get a (vaccinated, fixed) animal for under $200. If you don’t see the dog you like the first time (chances are, they’re mostly going to be hound or pit bull mixes), keep visiting.
That said, sorry about your backyard breeder experience.
Hang in there Tobester. We are all hoping for a happy outcome. My two rescues, Mollie and Charley, are sending “good doggie” vibes.
The rescue I fostered for charged about $400 for adoption, but it included all first year shots, deworming, spay/neuter, and they would take the dog back if you needed (and were in the area).
I hope your little guy pulls through.
uh yeah, and where did she get the puppy from? It probably came from a puppy mill. Since the public has been alerted to the fact that pet-store puppies come from abusive puppy mills they’ve tried a few different tactics to market their puppies.
If multiple rescues turn you down, perhaps you aren’t a good home for a puppy? At least consider the possibility.
Dogs are expensive. If you can’t afford the adoption fee, there’s a good chance you can’t afford to own a dog. I paid over $400 recently to let my old guy go in peace. Do you have $400 for that? Think about it. You’ll have to do it someday. That was the least of my vet bills over the dog’s lifespan.
You can pat yourself on the back all you want for paying for the pup’s care (good for you) but well, it doesn’t solve the real problem.
The rescues that turned me down did so for two reasons. The fact I have no fenced yard and I have an 8 year old daughter. It wasn’t for any reason that would make me a ‘bad’ owner. I won’t get into everything about who I got him from or the cost of raising a dog. One way or another, this little guy would still be sick right now, be it with me or someone else. I’m well aware at this point I fucked up. I’m paying for it. That doesn’t mean he should have to too.
Wow, just flat out turned you down? I don’t understand it. The breed rescue I volunteer for, Chako Pit Bull Rescue, does insist on a meet and greet, as well as a home inspection before adoption is complete, but we don’t rule out potential adopters because the don’t have a fenced yard, as long as they have an acceptable plan for exercise. We also don’t flat out rule families with kids under a certain age. We might say no kids under 8 for a specific dog, but not as a rule. Heck, a lot of our foster families have kids under 8. I’m sorry that your experience with rescues was so frustrating.
Go over to CL and look at the ads for puppies (search “pupp*” for best hit/noise ratio).
They used to brag about “both parents on site” (or “cite” or “sight” or…).
That was a bit too obvious, so now they just say they have “a puppy” - they don’t even mention sex - “you want a ‘boy’? Fantastic - it IS a 'boy”!".
When I’m bored, I go there and flag all the puppy sales. Or at least a few dozen of them.
These people are creeps.
A lot of rescue groups have blanket policies like that and in my opinion it’s the wrong approach. I would never volunteer (or adopt from) a group with blanket policies. It’s too black and white. I recommend anybody who runs into these groups to keep looking around and find a group that evaluates adoptions on a case by case basis.
Fingers crossed for the little one.
I wonder how Toby’s littermates are. 
You’re the best thing that could’ve happened to him. I’m pulling for the little guy!
The county shelter where I volunteered had a love/hate relationship with rescues. They’d swoop in and take all the small to medium, highly adoptable dogs and the shelter was left with a bunch of pit bulls. The other controversial breeds like Rotties and Dobermans always went fast, but those poor pit bulls would sit there forever (it was a no-kill shelter).
The seller finally emailed me back when I started hinting at legal action. She said he looked healthy when I took him but I told her I’d send vet records if she needed them. At that point she just said she’d send me the money back via Walmart since it’s a 2 hour drive one way between us. That was two days ago. I’ll email her again soon but we’ll see.
And yeah :\ I’ve heard the same about rescues. Though a couple of the dogs I looked into adopting through rescues had actually been brought up from California since there’s apparently an overabundance of tiny dogs there and very few up here. During my search I saw SO many pitties. Poor things will probably be there a long time.
And update on Toby. Yesterday I was kinda concerned because he refused to eat anything at all. His diarrhea was mostly liquid and mucus but was only happening 3-4 times a day. He was fighting me constantly on oral fluids and when I had to finally give him subq ones. Tiny guy is squirmy as hell. Usually ended up with more fluids on me than in him. He also started throwing up last night which got me super worried. Luckily the vet had sent me home with an anti-nausea injection which I gave him. He threw up a couple times this morning still but then suddenly he just woke up and started walking around. Acted super hungry so I gave him a bit of baby food with pumpkin puree in it. Just a little bit. He didn’t throw that up so I gave him a bit more. He even drank some water on his own. He’s sleeping right now after just walking around a bit and being a cuddler. So fingers crossed.
Eating and drinking water on his own is a big deal. It’s important that he continues to show an interest in things, even if he doesn’t take in enough to rely on. It sounds like a the subq fluids are helping a lot. He sounds like he does better when he’s getting his shots.
Good luck and keep up the good work! It sounds like you’re doing good.
I think you should just write off whatever you paid that person for the puppy, she’s not going to refund you. She’s a scammer/backyard breeder.
However, your pup is a real cutie and I’m glad that you’re working so hard to pull him through. Keep it up. You’re a good person!
yeah, but if people didn’t keep falling for these scams, no dogs would ever be in this situation. The scammer abused the mother and father of the pup and possibly ended up killing all of the other dogs in the litter and will keep on doing this because of the money the OP paid up. It stops with you when you step up and say no more. The OP is not a hero, he is the reason why this abuse continues.
This is pretty harsh. Ultimately the blame lies with the abusers and the abusers alone. Most of the general public doesn’t understand what’s going on. They usually believe they are helping or rescuing the dog. Yes, it perpetuates the abuse, but insulting and blaming the public is not the way to educate them. Public service announcements from legitimate breeders, rescues and shelters would go a long way in educating the general public on how it perpetuates abuse to “rescue” these dogs from backyard and negligent breeders.
Believe me, I’m on board with those arguments - in both directions! I adopted retired racing greyhounds and flipped so crazy in love that I started volunteering. Most people thank me for rescuing my dogs. However, at a meet and greet once, someone confronted me with “don’t you think that by taking the dogs from the tracks you’re part of the problem by allowing them to keep doing business as usual?” The answer was both yes and also no, for many reasons (that I won’t go into unless you guys are interested and then it should be a separate topic).
I am happy to rationally discuss both points of view with anyone because I very much believe in fighting ignorance.
Fingers crossed and prayers said for lil’ Toby. Thank you for taking such good care of him, AngelSoft.
Eh, I agree that insulting people (especially after the fact) achieves little, but I’m going to differ with you on “Most of the general public doesn’t understand what’s going on.” I find most of the general public to be deeply invested in maintaining their beliefs – they almost literally put their hands over their ears and chant “I’m not listening” whenever someone tries to tell them the truth about backyard breeding, commercial breeding, puppy mills, and so on. People get mad in a hurry if you want them to change their assumptions. And so many people seem to agree on two things absolutely: that most breeders are bad, but their breeder is special and wonderful.
I guess that’s how lotteries can sell so many tickets…a poor understanding of statistical odds.