Member

Posts: 228
From:Grand Rapids, MI
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 02-03-2004 06:53 AM         

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Thanks for your responses on my question regarding the petstore- just wanted to let everyone know that I found the Petstore owner's e-mail and made it very clear the suspicions I was having about his operation. He has not returned my e-mail yet. That is his choice-- from here I am going to contact the local humane society and ASPCA chapter to look into it. I will keep everyone posted.

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Member

Posts: 926
From:
Registered: May 2003

posted 02-03-2004 08:14 AM         

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glad to hear yo are going forward with this, good luck and keep us posted
Honeybear

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Member

Posts: 275
From:My IQ is higher than yours, I guarantee it.
Registered: Dec 2003

posted 02-03-2004 09:12 AM         

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I've spent time working in a pet store and it is VERY common for puppies to have diarrhea not only during their duration at the store..but also for a week to two weeks after they get home. Bloody / practically water diarrhea however, is NOT common and not good. Its not always serious but does need to get looked into. Anyways...the reason for the diarrhea is food changes. When the pet store gets the puppies from wherever they got them from...they start feeding the puppies a new diet. They give all their dogs one brand of food...often mixed with wet food or other such means of making sure all the puppies are eating heartily since they cant keep an eagle eye on each and every one. This usually causes some diarrhea when they first get to the store. The place I worked at averaged about 6 days before a puppy would find a home. When the dog gets home...factors such as stress play into it...and also most owners pick their own puppy food or mix it a little differently..etc...so the puppys food is changed once again and often diarrhea is the direct result. Kennel cough is highly contagious and is very common at pet stores and also very common if you ever board your dog at a vet or take your pet to the groomers. Any instance like those..kennel cough pops up.

Anyways...those to me, are very minor things to be concerned with with a pet store. There are many more serious issues you should be concerned with, however. (The pet store should have some sort of health guarantee that covers anything the puppy had while he was at the store or got from his parents / the store anyways..and all the medication should be paid for. Often the stores will not sell the animals until they are better for example)

Anyways...If you have more concerns I would contact animal control. No offense to your local SPCA but they are not the authority and not every single one of them is run the way they should be. Las Vegas is a big town..unfortunately the local shelters and SPCAs and humane societies lack any decent workers. Animal Control is definately the authority to call if you have concerns about anything animal related. If there is anything going wrong at all...they will make the store close its doors INSTANTLY until the problem is fixed. I remember the pet store I worked at being closed for one hour during a busy day at the mall because we didnt have a sign posted visibly that said "Information about the animals background is available" or something like that. Someone had to run home and print up a sign =P

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