Puppy found collapsed was it my fault?

Question

I was given a staff puppy last monday he was fine for the 3 days I had him. Happy to play and eat. I didnt know he was 5 wks old never had puppy before. I told to feed puppy food and milk. He had a very large swollen stomach all time I had him. On friday I went upstairs 5min to put my washing away. I have a 2 year old son who I believed wouldnt go near puppy. I left him and puppy downstairs watching tv. When came downstairs a neighbour showed me my puppy was outside and collapsed. I scooped him up and tried to make him better. He was sicking food and was all floppy wouldnt sit up. It was awful i was in shock. A youth took the puppy from me and run down the road to get the puppy help. i went after him wantin to see if puppy be ok. I was threatened by other neighbours. the rspca called and took the puppy and I have tried to find out how he is no luck. I and kids r grievin so distraug, my neighbours want to drive me out my home. I never hurt a fly. Am i in trouble rspca for goin upstair

I didnt know puppy was 5 weeks I was told the puppy was 8 weeks old. I only found out after the incident that they were younger than that. I was told by the woman who I had them off that they were eating puppy food and milk. If I had known how old he really was. I would never have taken the puppy from his mum. Me and my children have loved him like he was my baby. My daughter is distraught shes 6 yr old and I spent hours with her crying. I have been told to move house and not to walk down the road or Im goin to get beat up. I showed nothin but love for him and Im willin to pay all costs to have him better if he is.

Answer 1

It sounds as if you may be guilty of not preparing yourself for owning a dog. To take on a 5 week old puppy is pretty silly - you should have made sure you knew what you were doing! No excuse! Sorry to be harsh but naivety in things like this can be very harmful!

I mean why was 5 (or 8) week old puppy outside on its own - let alone everything else??

I do agree that you shouldnt have to feel threatened by walking down the street. You need to inform the police about it.

Answer 2

While you shouldn't leave a young child alone with any dog, you did and can't change that. Most likely one of your kids did something that hurt the dog and they put it outside so you wouldn't find out.

You made a mistake leaving the kids with the dog unsupervised. Because you admitted it and feel bad about it, I'm sure you won't do it again.

You don't get in big trouble with the RSPCA for small mistakes no matter how bad the outcome.

Call the RSPCA again and tell them you would like to find out if the puppy is ok or was put to sleep. They may not want to tell you the puppys injuries were not treatable.

As for the puppys age. It was too young to leave it's mum, but you didn't know that at the time. The person who gave you the puppy was wrong to rehome it at such a young age.

A 4 week old puppy can eat moistened kibble. No problems there. The problem is he needs his mum and litter mates to learn puppy socialization skills.

Purrs and wags,
The Cat Lady

Answer 3

Even if you didn't intentionally hurt the dog, and would never want to..still a puppy at 5 weeks is too young to be away, a pup is not ready to go until 8 weeks..no matter how much you plead, people are going to see you as the bad person because the puppy was hurt..although whoever you got the puppy from should have known better than to give it to you so young, if anything it is their fault, but its your fault to..you should have looked into the facts about owning a puppy before getting one, but like i said the person who gave it to you is more at fault than you are...and milk is bad for dogs, they need the special kind of puppy formula, regular milk will cause bad intestinal gas and may kill a puppy, you should contact the person who gave it to you, and give them a piece of your mind, those people should have known better than to give you an underage and possibley already sick puppy. And tell your neighbors to f*** off, you did not hurt the dog deliberately accidents happen, and you learn from them, you were misinformed about that puppy, and now you know next time, take some time to study up on puppy care before getting another. The Puppy is still alive isn't it, you didn't kill it, you didn't know any better, you were a first time dog owner,
they should know what that's like. Things will pass and get better, you shouldn't get in trouble just because you went upstairs to put some laundry away, what you would get in trouble for is IF you purposely hurt the pup, but you didn't so i don't see why you should, don't go about getting another pup anytime soon, let this event pass, learn from it, decide if even owning a dog is the right thing for you and your family, then if you feel the time is right, and that you now know all there is to owning a dog, go for it and obtain another, but care for it properly this time:-) Good Luck to you

Answer 4

It strikes me that all those that are blaming you for what has happened aren't being at all fair and need to get off their pedastals!
You say that you didn't know the pup was only 5 weeks old and I believe you. How many people can honestly say that they could look at a little puppy and know how old it is! Unless you know that breed in particular you wouldn't have a clue.
Anyway, don't beat yourself up about it until you know the cause of the collapse. It's quite possible that it's because of some underlying illness which may not have been noticable.

It is possible your son may have got jealous of the pup because he had to share your attention with it, and only being 2 he wouldn't know the consequenses of his actions.

It amazes me though at how many people are quick to throw accusations at you because" you should have known better than to take a pup at 5 weeks old", yet I don't hear any one of them blaming the breeder! They give reputable breeders a bad name and it should be them in trouble with the RSPCA and not you!!

All I can advise is that you contact the RSPCA to try and find out what happened, hopefully they may have some good news for you. Help them with any questions they may have about the breeder, after all they didn't do you any favours, and try not to be so hard on yourself.

Contact the police if you fear for yours or your family's safety.

Answer 5

you are not in trouble with the RSPCA for going upstairs. You might be in trouble for not caring for a puppy correctly. Also, you should never leave a 2 year old alone with a puppy/dog.
EDIT
Have the RSPCA contacted you? Who has told you the pup was 6 weeks? I am sure if you explain the situation to them they will take it all into account.
With regard to your neighbours they are behaving criminally. Any more threats and you should call the police and if you are in social housing you need to be contacting the landloard/council as what ever the situation with the puppy it is intolerable to have the mother of youg children scared to walk down the road with them who is scared of being beaten up.

Answer 6

First of all, if your neighbours want to drive you out of your home or beat you up, either you haven't lived there for very long and they do not know you very well; you have done something previously to upset them, and they are just using this incident as an excuse to have another dig at you, or, you live in an area where, for some reason, you don't "fit in".

How did you find out about and get the puppy in the first place? If it was from a card in a shop window etc., then you must have had an address/phone no. which enabled you to contact that person and buy/collect the puppy and you should have given those details to the rspca - no reputable owner or breeder of any dog would let puppies that young be taken from their mother!

If someone just came up to you in the street and asked if you wanted the puppy, you should have "smelt a rat" and said no thanks; whether it looked cute or not. And, for crying out loud woman, what planet are you living on? Toddlers, i.e. 2 year olds - love "cuddly" toys, and, all "puppy" was to your son, was a cuddly toy that moved about and played back with him. Of course he was going to go near it! AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY HE GOT! I'm not saying for a minute that you're a bad Mum, or he's a bad child - but, surely you know how kids pick up their teddies or other cuddly toys - by the ears, legs, neck, whatever bit is there to get grabbed first. How did the puppy get outside? He must have been put out there, either by open door or window, and if it was by an open door, then shouldn't you have had a gate across it to start with, purely to stop your son wandering out when you weren't around? And that does mean whether it be for 1 second or 5 minutes to put your washing away - alot can happen in a short period of time where kids are concerned!

I very much doubt if you will find out from the rspca how the puppy is, and think you will have to put the whole incident down to experience, but LEARN FROM IT! Do your utmost to explain to your neighbours exactly what happened, and, if they have no reasons to think that you would hurt or mistreat any animal, then, hopefully, they may realise that it could have happened to any one of them also. If you ever want to get a puppy, then make sure you know where it is coming from, how old it is, and, see it with it's mother in it's home, prior to you buying or taking ownership of it. Also, introduce your children to the puppy and see how they get on a couple of times first - not only for the puppy's sake, but also for your children - you do not want to find out when it's too late that you have got a vicious dog! (P.s. Staff puppies are notorious for chewing! You name it, they will chew their way through it - beds, chairs, door frames, table legs etc., so need to be given as much time, attention and physical and mental stimulation as a toddler).

My advice would be to wait until your children are older before you consider getting another dog, and I can't honestly see, that if what you say is true, that you would be in trouble with the rspca or anyone else as they would know how old the puppy was and whether it had been ill-treated for any length of time - not just the 3 days you had it for. Sorry I can't be of much help other than this, and wish you luck with your neighbours - you sound like you need it. If you're in council/rented property and your neighbours really are that bad, see if you can move. Also, again, if you're in council/rented property, make sure that you're allowed to have a dog - some councils/housing associations/landlords etc., don't.

Answer 7

While 5 weeks is too young to be leaving the litter - it shouldn't be a fatal error. However this is a bad sign of the breeders care that they not only would let him go at 5 weeks but that they would misrepresent the age so you would take him. Such a breeder is unlikely to worm the pups and a sign of a heavy worm "load" (which can be fatal) is a swollen belly and the resulting crash would include vomiting. Unfortunately, if the RSPCA took the pup they likely think you surrendered it or that its mistreated so you chances of getting it back may be low... Leaving it for 5 min would not be a problem (assuming it was in a safe area) but if its collapse is a worm burden - not worming it might be - your only hope to advoid charges would be convincing them you had the pup only a few days...

Answer 8

There's a massive difference between a 5 week and an 8 week old pup. Go to the RSPCA and ask to see your pup, explain its your first and give them the breeders details, they are the ones who should be in trouble I would learn all you can about bringing up a pup and enrol in a local training class when the pups about 14 weeks, you will learn a lot as well as the pup, it will do you both good. I'm sure the RSPCA will help you in this case.

Answer 9

the people in the wrong here are the neighbours and most of all the woman who gave you the dog. get in touch with the rspca and tell them exactly what went on that led to the puppy collapsing. all your guilty of is not knowing the true age of the pup. contact the police regarding the threats being made to you.

Answer 10

My friend's golden actually died in the same way, young dog, they took him for a walk and he was perfectly fine. Seconds later he had heart attack and died instantly Nothing but a necropsy will confirm what happened to your dog though. Hopefully the puppies don't inherit the same problem which is very possible, and a great reason breeding should be done with health tested dogs only.