Murphy's Story - pet shop pup

I have a story that is probably similar to a lot of people. I bought a pet shop puppy, a poodle x terrier; a 'terroodle' if you must.

He is a great dog, and was a wonderful puppy, though his coat changed so much by the time he was one year old, I thought about calling him Moses! His coat was multi coloured ( even thought he was pure black with a little splash of white as a puppy) and went into some weird dreddies, so now he has to be clipped a few times a year. His coat is the combination of the worst aspects of both his parents, and nothing like what it was as a puppy. And he sheds like anything.

Murphy was found to have a heart murmur, that has got worse as he got older. It was picked up when he was one year old on a routine vet visit. The vet told me then, that the type of fault he has is most likely hereditary.

But that is not the worst of it.

When Murphy was 3, I noticed that he was sometimes having trouble finding his ball, which was his passion. And it was not consistent; some days he was fine, and some days I just shook my head and wondered if he was losing his sense of smell or something, or had a cold.

A visit to the vet confirmed the worse, and something that I was totally not prepared for. Murphy had PRA (progressive retinal atrophy) which was sending him blind. The dog loses their day vision first (which is why the symptoms were inconsistent; probably dull cloudy days affected his vision in the early days) and then their night vision.

He was totally blind by the time he was 4.

Murphy is now 13, and is in good health, bar from the heart murmur, and of course the blindness. The cataracts that have formed over his pupils are now rotating and causing discomfort. The vet has recommended total eye removal of both eyes, as there is also internal pressure within the eyes. His heart murmur makes this a risky operation, so we are managing the condition and keeping him as comfortable as we can.

It is heartbreaking to have a dog like this. He enjoys his life, and bolts around with the best of them on his home turf. He even helps GAP with their greyhound testing... but I know how much better his life could have been. And it has been hard on the family as well. Think of eight years of not moving furniture around, not being able to let him off leash in strange surroundings, of strange noises that he can't see to understand so they frighten him; the list goes on.

Murphy was one of a litter of 5. I would expect all his littermates are also blind. I only hope that the people who bought the other puppies didn't dump them when they went blind, and were committed to raising them for life, and to give them some sort of quality of life.

A lot of back yard breeders and puppy mills use dogs like Murphy’s parents, who are not tested for hereditary diseases like PRA. The puppies are born seemingly healthy, but are ticking time bombs. The breeders of these puppies don't care; they get their money, the pet shop gets their cut as well, and the customer gets a cute (seemingly healthy) puppy.

Unfortunately, it is the puppy who pays the ultimate price.

Murphy's plight was at least not in vain. I learnt about hereditary diseases, about ethical breeders who test for these faults (and don't breed with dogs that have it) and about puppy farmers.

I hope his story helps people make the right choice when choosing a pet, for every ones sake.

Attached are a couple of piccies of my cute, yet feral, DD gone wrong.

Regards
Kym