Monday 14 February 2011

Would've been nice to know...

We didn't end up going to see the in-laws on Saturday, as hubby was called for work at 3.30 p.m. and ended up having to work until after 11 p.m. We went over yesterday instead.

When we got home I had an email from APARN - Gracie's paperwork. We were pretty shocked to find that she has 2 pretty serious pre-existing conditions which we knew nothing of. She was seen by a veterinarian the day before we first met her, and they wrote a report stating that she has bilateral patellar luxation and also pigmentary keratitis in her left eye which is gradually making her blind. It's a condition where the cornea becomes covered in a layer of filmy pigment and causes blindness - so far, her cornea is 40% covered so she's effectively almost half blind in that eye. The patellar luxation is in both of her hind legs and is currently grade 2 - I've been researching it and apparently surgery is the only treatment option, and even after surgery there's a 50% chance of some degree of luxation recurring. Oh, by the way, surgery costs between $1500 and $2000 per leg - so it's not exactly cheap. The pigmentary keratitis is something that apparently can be treated with eye drops or ointment - but it won't be cured. I've read some articles that say the progression can be halted or slowed down, but the drops are very expensive.

So what the hell do we do now? We've had Gracie for 10 days. She'd been messed around enough before she came to us, so we'd feel terrible giving her back. None of this is her fault, obviously. However, APARN knew about her problems and they did not tell us about either one. If they had, we could have made an informed decision about whether or not to adopt her. Pet insurance is out of the question - they don't cover pre-existing conditions. We're taking her to the vet at 11 to see what they say. We also probably need to get her vaccinated against rabies and kennel cough, too - there's no record of either being given, although she must have had the rabies shot as she was licensed. I'm guessing we'll have to get the rabies shot again, otherwise we can't get a license for her. It was a different county she was licensed in before, too.

I just don't know what to do. I feel so angry at APARN for not disclosing this pretty important information. I mean, do you not think we deserve to know that she has 2 chronic conditions that are only going to get worse? We signed the adoption agreement thinking that she was in very good health. They had this information before we met Gracie and didn't tell us until 9 days after we adopted her. I know we could return her and cut our losses (we'd lose the adoption fee) and they would take her back - but as I said, we'd feel terrible doing that. Poor Gracie. At the same time though I don't think we can really afford all of this - we wanted to buy a house this year and if we're going to have to spend thousands on orthopedic surgery and eye treatments then that will have to wait. We also want to have a baby and they're expensive.

Obviously Suzie could be diagnosed with a problem like this, and we'd have to sort it out. We wouldn't consider giving her away. But this is something we should have been made aware of prior to adopting Gracie, it's like they deliberately hid it from us. We could've made an informed decision about whether or not to proceed with the adoption. You know, we would've adopted a pug anyway, just maybe not this one. I hope I don't sound awful but it's the truth. There should be full disclosure of any medical issues they're aware of. They can't say they weren't aware of them, because the vet report is dated January 28th and it has the name of the woman in charge on it as the person who took her there. The same woman we spoke with for ages on the day we met Gracie - and the same one who was emailing me regarding the adoption. They had plenty of time to tell us about her issues, and they didn't. It took them 9 days to get that information to me. Fucking hell!!!


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