This is extremely hard for me to write, because it brings back memories of my puppy that I loved VERY, VERY much, and had to have put to sleep. Renee initially said that she wasn't going to be breeding anymore, so I didn't plan to write a report. I'm not a vindictive person; I only want to warn other people about getting a puppy from her. So if she was not going to be breeding anymore, there was no need. Then, at one point I found out that she was breeding again, but after having a terrible experience dealing with her, I didn't have it in me to come on here and go through all of the painful details to make a report. But tonight, I did another search on Renee, and saw a report on here of her not taking responsibility for a major health problem in another one of her puppies. So was the last straw for me. People need to know about her.
Here is my experience getting a puppy from Renee:
I purchased Mocha, a longcoated, female Chihuahua in May, 2013. She was born on March 18th, 2013. I got her on June, 1st when she was almost 11 weeks old. I was originally supposed to get a different puppy, but she told me that he (a lavender, longcoat male) and Mocha's mother, were hit by a car and killed when her son accidentally left the back door open. I was really upset; I had already become a little attached to him. Dealing with Renee was not easy. She was always complaining about personal problems with her health, her husband's health, how difficult her life was, etc. She was very pushy about getting money, but when I tried to get in touch with her, it was a different story. She somehow never got e-mails asking questions or trying to arrange things like shipping, but any e-mails about giving her money were always answered right away.
When I got Mocha, I fell in love with her immediately! She was the sweetest puppy and we bonded very quickly. About a week later, I started noticing some bizarre symptoms (especially at night), where Mocha would appear incoherent, sometimes staggering around and would shriek if you moved her. I thought she had hypoglycemia and already had Nutrical on hand for that, plus meat baby food. It didn't seem to help. (I should note that I don't work and that Mocha's puppy pen was right next to my bed- I could reach my arm down and pet her during the night. I was with her 24/7). When she would have one of her "episodes", my husband and I would rush her to the emergency vet no matter what time of night or day. Her blood sugar was always normal. I took her to our regular vet AND to the emergency vet MANY times. At different visits to the emergency vet, she was seen by several different veterinarians. No one could figure out what was wrong with her. She started displaying odd neurological symptoms, like having glassy eyes and backing up with her rear in the air. I thought that she might be having focal seizures. I was in touch with Renee throughout all of this and she was fairly supportive, when she bothered to write back. Those were some of the e-mails that somehow didn't get through...
Finally, one veterinarian at the emergency vet clinic noticed that Mocha seemed to have pain around her neck area and that the pain was causing her to shriek. She prescribed an anti-inflammatory and pain medicine. It seemed to help a little bit. Then I had her at my regular vet again, for them to keep her during the day to observe her. They noticed the same odd movements and referred me to a veterinary neurologist. I had already spent thousands of dollars on vet bills, but didn't blink an eye at taking her to the neurologist, which alone ended up costing about $2,500. I would have paid any amount of money to get Mocha better. I loved that little dog so much, that I still cry every single time I think about her.
On August 9th, which turned out to be one of the worst days of my life, I took her to a board certified veterinary neurologist who did multiple x-rays and an MRI. We finally had the answer of what was causing Mocha's problems. It was so severe that my husband and I decided not to wake her up from the anesthesia and her short little life was over forever. I'm bawling now, thinking about my baby that I loved more than life itself and how I will never see her again. This is why I haven't written a report before now and am barely able to even hold it together to write this. It dredges up horrible memories of her in pain and also the good moments with her, which makes me miss her so much it hurts. She was like a baby to me and I would have done anything for her. But, there ended up being nothing that I could do to help her. The most horrible feeling in the world. :( The MRI showed that Mocha had Hydrocephalus, Chiari Malformation (her brain was too large for her skull), and Atlantoaxial Subluxation, along with missing the dens bone. The last condition is what was causing her so much pain. If you're interested, you can look up information about those conditions online.
The neurologist said that Mocha would probably require 3 surgeries, but she was not old enough for them since she was only 5 months old and the most severe condition was a spinal surgery. She would have to be at least 8 months old. He said that she would have to be fitted with a neck brace and wear it until she was old enough for surgery. He said that a lot of puppies developed temperament issues fromt he stress of the collar and that it would prevent large neck movements, but wouldn't prevent "micro movements" and those were enough to cause Mocha extreme pain. I asked what would happen if in the meantime until surgery she were to twist her neck the wrong way, and in his words, he said that the results would be "catastrophic". I could not take a chance on that happening to her! Especially since it's a very high risk surgery on a very, very tiny dog right next to their spinal cord. After that, she would need 2 additional surgeries for the other conditions. Her prognosis was extremely poor. I could never put my baby through all of that. There are much worse things than peacefully going to sleep, which is what I chose for her. My husband and I considered all options, but the ones to keep her here and put her through multiple surgeries and pain were only selfish. So I let her go, had her cremated, an impression of her paw prints made and a kept a lock of her fur to remember her by.
I told Renee that as long as she stopped breeding, I wouldn't make public what had happened with Mocha. So I checked in on Renee's website from time to time. She said on there that she was selling all of her breeding dogs and getting out of breeding. Then, I checked in one day in December, 2013 and saw that she had litters of puppies! And she was planning on keeping one of the puppies for breeding! I e-mailed her about what I saw on her website. She said that my contacting her after all that time really "told her something". Like I was trying to scam her in some way, which is extremely insulting! What it should have "told her" is that I said I was never going to say anything as long as she wasn't breeding, but she had started breeding again. It doesn't take a mental giant to figure that out.
Since she didn't believe me about any of Mocha's conditions or the fact that they were congenital, I gave her the names, addresses and phone numbers of every vet that had seen Mocha. After I gave her that, she still said I didn't provide any proof. What??? Maybe if she had bothered to contact the vets, that would have helped! I should mention that I told her again and again that I didn't want ANY MONEY OR ANOTHER PUPPY from her. There was no way in the world that I would risk getting another puppy from her and I didn't want and still don't want her money.
The only thing I ever wanted was for her to acknowledge that she had bred a puppy with serious, basically fatal congenital defects. She just kept bringing up one time that Mocha bumped her head on the coffee table and said that it caused all of this. What!? Mocha was missing a bone in her neck and had a spinal malformation that were somehow caused by a slight bump on the head?? Renee basically called me a liar and informed me that I, as a pet owner, didn't know as much as her (a breeder) and that I was wrong. I guess she thinks that she's smarter than a veterinary neurologist also? Like I said, she never followed through on any of the vet info that I gave her, she's still breeding, AND appears to have bred another puppy with severe physical defects that she won't take responsibility for. It speaks volumes about her as a breeder and as a person. To anyone considering getting a puppy from her, I recommend running in the other direction! I'm sure that not every puppy she's bred is unhealthy, but she is not someone that anyone with a conscience should support.
Weebitty Chihuahuas Reviews
This is extremely hard for me to write, because it brings back memories of my puppy that I loved VERY, VERY much, and had to have put to sleep. Renee initially said that she wasn't going to be breeding anymore, so I didn't plan to write a report. I'm not a vindictive person; I only want to warn other people about getting a puppy from her. So if she was not going to be breeding anymore, there was no need. Then, at one point I found out that she was breeding again, but after having a terrible experience dealing with her, I didn't have it in me to come on here and go through all of the painful details to make a report. But tonight, I did another search on Renee, and saw a report on here of her not taking responsibility for a major health problem in another one of her puppies. So was the last straw for me. People need to know about her.
Here is my experience getting a puppy from Renee:
I purchased Mocha, a longcoated, female Chihuahua in May, 2013. She was born on March 18th, 2013. I got her on June, 1st when she was almost 11 weeks old. I was originally supposed to get a different puppy, but she told me that he (a lavender, longcoat male) and Mocha's mother, were hit by a car and killed when her son accidentally left the back door open. I was really upset; I had already become a little attached to him. Dealing with Renee was not easy. She was always complaining about personal problems with her health, her husband's health, how difficult her life was, etc. She was very pushy about getting money, but when I tried to get in touch with her, it was a different story. She somehow never got e-mails asking questions or trying to arrange things like shipping, but any e-mails about giving her money were always answered right away.
When I got Mocha, I fell in love with her immediately! She was the sweetest puppy and we bonded very quickly. About a week later, I started noticing some bizarre symptoms (especially at night), where Mocha would appear incoherent, sometimes staggering around and would shriek if you moved her. I thought she had hypoglycemia and already had Nutrical on hand for that, plus meat baby food. It didn't seem to help. (I should note that I don't work and that Mocha's puppy pen was right next to my bed- I could reach my arm down and pet her during the night. I was with her 24/7). When she would have one of her "episodes", my husband and I would rush her to the emergency vet no matter what time of night or day. Her blood sugar was always normal. I took her to our regular vet AND to the emergency vet MANY times. At different visits to the emergency vet, she was seen by several different veterinarians. No one could figure out what was wrong with her. She started displaying odd neurological symptoms, like having glassy eyes and backing up with her rear in the air. I thought that she might be having focal seizures. I was in touch with Renee throughout all of this and she was fairly supportive, when she bothered to write back. Those were some of the e-mails that somehow didn't get through...
Finally, one veterinarian at the emergency vet clinic noticed that Mocha seemed to have pain around her neck area and that the pain was causing her to shriek. She prescribed an anti-inflammatory and pain medicine. It seemed to help a little bit. Then I had her at my regular vet again, for them to keep her during the day to observe her. They noticed the same odd movements and referred me to a veterinary neurologist. I had already spent thousands of dollars on vet bills, but didn't blink an eye at taking her to the neurologist, which alone ended up costing about $2,500. I would have paid any amount of money to get Mocha better. I loved that little dog so much, that I still cry every single time I think about her.
On August 9th, which turned out to be one of the worst days of my life, I took her to a board certified veterinary neurologist who did multiple x-rays and an MRI. We finally had the answer of what was causing Mocha's problems. It was so severe that my husband and I decided not to wake her up from the anesthesia and her short little life was over forever. I'm bawling now, thinking about my baby that I loved more than life itself and how I will never see her again. This is why I haven't written a report before now and am barely able to even hold it together to write this. It dredges up horrible memories of her in pain and also the good moments with her, which makes me miss her so much it hurts. She was like a baby to me and I would have done anything for her. But, there ended up being nothing that I could do to help her. The most horrible feeling in the world. :( The MRI showed that Mocha had Hydrocephalus, Chiari Malformation (her brain was too large for her skull), and Atlantoaxial Subluxation, along with missing the dens bone. The last condition is what was causing her so much pain. If you're interested, you can look up information about those conditions online.
The neurologist said that Mocha would probably require 3 surgeries, but she was not old enough for them since she was only 5 months old and the most severe condition was a spinal surgery. She would have to be at least 8 months old. He said that she would have to be fitted with a neck brace and wear it until she was old enough for surgery. He said that a lot of puppies developed temperament issues fromt he stress of the collar and that it would prevent large neck movements, but wouldn't prevent "micro movements" and those were enough to cause Mocha extreme pain. I asked what would happen if in the meantime until surgery she were to twist her neck the wrong way, and in his words, he said that the results would be "catastrophic". I could not take a chance on that happening to her! Especially since it's a very high risk surgery on a very, very tiny dog right next to their spinal cord. After that, she would need 2 additional surgeries for the other conditions. Her prognosis was extremely poor. I could never put my baby through all of that. There are much worse things than peacefully going to sleep, which is what I chose for her. My husband and I considered all options, but the ones to keep her here and put her through multiple surgeries and pain were only selfish. So I let her go, had her cremated, an impression of her paw prints made and a kept a lock of her fur to remember her by.
I told Renee that as long as she stopped breeding, I wouldn't make public what had happened with Mocha. So I checked in on Renee's website from time to time. She said on there that she was selling all of her breeding dogs and getting out of breeding. Then, I checked in one day in December, 2013 and saw that she had litters of puppies! And she was planning on keeping one of the puppies for breeding! I e-mailed her about what I saw on her website. She said that my contacting her after all that time really "told her something". Like I was trying to scam her in some way, which is extremely insulting! What it should have "told her" is that I said I was never going to say anything as long as she wasn't breeding, but she had started breeding again. It doesn't take a mental giant to figure that out.
Since she didn't believe me about any of Mocha's conditions or the fact that they were congenital, I gave her the names, addresses and phone numbers of every vet that had seen Mocha. After I gave her that, she still said I didn't provide any proof. What??? Maybe if she had bothered to contact the vets, that would have helped! I should mention that I told her again and again that I didn't want ANY MONEY OR ANOTHER PUPPY from her. There was no way in the world that I would risk getting another puppy from her and I didn't want and still don't want her money.
The only thing I ever wanted was for her to acknowledge that she had bred a puppy with serious, basically fatal congenital defects. She just kept bringing up one time that Mocha bumped her head on the coffee table and said that it caused all of this. What!? Mocha was missing a bone in her neck and had a spinal malformation that were somehow caused by a slight bump on the head?? Renee basically called me a liar and informed me that I, as a pet owner, didn't know as much as her (a breeder) and that I was wrong. I guess she thinks that she's smarter than a veterinary neurologist also? Like I said, she never followed through on any of the vet info that I gave her, she's still breeding, AND appears to have bred another puppy with severe physical defects that she won't take responsibility for. It speaks volumes about her as a breeder and as a person. To anyone considering getting a puppy from her, I recommend running in the other direction! I'm sure that not every puppy she's bred is unhealthy, but she is not someone that anyone with a conscience should support.