Is a teacup puppy really just a premature puppy?
I thought they were just smaller but I’ve heard that they’re just unhealthy, premature puppies. Is this true?
They are just runts, people were being stupid and called it a tea cup because they thought it was nicer than runt…
They’re either premature or runts, yes. Anyone who is a good breeder does NOT use the word "teacup" when talking about their dogs- nor would they purposely breed such unhealthy individuals.
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No
References :
http://www.barkrescue.net/teacup.htm
http://www.thebombpoms.com/Teacups.html
http://community-1.webtv.net/je2u/doc4/
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Truth-About-Teacup-Puppies&id=3905205
http://www.myyorkiesecrets.com/teacup-yorkie-puppies/the-truth-about-the-teacup-yorkshire-terrier.php
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlmQqdyLyuNDLC7kqGOjj33ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100222075714AAo5Xe9
That should cover it.
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They are just runts, people were being stupid and called it a tea cup because they thought it was nicer than runt…
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Absolutely. Well, in some cases they’re runts. If you want a smaller than normal dog, then just get a pet rat- small as a premature runt puppy, and quite dog-like and cuddly.
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hahahaha, yeah, i have one.
i didn’t know teacups were runts then, and no one had called him a teacup, just a runt.
i just thought he was cute.
he’s a pomeranian. so adorable ♥
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My name is Bailee N. and I had no idea that teacup puppies were bad. I always thought they were fine because if they weren’t I didn’t think they would be allowed to sell them. Anyway, I bought a teacup Maltese this past Saturday and fell absolutely in love with it, but it died earlier today in the care of a vet. It had many of the problems you mentioned in the information about teacups. I had no idea and all of my friends didn’t know teacups were bad either.
I bought a teacup Maltese on Saturday April 4th she was an early graduation present from my parents and I got to pick her out. I was looking at puppies for hours when I saw this one. She was absolutely adorable, and I fell in love. She laid in my arms and fell asleep. She was really easy, but I thought it was just because of her personality and the fact that she was tired. I didn’t know it was because she was sick. She died two days later. This is what the vet wrote about Lily. — Lily is dehydrated, she is hypoglycemic, she has diarrea with blood. This pup is hypothermic Temp is 97.7 she weighs 10.5 ounces (.66 lbs). She has two intestinal parasites that are protozoal infection and not worms, she might have had round worms I saw part of a parasite egg that looks like a round worm egg, because her stool is so loose I cannot properly evaluate the stool for other parasites. She has an open fontanel (soft spot) on top of her head some of these pups with the will lead a normal life, some will develop hydrocephalus and epilepsy. She died at 11:35am on Monday April, 6. The vet also said that Lily would have been more likely to survive if she wasn’t so tiny, but her little body couldn’t handle the stress.
I would like to volunteer in any way and get the word out about how unhealthy it is to breed "teacups". If there are any opputunities I would love to know about them.
–Bailee N.
I bought a puppy from ——— Pups in S.D. The pup was 8-weeks old when we purchased it, but the breeder had us wait until the puppy was 12 weeks old to take her home, stating she wanted to give it it’s 3rd set of shots before releasing her. The puppy would not eat on her own and I had to hand feed it 4 times a day and give it Nutrical 4 times a day followed by water given with a syringe. It was like having a baby you had to breast feed. The puppy weighed 1 pound 2 ounces when I brought her home. The puppy was at 1 pound 5 ounces when she died 6 weeks later. The puppy’s ears were full of ear mites when I purchased her, so much so that the vet had to use a forceps to remove chunks of mites. I paid over $1,000.00 for this puppy. The puppy came with a 2 year warranty, but the warranty did not cover hypoglycemia. At the vet visit at 15 weeks old, I asked the vet (recommended by the breeder) how long I needed to continue with the Maxi-cal puppy food and Nutri-cal, at which time the vet stated that at her age she should not require either, I also spoke with my prior vet and she stated she suspected a "less than healthy puppy". I contacted the breeder on the puppy’s death and in conversation she stated she suspected that the puppy had hypoglycemia when she sold it to me and that was why she wanted me to feed it Maxi-cal puppy food and give it Nutri-cal 4 times a day. She then said she would replace the puppy which I was not interested in and later in conversation she stated she would refund the money and hung up on me. One week later she sent a certified letter stating she would neither refund the money nor replace the puppy since I did not have a "post" done at the time of death. We were heart broken at this puppy’s death. I would not buy another puppy titled "teacup" and I would definitely not buy from this breeder.
–James R.
Hi my name is Bryony and I wanted to write to tell you how much I agree with your article on Teacup puppies and hopefully you can use my story to influence others into NOT buying "teacup" puppies.
My puppy is called Alfie, he was born on 11th April 2009. He is a Black Rough haired Brussels Griffon.
Alfie’s breeder contacted me when she had her litter as she knew I had been looking for this particular breed of dog for a long time (they are very hard to find in New Zealand). She told us he was very tiny and cute and as soon as we saw his photo we fell in love with him…little did we know just how tiny he was.
We sent her nz$1400 and when he arrived I was in total shock at how small he was, think the palm of your hand.
His breeder had wanted to send him to us at 8 weeks but we thought it would be better for him to stay with his mum till he was 12 weeks, and I’m so glad we did. Imagine how small he would have been at 8 weeks! We took him straight to the vet, he weighed under 1kg. He also had a small fontanel (soft spot on his head), and a heart murmur. From then on it was all downhill.
We adore our wee boy more than anything else on this earth but we realize what a mistake it was to fall for the "smaller is cuter". In the first 4 weeks we had to take him to the vet once a week to be weighed, he could barely eat much and we had to give him cat milk to fatten him up. His health started to deteriorate when he was about 3 months. We noticed although he had easily house trained he was "leaking" wee sometimes. When we took him to the vet we found he was incontinent. We later found this was due to a deformed spine which was pressing on his spinal column and stopping his brain being able to send the message to his bladder to make him wee. For the rest of his life we will have to express his bladder for him buy squeezing his tummy. The same things then happed with his poop, so he now drops poop around the house without realizing.
Since we loved him so much we decided we could handle this and for a time it was fairly easy, it took some getting used to but Hey at least we didnt have to worry about him weeing round someones house! We could decide when he did a wee.
About 3 months in, Alfie’s willy started to hang out of its sheath all the time…back to the vet who decided to stitch it in to stop it getting an infection (it had come out due to the nerves again being pressed buy his spine making his brain unable to get the messages through to hold his willy in). He was on Antibiotics and painkillers. A week later I came home and the house was covered in blood…with no obvious wounds I took him straight to the vet and our worst fears were confirmed, his willy had a bad infection and to stop him from getting sick the vet had to amputate his little willy. (Quite literally a sex change operation!). A month later he was allowed home…back on antibiotics and painkillers. ..bearing in mind how tiny he is now 1.2kg but losing weight back to 1kg, this was very bad for his tiny liver to process.
About another 3 months later he started sleeping alot and seemed to have a swollen tummy…off to the vet again and he had a bladder infection, back on antibiotics and painkillers. By now he had cost us over $4000 in vet bills and the vet said he just could not handle anymore drugs…if he got another bladder infection that would be the end.
He now weighs 1.3kg and won’t grow anymore. He doesn’t eat unless we hand feed him, he has to eat special food to keep his weight up and still needs monthly check ups at the vet. We still express his bladder meaning he can never be left alone in case he develops a bladder infection, we had to have a dog sitter specially trained just so we could work. He has to be expressed every 2 hours. We are hoping this is the end of his health problems but we only look forward to every new month we have with him. Alfie will never have a full life expectancy due to all his health problems although he is a very happy and resilient dog. We have taken him to many different specialist vets and to professors at Massey university and all his spine problems come from being so tiny…he effectively has dwarfism.
If we had known anything about tiny dogs we would never have got him as much as we love him it is unbearable for us to see him so unhealthy and know we wont have long with him. I try as much as I can to tell as many people as possible the dangers of having a "teacup" sized dog as he does get alot of attention on his very short walks! I hope you can spread the word as much as possible and if my story can help in any way I am glad to share it.
–Bryony
Other potential problems
The risk of open fontanels (soft spot from the cranial bone not forming), portosystemic shunts (PSS- abnormal vessel that allows blood to bypass the liver. As a result the blood is not cleansed by one of the bodies filters: the liver.), hypoglycemia, cardiac problems, collapsing trachea, luxating patellas, Leggs Calves Perthes disease, seizures, hydroencephaly, blindness and digestive problems can be increased in these tiny babies.
Problems such as respiratory problems can remain or worsen throughout their lives. These babies frequently are so fragile that they do not live more than a few years. There have been several tiny Yorkies as adults who still had open fontanels and their owners had to carry nourishment with them all the time. Their vets have felt it unsafe to give a full dose of vaccine so the puppies had to get several injections to be on the safe side.
So called "Teacups" fetch anything from $1000 to $10,000! This is ridiculous and shameful! There are a lot of chronically, unhealthy puppies because unscrupulous breeders and puppy mills are inbreeding. Some poor darlings only live for a very, very short time!
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I think these articles answer your question.
Basically teacups are inbred runts, that are vet bill waiting to happen~!
http://www.barkrescue.net/teacup.htm
Study cert 3 companion animal service
Yes, it’s true. "Teacup" puppies usually have a lot of health problems. Anyone trying to sell you a teacup puppy is scamming you.
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