Vicki Davis review: Selling Sick Puppies

On April 2, 2016, my husband and I got puppy, little did we know—we were stepping in to something much larger and more heartbreaking than that. We wanted to get a playmate for our toy poodle, Lucy. I searched our trustworthy site, puppyfind.com and came across a listing for a blue-merle female toy poodle. It was too good to be true! She was a rare, beautiful color and a very reasonable price in comparison to what else I had seen listed.

I called the listed number on Friday afternoon (4/1) and spoke with a woman who called herself Victoria Moore. She was more than happy to answer all of my questions and when I asked if we could come and see/meet the puppy, she was more than happy to oblige. We made plans to meet the next morning at 10:30 at a gas station in Ridgeland off of exit 105 B, Chevron to be exact. She specifically asked us to meet her over to the right side of the building. Again, it’s not uncommon for breeders to ask to meet places because they have had negative experiences with people coming into their homes. I understand that and respect that. While on the phone, she explained to me how they are in air conditioned/heated kennels, she gives them a night light, and plays music for them. She said all the right things.

I was excited to meet her and even asked if we could bring Lucy so we could see how the 2 interacted. She called me the next morning around 9:45 to make sure we were still coming. She called from a different number. I told her we were leaving our home, heading that way. My husband, my Mother, and I made our way to meet her, Lucy in hand.

She was timely and came in a white van that was equip to transport puppies. When she opened the back of it, she had 4 cages nicely stacked, loads of "cute" collars and clothes, all the items needed to make her look like she knew what she was doing and was doing the best for the puppies that she could.

The little pup was scared, you could tell. She was shaking miserably. But, we snuggled her in, let her meet Lucy and talked with Vicki. She had her listed on the puppyfind.com site as being 11 weeks old. When I called her, she also told me the puppy was 1.5 pounds. When we saw her, she looked much younger and seemed to weigh more than that. I even mentioned to Vicki that she didn’t look 1.5 pounds to which she responded that she weighed her that morning and she was over 2 pounds. Luna, the puppy, had such a calm demeanor and sweet little look had us sold and we walked away with our new puppy. We signed a contract stating that we would take her to the vet within 48 hours and that she was protected from genetic defects and that if she did prove to have one, we could get another puppy or the seller could choose to refund the amount paid for the puppy. She also showed us the wet and dry food she had been feeding her and then to our surprise, she also showed us that she had been feeding her a form of nutri-cal (which is only to be used when puppies are not eating for they can have low blood sugar), she gave us a bottle of PediaSure (to give her for 1 week) and a small container of chicken & gravy baby food to give her as a snack. All items that we threw away as soon as we left her because we know that dogs that are properly nourished only need food and water.

We were so excited that we wanted to go over and surprise my Mother-in-law with our newest little pup. While we were over there, I took Luna to a puppy pad to help prevent an accident and while on the pad, she had an episode of severe, bloody, diarrhea.

This was between the time of 11:00-11:25. Naturally, I was alarmed. I texted Vicki immediately at 11:27 to inform her of the red diarrhea and our concerns. She called me and she said that she hadn’t seen diarrhea yet and acted surprised by it all.

I hung up with her and called our vet immediately. On Saturdays, they close at 12:00—I asked if they would stay open and let us come because of the circumstances, they said if we hurried, they would. I texted Vicki at 11:52 and told her: “I called the vet. They close at 12 and said we could come on quickly. I will let you know.”

Vet visit—After looking her over and doing a few exams, it was determined that she had hookworms and was ridden with Giardia. Hookworms are somewhat common in puppies, but Giardia is a different story. Giardia, after doing much reading and research is typically contracted from unclean water or fecal-oral transmission. This is most common among dogs that are kept in unclean environments and in close quarters. Not to mention, Giardia is highly contagious among dogs. The vet also did not think she was 11 weeks and when I looked at her CKC papers it said her birthdate was 2/2/16, not 1/10/16 as the website stated...making her 8 weeks. That was also the moment that I saw a different signature on our CKC paper—not Victoria Moore.

3 medications and almost $100 later, we were out the door. I was angry that we had had this puppy for a little over 2 hours and already spent a total of $600.

I called “Victoria” at 12:26 as soon as we left, told her what the vet said and I was bold enough to ask for $100 of our money back since we had the dog for 2 hours and already had to deal with such a serious situation. She told me she would have to talk to "Perry Hall" because he's the breeder, she just takes care of the puppies/delivers then and she would get back to me. I asked her to please let me know ASAP or have him call me. During this conversation, she also asked me what kind of medicine the vet gave me, I gave her the name of it and she said she had some of that and would give it to her other puppies, “just in case”. This conversation serves as the last time I’ve heard form Vicki Davis.

Once we got home, we gave her another bath to clean off any fecal residue from her diarrhea and to hopefully help make her feel a little bit more fresh. While Jason was drying her off, she had another bloody diarrhea episode, worst than the one before. Not even 2 more hours had passed. It was beginning to look like we would have this every 2 hours. Jason finished cleaning her up and just let her be. She would play a little bit, rest a little bit, whine a little bit.

I was at an event I had previously committed to, but Jason messaged me and told me that she had eaten and not even an hour later he sent me a picture of more diarrhea and you could see that the food went straight through her. She wasn't holding anything in. He gave her both medications and we hoped for the best.

At 6:49 p.m. I called the original number that I had called that Friday to inquire about Luna to begin with. No one answered, so I left a voicemail for “Mr. Perry” to call me. It was a male voicemail again.

My final attempt at contacting her that day was to the number listed on the puppyfind.com website. No one answered, I left a voicemail asking for someone to call me. As you can imagine, I never heard back from "Victoria Moore" and as of today (5/3/16) now, I still haven't.

Fast forward to the night, for Luna--she did eat more after her medicine and she held it in too. She slept through the night and when she awoke around 6 a.m. (on 4/3/16) she had pooped and it was a better consistency and no longer looked bloody. We felt like things were looking up and that she was getting better.

I ended up telling my sister about Luna that afternoon and she sent me this website! When I read this site and all the complaints, I knew IMMEDIATELY this was the same woman who had sold us our puppy just yesterday morning. This woman has scammed countless people and sold more sick puppies than we can imagine.

On 4/4, we took Luna back to the vet to get checked up. They still saw some “foreign bacteria” so we agreed to bring her back that Thursday 4/7 for another check up.

It was believed that Luna had not received her 1st set of vaccinations so on 4/7 when we returned for our 3rd visit with her, they gave her her shots, gave her an all-over exam, another fecal exam along with 6 more tablets of metronidazole for the “foreign bacteria”.

Luna had her last dose on antibiotics on 4/12.

3 days later, on 4/16, Jason woke up Saturday morning and decided to take her to the vet because her stool was almost back to liquid diarrhea consistency and her [censored] was protruding a little bit. He took her to the vet again and they gave him more antibiotics and a probiotic spray for her food.

Not even a full 2 days later (4/18), we put Luna to bed at her usual 8:30, she seemed normal and woke up an hour later to our other dog, Lucy barking/crying. She hadn't done that in weeks and typically we try to ignore crying but I had a feeling. I got up to check on them. When I walked in and saw Luna just laying on the floor, I knew something was wrong. I ran and woke Jason up and he came and picked her up to find out she was soaking wet under her chin and I then saw that she had pooped in her bed. Jason took her in the bathroom to clean her up and wipe her bottom. While he had her in the bathroom cleaning her up, she made this horrid noise and began vomiting blood. My worst nightmare, the stories of all the others who had purchased puppies from this woman had this same thing happen, ours was just delayed by a few days.

I called my Mom immediately to come to my house and take us to the emergency vet. We wrapped her in a towel and made our way to the vet. We spent hours there only to have her spend the night so that she could be on oxygen and fluids all night.

To my sadness in the morning (4/19), she had not improved, at all. They actually said she seemed worst. It came to the point to where all they cold do was put her on a ventilator. Luna didn't make it through the morning.

Looking back now, I truly believe she was sick the entirety of the time we had her and that the antibiotics were just keeping it at bay and her little body could no longer "act okay".

I would love to help anyone who has had this same issue with Vicki do whatever we can to stop her.

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