Last Tuesday, I picked up a 1/2 French Bulldog, 1/2 English Bulldog from Amy Herman out of Lewisburg, TN. She said she had rescued this dog, and had him since January (it's now October). When I picked him up, I noticed he smelled horrible, almost like a strong urine smell. He was unaltered. His skin was in bad shape, but I had dealt with mange in the past, so I wasn't too worried about it. She told me he had been to the vet, gotten scraped for mange, and it was negative. That he just had a fungal skin infection that would go away pretty easily. She said he didn't have the best sight, but could still see relatively well. No matter what, I knew I wasn't going to let him go back with her- simply because of how bad he smelled. I had a bad feeling about the care he was receiving.
I took him to the vet on Saturday to treat his skin issues, and hopefully to get a dental (his breath REAKED!). After a thorough examination of the vet, it was determined that he had a severe case of heartworms, his ears were eaten up with mites so bad that he was at least 50% deaf, he was 100% blind due to a lack of nutrition and care (Bulldogs are notorious for eye issues), his skin had been untreated, so parts of his back skin were literally ROTTING away. On top of all of this, his teeth were so rotten that every single one of them needed to be removed- ultimately they were causing a severe heart murmur (size 4 out of a 6 scale) and his prostate was very enlarged. The vet determined that the most humane thing to do for him was to put him to sleep, so after a long weekend of contacting rescue groups to try and help him (everyone I contacted recommended we "walk him to the rainbow bridge"), this morning, we ultimately put him to sleep. I am so upset and angry that any person would allow their dog to get to this shape. She is a HORRIBLE person and breeder, and I want to make sure she doesn't continue breeding dogs. If you do a Google search on "Amy Herman + Thunder Hollow Kennel" you will find a lot more stories just like mine. From the looks of things she's been doing this for years, and I absolutely want to make sure this monster is put out of business. If you are looking for a new Bulldog to add to your family, do NOT go through Amy Herman. She will only cause termoil and sadness for your life.
I am glad we were able to rescue this poor little guy and give him a week of love and attention. He was fed steak and potatoes for his last days, and we made sure he was as comfortable as possible. It makes me sick to think he had to live his whole life in a kennel breeding for this sick woman who only cares about money.