We just had a puppy buyer notify us that the 6 month old pup they bought from us has had to have surgery for Cherry Eye on both eyes. None of the other pups in this or any other litter we have had have had this.

They are not asking for compensation, but just very politely notifying us so we will know about this for future reference, etc. However, we feel terrible and would like to make this right. How would you handle this? Pay for cost of surgeries? Offer refund on pup? Both? Help!

I would probably help them out BUT my contract requires them to come to me before surgery and also to allow me to take the dog to my vet (ophthalmologist) for a second opinion.

I doubt I'd pay without that done. I don't think cherry eye is that prevalent in our breed and it's weird that this happened.

Maybe you could have your ophthalmologist talk to their ophthalmologist to confirm the problem further.

I had puppy people inform me when they had their pup's cherry eye repaired at the same time they had him neutered......they said it was caused when he was kicked by a horse!

Yeah......you can bet I never offered to pay for any of that surgery.

Can you be sure that it wasn't caused by trauma of some sort?

I only saw cherry eye in a mixed breed 35 years ago. It was repaired at a reasonable cost but did need to be done at the time it showed up. It was that bad.

Does anyone know if this is a supposed genetic condition or it occurs from a trauma or randomly? I've never had any puppy buyer call and tell me their pup had cherry eye. I do call or e-mail to check on pups until 1 year. I then ask for an update once a year from the buyer. Some buyers might not call for something like cherry eye perhaps.

I don't know what I would do in your situation for sure as I don't know why cherry eye occurs. You could send a small, token amount towards the surgery as a nice gesture. If you start paying for every problem to a large degree that isn't absolutely caused by genetics your wallet and bank account is going to start emptying fast.

Even a $25 gift certificate for a get-well toy from an online pet site or the toy itself for the pup would be a nice gesture. Doing that, you're not saying it's something your breeding produced. You're just sending something thoughtful for the puppy saying *Get Well Soon*.