A family from Ellesmere Port who bought a 'healthy' puppy online have received the devastating news that he is blind.

Nine-week-old Max was a birthday present for Danielle Walker's son's sixth birthday.

Danielle, of Clayhill Green, purchased Max from website Friday Ad, after spotting an advert for a Yorkshire Terrier for sale for £200.

But now just a few weeks later, she says vets have told her Max will need to have one of his eyes removed and could lose sight in the other, our sister paper The Liverpool Echo reports.

Danielle, 27, said when the man - who said he had travelled from Manchester - delivered Max he was not the puppy she had seen on the picture, but despite this she still took him in and handed over the money.

Soon after, however, she said she saw 'fleas jumping off him' and took him to the vets.

She said: “He was so small and cute that I took him in anyway and my boys were made up.

“But I could actually see the fleas jumping off him, despite this man saying he had been flead and wormed.”

Max was given treatment, but vets also noticed that his tail had been illegally docked and questioned his age.

Danielle said: “I didn’t even notice there was anything wrong with his tail until they said it, I just thought that was his tail but they said it had been docked and shouldn’t have been.

“They also said he could have only been three-weeks-old and was not a Yorkshire Terrier and was most likely inbred or had come from a mother who had given birth to too many litters and had picked up a disease.

“They said I would need a DNA test to find out his breed.”

Following her first visit to the vets Danielle said she has since had to return a further five times after the pup began vomiting, passing blood and struggling to breathe.

But it was on her latest visit she was told the devastating news that her puppy would have to have his eye removed and could go blind in the other.

She said: “He started messing around with his eye so I took him to the vets again and they said he had possibly just scratched it and gave me drops for him and steroids.

“And for the next few days he was actually fine and was running around and just acting like a normal puppy but then we noticed his eye looked a bit funny.

“I was devastated when the vets said that his eye was dead and would have to be removed.

“We are waiting to see if the other eye will also have to be removed too before they operate next week.”

Danielle claims vets told her a lack of oxygen could have led to the blood vessels in Max’s eye dying and that if his breathing problems continued they would have no option but to put the pup to sleep.

She said: “It is awful.

“I feel so sorry for him.

“I have literally cried for two weeks.

“I am devastated - even though we have only had him a few weeks we are all so attached to him.

“The boys absolutely love him.

“It is the first pet we have ever had and now we are just sort of waiting, not knowing if he is going to be okay or if we could lose him.”

Danielle said following the catalogue of problems with Max she rang the breeder who dismissed her.

She said: “I rang and asked him what breed Max really was and how old he was and told him Max was really poorly.

“He literally just said ‘that is not my problem’ and hung up the phone and I haven’t been able to get hold of him since.

“I have looked on Google and the picture he had advertised of the Yorkshire Terrier is just one he had got off Google images.”

Danielle, who has already spent hundreds on vet bills, has been told the operation on Max’s eye will be £450 but because of Max’s age and health problems she cannot get pet insurance for him.

On a just giving page set up to fund the operation she wrote: “I can’t get any pet insurance at all and the bills are getting so high and I just can’t afford it. I have done my best and I really can’t lose him!

“If you had any money to help little Max me and my little boys would be so grateful as we really don’t want to lose him.”

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