When Nangi was about a year old (october/november 2002) we noticed in her neck a little tuft of hair that remained straight and stiff, and which, a few months later, had changed into a little nodule.
  We were not happy about that, so we took Nangi to the vet's to have it checked out. The vet didn't seem to worried about it. However, after some time, we were a bit upset to see the lump still there, and decided to pay the vet another visit to put our minds at rest. The vet, a locum this time, examined the lump but she too found nothing to be concerned about.

   Time passed and we went to see Mariette & Rens, of Vizara kennels, for a chat about a new ridgeback puppy for us. While we were talking, the subject turned to our Nangi and her lump. Mariette ( a professional anaesthesist for human beings and a ridgeback breeder for many years) wanted to have a look, her diagnosis: a dermoid sinus, she was absolutely certain of it.
  Shocked and stunned as to how this could have happened we drove
back. Once home, we shaved immediately shaved the area around Nangi's lump and realised that there could be no doubt about it: the hole was clearly visible......

  The following day we phoned the breeder to tell of our discovery. She was shocked and tried to reassure us that it couldn't possibly be a sinus as that would have been detected when she had checked Nangi over when she was a pup, and also during the examnination by an independent breeder to make up the usual report on the puppies' health - including the description of any defects etc.- when they were a few weeks old, which,incidentally, had not been done...... Therefore, according to her, it was impossible for the lump to be a sinus. She adviced us not to touch it too much as that would aggravate it.

  As soon as we could, we took Nangi to the vet to tell him that it was indeed a dermoid sinus. Once again, he examinated the lump but failed to find anything to suggest this. On our insistence, he finally did manage to feel the root, putting doubt in his mind too.
  I asked him to refer to Mr. B. Sjollema, a specialist in Amsterdam, to obtain anofficial confirmation of this diagnosis, mainly to convince the breeder involved who still refused to believe it.
  The vet promised to contact Mr. Sjollema and to ring us with any news. He duly phoned me that same afternoon to tell me that Mr. Sjollema had already been convinced it was a DS from the description during their telephone conversation.

  We made an appointment for Nangi to see Mr. Sjollema and informed the breeder of this. However, the afternoon before this appointment, she called me. She wanted us to cancel the appointment because she planned ed to come that evening to examine Nangi herself in the presence of Mr J. Coppens, former chairman of the RRCN ( Rhodesian Ridgeback of the Netherlands).
  I said that, unfortunately, I wanted to keep our appointment and, anyway, I couldn't cancel it at the last minute. Consequently, they haven't
examined Nangi at all, not even that evening. I am amezed by the fact they never did.

  Mr. Sjollema talked everything through with us and we decided to follow his advice to operate. We were to phone him after the summerholidays to arrange a date for the operation and informed the breeder, who suddenly requested a second opinion: she knew someone who'd do the operation for 150 euros. We didn't feel that a second opinion was necessary in our case. Had they come to check Nangi over, this would have become crystal clear to them. Furthermore, we didn't want anyone else to operate our Nangi, was we trusted Mr. Sjollema implicitly. Also, even our vet had not been keen to take on this risky operation, and certainly not for 150 euros!

  The thought struck us that the breeder was worried that this was going to cost her a lot of money as she informed us of the fact that this operation would cost us thousands of euros. We were adamant to go through with it though, because we didn't like the thought of Nangi walking around with the DS and the risk of an infection with all its complications.... Besides, we were reluctant to travel further than necessary with a post-operative dog, when we live in close proximity to Amsterdam.
  During our summerholidays ( august 2003) we were alarmed to notice that the lump had grown and phoned Mr. Sjollema as soon as we got home.    
He feared an infection and prescribed antibiotics. For the time being it was not possible to operate, so a new appointment was arranged for the week after.

  We have very much regretted all the delays, which were mainly because the breeder wouldn't co-operate. Nangi's operation was scheduled for the 20 th of August, 2003. It took 1,5 hours, because Mr. Sjollema wanted to make sure that the sinus had been entirely removed. There was indeed an infection as he still found evidence of this during the operation.
  We phoned the breeder to let her know that the operation had been a success and that Nangi was fine. That was the first of many phonecalls we made to the breeder for we were convinced that she would pay the cost of the operation. He ( by then her husband had taken over the telephone conversations) promised to sort everything out - he was working on it......

  Finally, ( we were into December) it transpired, after the umpteenth phone call, that the breeder refused to pay. We were left to draw our own conclusions for, even during this last telephone conversation, the breeder seemed reluctant to let us know exactly where we stood.
  So, this was the end of what we thought was a good relationship. It's a great pity that when there is really something wrong the breeder does not take resposibility for her dogs. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how terribly disapointed we are in those peopla, but you can bet she'll double check her litter in future........

  To us it's fairly evident that they have little knowledge of a dermoid sinus. All along she has refused to believe that this was the case. let alone admit to having missed it while examining Nangi as a pup. Furthermore, we find that her aftercare leaves a lot to be desired........
  We believe that these people are so called trend breeders and don't contribute anything to our beloved breed. This experience hasn't put us off, however, and in our Jukati we have a perfect pedigree Ridgeback again
.......

  As a last resort, we asked the RRCN to intervene on our behalf. Unfortunately, they have not been able to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion. To date, the breeder remains unapproachable. They are still not prepared to accept responsibility nor to refund our expenses. Their excuse is that they accuse us of refusing them access in order to examine Nangi.......

june/august 2004
( this is a very succinct report...)    
                                                click on after operation for pictures