| OBSERVATIONS:
When we first encountered swimmer puppies we didn't know what was wrong
with the pups, so we asked experts such as vets and breeders. They all
knew what it was and they all had answers, some of which were that the
puppy usually died to it's common in all animals that have litters. Suggestions
for cures were anything from:
1. there's nothing you can do about it
2. changing their feed
3. spaying the mother
4. putting them on soft bedding
5. taping the feet together;
None of which were very successful. We read everything we could find
that even suggested information about swimmers, all with the same insights.
None of which had real solutions. Then as the years passed, one or both
of us was present at every birth of many hundreds of puppies and we tried
to be observant at each birth. We started to see a pattern emerge. The
incidents of births that produced swimmer puppies were random. The changing
of feed or adding supplements didn't decrease or increase the occurrence
of swimmers. What we observed on the pups themselves was the the syndrome
began to show up at anywhere from one hour to a couple of days after birth,
beginning with a slight flattening of the chest or an actual bend in the
ribs.
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