A swimmer is a puppy that gets too fat before it is old enough to walk (between 2 and 4 weeks of age). It flattens out and can't stand up. The legs work vigorously like a person "swimming". These puppies can be helped by cobbling the legs or doing some physical therapy exercises to get their legs under them. No one really knows why the condition happens. Some think it inherited, some think that it's environmental, and others think that it is caused by faulty nutrition of the dam. The main thing is that the condition is curable.
Twenty years ago, we would tie small fishing weights onto the legs with rags and place the pup in a sling so it would work the legs. Lots of trouble and tricky about not getting the rags tied too tight. Then we tried holding the puppy and cupping the back legs under in the proper position. Then we tried placing the pup on grass for a few minutes at a time for better traction. The last time we had a swimmer, we would place her mom at one corner of a puppy x-pen and the pup at the other side and the epoxy coated wire floor helped the baby to push her way to the milkbar. A couple of days of the "race to the milkbar" sessions and the pup was up and running. The bottom line is all the ways of physical therapy worked and the pup recovered. The reason that a breeder doesn't want a swimmer is because it is a worry with the therapy and you can't keep a recovered swimmer for breeding (well you can, but it isn't advisable as it may be an inherited condition). They make a nice pet though and you'd never know that they had a problem to look at them at 8 weeks of age. All the best, Susan Cochran ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sharon Crawford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 4:42 PM Subject: Re: [CKCS-L] puppy pics > >>None of the singletons turned out to be swimmers<< > > And "swimmer" means....? > > > Sharon Crawford > Hayward, CA > > ========================================================= > "Magic Commands": > to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL > to start it up gain click here: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL > > E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. > Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html > > All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author. ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
