3 Weeks Old: Not Walking

Shannon's darling babies appear to have had a set-back. After consulting with their vet, we believe that the whole litter has been affected by "swimmer" puppy syndrome. So for the last two days we have worked very hard to help turn this around. With early intervention (like we are doing, beginning when they are 2.5 weeks old), there is every likelihood these babies will be up and walking around in no time and back on track to develop as perfectly normal puppies.

Part of their treatment involves having them walk through a little track we have built out of bricks. The bricks keep them from being able to splay their limbs out so that they can gain the necessary strength in their back legs. We are also applying leg hobbles at times and have moved them to a cooler room. We have also begun introducing canned puppy food to give them something motivating to walk to and also so that we can limit Shannon's time in the whelping box a bit. And we have moved them to a large puppy pen with more variety in surfacing to help them gain traction.

We will keep everyone posted on their progress, but already we are noticing quite a bit of improvement in their locomotion in just two days.

Here are some links about "swimmer" puppies. Some use the term/phenomena interchangeably with "pectus excavatum " but others disagree that they are the same thing, though swimmer puppies can develop pectus excavatum as well. Regardless, our pups are NOT affected by the "flat chest"/pectus excavatum issue- their chests are shaped normally.

Bulldog Info (more commonly a problem of breeds with short legs like Bulldogs, but it can happen to any breed or mix)

PetEducation.com

Breeder Vet