"The feet protruding from the vagina are bluish purple," I said after rushing back to the surgery to perform a Caesarean delivery. "The puppy is dead."  The breeder was undecided as to whether to do a Caesarean or not and I had left for my lunch appointment.  I could not wait just in case he wanted a Caesarean.

Caesarean deliveries cost money and this would affect the profitability of the canine breeding business.  Every dollar saved counted in this recessionary time when consumer buying power is low for puppies and competitive had increased tremendously.  Therefore, it was logical that he would try to pull out the puppy stuck in the birth canal himself.

Nurse Ann started the bitch on the general anaesthesia while the home breeder clipped the surgery area.  He had four years of hands on experience at a canine breeding farm and knew what to expect at a Caesarean.  A big strong healthy person with a face and shoulders bronzed brown by daily exposure to the strong tropical sunlight at a fishery farm.  

Surprisingly, the puppy was much alive. The reason being that the placenta supplying blood and nutrients to the puppy was intact.  What was the cause of the bluish-purple colour of the hind feet?  The blood supply was strangulated as the two feet were crossed at the vulva.  As the breeder had not delayed seeking an emergency Caesarean section within 2 hours of encountering birth difficulty problems, the puppy was alive and the bluish-purple feet returned to normal pink colour.  

As to chicken having bluish-purple feet (see a forum article below), it is a mystery to me as to the writer of the article.  Could the chicken be normal?  

An interesting article reproduced from the
Straits Times February 21 2004 Forum Page.

Fresh chicken bought from supermart had bluish-purple feet

MY USUAL Thursday grocery shopping trip to NTUC FairPrice turned out to be a nightmare when I picked up two 'Pasar fresh chickens' from the supermarket's shelf.

Supermarket fresh produce are usually wrapped in plastic bags; for whole chickens, the legs are hidden within.

I took the chickens to the counter and had them cut into pieces. When I got home, I was shocked to discover a pair of bluish-purple chicken feet which looked quite abnormal compared to the other. There was no way to ascertain which of the two chickens it came from.

Was one of the chickens sick? I called the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) to ask what to look out for in slaughtered chickens. The corporate communications executive I spoke to could only tell me that AVA took care to ensure that chickens in Singapore are safe for consumption. She could not be of any help and asked me to call FairPrice instead.

The FairPrice customer relations officer could not offer much help either. She offered to 'check and revert'.

Why didn't the FairPrice staff who cut up the chickens set aside the tainted one and get me another? Are we just going to sit around and wait for the situation to blow up before necessary precautions are taken?

Can the media kindly highlight what to look out for when buying poultry to ensure that it is safe for consumption?

AVA's assurance that poultry in Singapore is safe to eat is not good enough. I am sure only a sample of the imported poultry is tested. Is there not a possibility that one or two sick chickens may slip past the stringent tests?   SU LI-XIN (MS)

Extracts from the Asiahomes.com Book: How Your Puppy Can Live Longer  
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS.
Buyers interested in this book, email to judy@asiahomes.com

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