Nitrates
Nitrates are present in fertilizers used on citrus groves. After a period of time, the nitrates seep into the water table. This is a concern primarily for those whose household water source is a well, rather than their city. Nitrates have no color and no odor in water. You may be giving your dogs water with excessive levels and not even know it. Nitrates can cause cancer in humans, when consumed over a long period of time. Levels which may be deemed acceptable for adult humans by your health department, are dangerous to infants less than six months old and to inutero puppies. When consumed by a pregnant dog, the unborn puppies are adversely affected.

Symptoms in Puppies
Puppies delivered by dogs who consumed contaminated water just prior to or during pregnancy are born looking perfectly normal in most cases. One of the first symptoms can be that they don't open their eyes within a normal time-frame. At four weeks of age, when most puppies are showing an interest in their surroundings, and responding to the human voice, the affected puppies do not. In most cases, a definite stunting of growth is apparent by this age. By six weeks of age, when normal puppies are eating with gusto, the affected puppy has little or no interest. They may nibble at canned food, but do not eat any dry food. They do drink water. They do not play or bark or complain. They sleep a lot, don't move around much, and have little interest in their surroundings. They show little or no enthusiasm for anything. Nitrates decrease the ability for blood to transport oxygen to a puppy's brain and other organs. Also at this age, bluish spots may be noticed on the lower abdomen, under the skin. The skin in this area will appear almost translucent. All of the puppy's skin will be very thin, and there will be little muscle development. In some cases, bruising on the neck will be evident. Some will develop sores on the tummy and on the ears. Some will develop joint deformations - back legs that extend backwards or splay out to the sides. They become virtually imobilized. Because the puppies are not consuming enough food, and are nursing on a mother dog whose milk supply is dwindling, they are more prone to hypoglycemia. At six to seven weeks of age, painful seizures can occur on a daily basis, sometimes two to three times a day. The onset of these seizures may not be until the puppy is 10 weeks old in some cases. The puppy will stop eating completely, and will lose interest in nursing. Euthanisia is recommended as a kindness, or the puppy will starve to death. Puppies exposed to nitrates to a lesser degree may appear normal for many months only to develop neurological abnormalities at a later date. It is undetermined at this point if these abnormalities will prove fatal.

Treatment
For puppies exposed to a significant percentage of nitrates, there is no treatment and no cure. The result in all cases, one way or another, is death.

Detection
A water sampling bag should be gotten from your local health department, division of environmental health. Following the directions, take a sample of your tap water in for testing by their laboratory. The charge for this is around $20., and results are available within 24-48 hours. A nitrate level of 10.0 may be considered acceptable for human consumption, but it's been proven a level of 4.37 causes the above mentioned symptoms in puppies. A level of 1.0 seems to cause no harm.

Treating the Water
The only water treatment system that will remove a significant portion of nitrates is a reverse osmosis system. Do not think that because you have a water softener or water purification system your water is free from nitrates, because it's not. If a company such as RainSoft tries to sell you any unit other than a reverse osmosis system, guaranteed in specific writing to lower the level of nitrates to a certain percentage, do not buy it. I can tell you from personal experience that at least one RainSoft distributor misrepresents their products, does not correct the situation, and has no concern that the result will be dead puppies. Do not assume all reverse osmosis systems will remove nitrates, because they won't. General Electric (G.E.) manufactures three models of increasing capacity that do remove an acceptable level of nitrates. (Information about them is on the G.E. website.) The smallest unit, a ten gallon model, is sold by Home Depot for around $285. The larger units can be special ordered. These units go under the kitchen sink, and filter only the water coming through a separate faucet. There are larger, whole house systems, but the cost for them is quite high ($10,000. and up.) If you have hard water, you will need some type of additional water treatment system at your pump to prepare the water going into the r.o. system. The r.o. has a "micro-filter" which is not designed to handle mineral deposits. I have both a water purification system (carbon filtration and bleach is added) and a water softner (salt is added) at my pump.

To my knowledge, there have been no studies published on the effects of nitrates on puppies. In online research, I did come across limited information on short-term studies done involving cattle and rats. Most of these articles were rather technical in nature and not much help.