Cleft Palate Puppy Dogs

Cleft Palate Pupppy Dogs

Why a site dedicated to Cleft Palate pups?

On March 8th 2006, much to our surprise, we became one of these stories.
Our little "Molly" who was named this after findng the names Gaelic form dated back to the Hebrew form and meant "The Perfect One" was born with a cleft palate.

At first it seemed a death sentance for the pretty little black female labrador retiever pup.

Finding information on-line was slow going and difficult, and without the assistance and direction of many wonderful people from the Woodhaven.com Lab breeders forum as well as the Wiscoy.com breeders forum I might not have found all the information I needed to understand that this was a cause worth fighting for.

Although I was able to find much about the basic description of what a cleft palate was, and how grim the outlook for affected pups was, I could not find many stories of pups and people who had tried to beat the odds fighting for a tiny life that was so fragile.

A few people from the Lab breeders forum sent me stories and even pictures of happy healthy adult dogs...some a bit on the plump side to my amazement!
A link to http://hennwood.tripod.com/cleft_pup_info.htm gave me all the medical info I needed to make the decision to fight for Molly.

It was these stories that gave me hope and inspired me not to give up through the every two hour feedings and the constant worry. While talking with another breeder who was going through a similar situation and offering me advice, I wondered aloud about the lack of information and stories about cleft palate puppy's even though we knew that many were out there. My personal thoughts on this are that breeders of dogs do what they do because they are trying to eliminate genetic defects from the breed of their choice. Puppy buyers turn to breeders to get puppy's they feel confident are healthy, or that have much better odds of not having problems down the line. Since there are SOME Cleft Palate pups that are genetic, many may be afraid that others might worry that if they have had one, that it might run in their lines. Sadly, some breeds are more prone than others to this defect, but the truth of the matter is that many of the cleft palate pups that are now seen are due to environmental factors and not genetics. Pesticides, excess vitamin A, medications, are just some of the factors that can cause this defect. After talking to MANY breeders of different breeds, it became apparent that a large percentage of breeders have had experience with at least one CP pup. I hope we can help remove a little bit of the stigma of cleft palate pups, and get more people to share their stories without fear of people thinking that their other pups might somehow be defective when this is clearly not the case in most situations.

This page is dedicated to all the pups who fought so hard to live and the caregivers who didnt give up even though so many, including other breeders, and vets told them it was not worth the effort.

I would like this page to be a place for people to come to read other peoples stories, and to share their own.
We would love them all to be success stories, but this is not the way the world works, and I encourage those with sad endings to please write me and let me post your stories as well. We may all be able to learn from your little ones life, and maybe that alone was what its life was meant to do, to teach something, or help someone else save a pup.
We still have a long way to go, little Miss Molly and I, but we will use this page to continue our story. We hope it has a happy ending.

This section is still a work in progress and will be added to as time goes on. Please feel free to mail me if you wish to talk about your cleft palate pup experience or if I can help direct you to some helpful resources.

Sadly after three weeks of struggle our little Molly did not make it, but she was a joy while she was here, and I do not regret for a moment putting the effort into helping her. Although her story did not end as we wished, and there are many of these situations that simply are better off put down, there are also many wonderful stories of pups who survived and went on to be the light of some families lives.

Whats on this site?

General Cleft Palate Information on Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment
Links to sites with information on CP Pups or what you need to raise a CP Pup
Cleft Palate Puppy Stories
Cleft Palate Puppy Forum
Mollys Story

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