well, as some of you from chat last night know, amber went into spontaneous labour over a week early. she produced 4 pups, 3 girls 1 boy. sadly 2 of the girls, 1st and 3rd born, were born with cleft problems. 1st girlie has harelip, 2nd has bilateral harelip (where there are two splits descending from each nostril.) having phoned the vets that nicky12 sent me the number for (thanks hun :huggles: ) and spoken at length, i was recommended to leave taking them in til the morning, as both were lively, warm, and most importantly, able to nurse without choking or bubbles coming from the nose.
i've now returned from the vets....bad news: both do have cleft palate. good news is that the roof of the mouth is fine, the clefts on both are in front of the canines, and won't at any time affect feeding. overall verdict: eminently survivable (90%) should not require any hand-rearing (especially as amber has accepted them)
the advice for post-weaning is dry food only, to reduce possibility of pneumonia, likewise to only give water to drink, no milk etc, because of germs entering the lungs. she went on to say that she wouldnt bother with corrective surgery ( (w00t) a vet, NOT trying to exhort money!) as a)its not fair on them so young and b) by the time theyre older, theyll have adapted, and so the only reason for doing it is for the owners sake. having them pts wasnt even a consideration, as far as she was concerned.
biggest surprise of all is that weve already potentially got a home for one of these girls! friends of ours have recently found out their unborn baby with have severe cleft and lip defects, and that for them surgery wouldnt happen until their little boy is around 6mths. basically, a special puppy for a special baby, while also allowing martin and mandy to get used to what to expect beforehand. not definate, but watch this space!
and to from chat last night, thanks for your help and support :cheers: :huggles:
i've now returned from the vets....bad news: both do have cleft palate. good news is that the roof of the mouth is fine, the clefts on both are in front of the canines, and won't at any time affect feeding. overall verdict: eminently survivable (90%) should not require any hand-rearing (especially as amber has accepted them)
the advice for post-weaning is dry food only, to reduce possibility of pneumonia, likewise to only give water to drink, no milk etc, because of germs entering the lungs. she went on to say that she wouldnt bother with corrective surgery ( (w00t) a vet, NOT trying to exhort money!) as a)its not fair on them so young and b) by the time theyre older, theyll have adapted, and so the only reason for doing it is for the owners sake. having them pts wasnt even a consideration, as far as she was concerned.
biggest surprise of all is that weve already potentially got a home for one of these girls! friends of ours have recently found out their unborn baby with have severe cleft and lip defects, and that for them surgery wouldnt happen until their little boy is around 6mths. basically, a special puppy for a special baby, while also allowing martin and mandy to get used to what to expect beforehand. not definate, but watch this space!
and to from chat last night, thanks for your help and support :cheers: :huggles:
seriously unlikely to be genetic, as otherwise previous pups wouldve shown the same effect, or it wouldve cropped up in her family. just one of those things 
