cleft pallatte

[lilfoot]

I have a 12 day old female yorkie and she has a partial cleft pallatte and a cleft lip....the vets told me they see know reason she won't do all right but boy it has been a struggle to get her to bottle feed because of no enough suction due to the lip being split. when she was born she was 5 oz then dropped to 3 oz due to not being able to nurse so we started to bottle feed her in which she get lots of air in her tummy so I started to burp her and that has helped. Today she is 71/2 oz so she is gaining (her brother is 1.1lbs and her sister is 14oz) any advice on this matter would be great....

[feminvstr]

lilfoot congrats on the litter

I would suppliment the pup through a syringe it will be much easier on her as well you will have more success getting more down her than a bottle, also it will eliminate the air bubbles and or gas you mentioned.

One thing I wouldnt do is a repeat breeding on this mating because a cleft palate and lip are genetic rarely are they environment (pregnant bitch exposed to pesticides, toxins, medicated or over supplimented with certain vitamins during pregnancy). Cleft babies can live a full life because as they grow the opening should lesson, you can have good success correcting the worse with surgery closing the palate.

This little gal should be adopted on a strict spay contract.

hope this helps

[yorkiemom1970]

Originally Posted by feminvstr

lilfoot congrats on the litter

I would suppliment the pup through a syringe it will be much easier on her as well you will have more success getting more down her than a bottle, also it will eliminate the air bubbles and or gas you mentioned.

One thing I wouldnt do is a repeat breeding on this mating because a cleft palate and lip are genetic rarely are they environment (pregnant bitch exposed to pesticides, toxins, medicated or over supplimented with certain vitamins during pregnancy. They usually can live a full life because as they grow they should lesson, sometimes you can have good success correcting the worse with surgery closing the palate.

This little gal should be adopted on a strict spay contract.

hope this helps

great advice!

[YorkieRose]

This is an individual decision each breeder must make for themselves. I have had clefts..and all are put down. I have never had one do well..they fail, lose weight, cry..so I do not try any longer. Of all the breeders I know who get them, only a rare few thrive long enough to go through surgery to correct it.
Do you know my vet said all animals produce clefts in about 2% of the off spring. Some are stillborn, others died right after birth, some linger and a few can be corrected...JMO..and best wishes

[feminvstr]

Pat, Jan Angle has a cleft baby (now about 1 year old) she supplimented until about 4 weeks. The opening was still rather dominate she had the surgery done with great success. He is doing great!

[YorkieRose]

I went back to add on after reading the post...let me add it is has been 15 yrs since I have seen one..and I know vet medicine has improve so much for all problems...I was being negative and it is best to try...my last pup was given to my vets wife and she could not keep it alive long enough for him to do surgery...and the size of the cleft makes a world of different...with a large cleft the pup will choke of its own silva..not just milk.

[yorkiemom1970]

Originally Posted by YorkieRose

This is an individual decision each breeder must make for themselves. I have had clefts..and all are put down. I have never had one do well..they fail, lose weight, cry..so I do not try any longer. Of all the breeders I know who get them, only a rare few thrive long enough to go through surgery to correct it.
Do you know my vet said all animals produce clefts in about 2% of the off spring. Some are stillborn, others died right after birth, some linger and a few can be corrected...JMO..and best wishes

thats really interesting...2%. gosh. i didn't know that. ok, question, when you have one with a cleft, when do you have it put down. that same day? tell me more about this. thanks...

[YorkieRose]

My experince...I have never had a cleft is a fat pup. It has always been a tiny, barely alive pup, weighing no more then an oz.. Head was about the size of a small green grape. I have tried to save them. I tube fed and still found milk bubbling out the nose.
Last pup was given to the vets wife at birth..she worked hard and got it to 2 weeks...and it faded and died.
I think all pups deserve a chance and if I had a decent size born with a cleft I would give to a good try.
I have repeated the breeding and not had it again..but I agree, I would charge studs if possible. You see, I freaked out at the first one...I told my vet I had to place my stud because of the cleft he produced with my female..he show me a book on genetics and it said 2% of mammals produce clefts in offspring. So I repeated the breeding several times with that male to that female and the females sisters..no clefts.
There was one year I had several breeder friends and myself all have cleft pups in our litters...and none were related..all within a few weeks...so very strange.

[yorkiemom1970]

pat, that is really strange and very interesting. thanks for filling me in more. i know you must have freaked out...i know i would have been the same way, and who's to say i might have to face this someday myself, so i wanted your input.
so giving them a chance is best is what i am gathering. not putting down as soon as discovered. that does sound more of what i would want to do if faced with it. thanks

[yorkiegold]

Hi:

I was going to come on and add that you might try tube feeding, but as usual, Pat beat me to the punch, and I have to say that I agree with everything she said.

You put your life and soul into these little ones and it's heartbreaking when you run into a problem like this. Know that your decision will be the right one for you.

CJ

[yorkiegal719]

I know someone on another forum who was't an experienced breeder and her female had a little one with a cleft lip. Maybe she didn't no better but she kept her and nursed her through her first few weeks around the clock. We'll now she's a year old and doing just great. I'm not sure if she had the surgery or not but she didn't place her with others, she kept her for herself, got spayed and she's an adorable little girl. Don't give up...

[feminvstr]

here is a great article about clefts

BIRTH DEFECTS: CLEFT PALATE WHY AND WHEN
by Fred Lanting




Hope that you never have a litter with cleft palates. But if you do, this may explain the cause of at least some cases.

Let’s start at the beginning, with a short review of the birds and the bees. The sperm cell, with half the chromosomes needed for a new pup (and a little less than half the DNA it will get) penetrates the ovum (egg) and triggers cell division, with the multiplying cells having the right number of chromosomes, and characteristics from both families. After a while, these cells are seen to start segregating some in groups that will later form intestines, some groups that will become heart tissues, others destined to end up as reproductive organs, etc. It takes a while, so part of the way through the process, you might have a club whose members act alike for a time, but then, like Southern Baptists, split into splinter groups that become increasingly different from the cells whose division formed them. Some chromosomes in any one group go dormant, while others take over the job of activating the DNA and RNA that determine whether the cells are skin or hair cells, whether they express pigment, and a multitude of other inherited things. Chromosomes that deal with how a dog barks do not function in cells that make up the skin, even though all the chromosomes with their genes are in all the somatic body cells. After the first few divisions of the fertilized egg, the mass is called an embryo. Like a seed or acorn that contains all the leaves, bark, roots, growth patterns, disease resistance, and more, the animal embryo can be thought of as the grown dog and its descendants in future tense.

In some lower animals, the segregation of tissues in the embryonic urogenital tract never is completed, the way we understand it in mammals, where the genitals are near but distinct from the urinary organs. You can think of them as having an interrupted or halted development compared to the higher animals. However, the closer to the time of conception and early division, the less the differences in embryos of worms, frogs, Chihuahuas, water buffalos, and pterodactyls. The differences become apparent as the cell groups continue to specialize, which is an ongoing process up to and even after birth.

Sometimes something goes wrong during the embryonic development of structures on their way to completion. If development is halted or damaged, the part of the body that should be normal later, just isn’t. The example we are looking at here is the development of the central dorsal line of the body. Early embryos in that area look a little like flat worms or pancakes, and as they (we, too) grow, the edges curl or fold up and are supposed to unite along the top. Ever make raviolis or apple tarts? You fold the edges of the pastry so that the filling is enclosed, and you pinch the dough together in order to fuse it and keep the contents from falling or leaking out, until you can bake it. The spinal cord is the ravioli filling, and the finished vertebral column is the baked shell. If the phone rings before you pinch the dough, and your darling toddler daughter puts the half-completed job into the oven and cooks them before you get back, the contents are exposed. A similar thing can happen in the molding of the body if embryonic development is interrupted. Premature babies are at higher risk because some of them haven’t finished the process of closure before they are popped into the oven known as the world outside of the womb. Incomplete frontal skull bones, spina bifida, and hemivertebra are examples of the defects that can occur along the dorsal midline.

Midline closure defects are expressed in a variety of ways; in German Shepherd Dogs, I have seen incomplete closure to the midline of the scalp, incompletely formed tails, skull defects, spina bifida, and cleft palates. I believe them to be related in most cases. Sometimes other midline abnormalities are found; some would include umbilical hernias, and although they may be an embryo defect of another sort, I doubt those are related to the others. Cleft lip (harelip) is probably caused at a different time during gestation than cleft palate or the other disorders named above. As we say in good obedience training and many other things, Timing is everything.

Cleft palate is a condition in which, for genetic and/or environmental reasons, the hard surface of the roof of the mouth and the softer palate behind it fail to close completely. The first sign something is wrong (if you don't examine your pups immediately after delivery) is usually milk bubbling out the nose when the newborn attempts to nurse. In addition to strictly genetic cause, there are numerous other cases of environmentally-mediated cleft palate. It is a frequent defect found in offspring of diabetics. It has been produced experimentally by vitamin A imbalance whether too much or too little, and is often a result of poisons and steroids taken or produced by bitches in the first three weeks of gestation. Such corticosteroid production increase frequently can be associated with unsound character and/or a severe scare (fright). In canines, a deficiency of vitamin B-12 has also been identified as a cause. Antihistamines given early in pregnancy, at least in some doses, are also suspect. Viral infections at that stage, or certain other chemicals have also been determined to cause cleft palate. I believe natural or synthetic hormones and steroids are potentially very dangerous if given to bitches during pregnancy; most of the time, cleft palate is a steroid caused birth defect. Cortisone and similar steroids can also facilitate spontaneous bleeding, which is more perilous during whelping and surgical convalescence than at other times.

Possible Problems In The First Three Weeks

While some deaths and other difficulties are genetically controlled or otherwise out of the breeder's power to prevent, many are avoidable if the midwife/pediatrician is knowledgeable and careful. Generally speaking, if you pay heed to the subjects of genetics, nutrition, sanitation, disease prevention, and management, you'll increase your chances for a normal, healthy, successful litter growing to adulthood.

Start with the bitch, for a healthy female will make for a healthy litter in most instances. Some drugs or excessive vitamin A administered during pregnancy have been identified as causing cleft palate, reduced litter size, mummified fetuses, and nervous system disorders, as well as eye, ear, and heart defects in the pups. Exposure to too much carbaryl (Sevin is the most common tradename) insecticide may produce deformities in intestines and abdominal-thoracic fissures; other insecticides may cause skeletal deformities in pups if the pregnant bitch has been exposed to very high levels. Be sensible in your use of these, and your dam will likely be safe. A friend of mine tragically dosed his bitch with 10% Sevin dust (the concentration used for garden pests) instead of far less of the 5% dust used for fleas and ticks, when she was newly delivered of a litter of pups. It killed both her and all of the puppies. It was the wrong time to use it, and he used far too much.

During the first week, the combination of the dam's carelessness and failure to lactate account for the greatest losses in neonatal deaths, and the latter may be partly due to the breeder's carelessness in the area of sanitation and prevention of infection. Statistically speaking, the less common causes of death in that first week include cleft palates, which are probably found in less than 3 percent. Such pups either are euthanized on the second day or die soon after from aspiration pneumonia due to the milk they suck going through the nasal passages into the lungs.

Harelip is a split in the front portion of the palate, extending up the center of the front lip between where the middle incisors would later come in, and as far as the nose bulb in most cases. It is caused by a disruption in the embryo development at a slightly different time than cleft palate is. Sometimes, if the psycho-biochemical disruption has continued for a longer period of time than an instantaneous trauma, you may find both conditions in the same pups. You may have met people with both. Although it is surgically treatable in humans, it is not, or at least is not worth the effort, in dogs.

here is the link there is more on case history
http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/health/cleftpalate.htm

[yorkiemom1970]

kimberly, you are the bomb!!! that was great to read. thank you so much!

[yorkiemom1970]

and i hope lilfoot gets to read this thread, great info for her question!!

[red98vett]

I have to agree Kim - That was one awesome article - My jaw dropped reading it. The Ravoli visual was wonderful actually - but wow - I never knew how awful a cleft really is till today.

lilfoot ...you said Partial Cleft ? What would scare me is seeing milk bubbling in their nose - I'm staying out of this since I would be NO help at all - but wanted to wish you the best of luck with your decision and you just got some great help here. I'm sorry about your little baby.