Puppy with a cleft palate

Cleft palates are quite a common occurrence in puppies. A cleft palate is an abnormal opening in the roof of the mouth that allows a communication between the mouth and the nasal passages. Externally these puppies look quite normal but the defect is obvious when the mouth is opened and although the severity of the defect can vary, it generally carries a poor prognosis with most puppies being euthanised or dying within a few weeks of birth (from aspirating/inhaling milk or food into their lungs). In theory it is possible to carry out surgery but the puppy needs to be 4-6 months old to be able to undergo the procedure and few ever reach that age.

I've been a vet for over 25 years and never yet seen a puppy survive to be able to have surgery, that is, until a few months ago. A young Labrador puppy came into our clinic with a large cleft palate that amazingly had defied all the odds and was actually thriving at 4 months of age. He was suffering from recurring nasal infections but had managed to escape developing fatal pneumonia when he had been suckling. He was big enough to consider corrective surgery and we started planning what we could do for him. I was aware of the quite technical surgery that was required, although I had never had cause to perform it. I spoke to a surgical colleague who specialised in head and neck surgery, and although even he saw very few cases I managed to get some good tips and feeling confident, we arranged for the Labrador puppy to be booked in.

On the day of the surgery I was able to closely examine the puppy's mouth and discovered the cleft was even bigger than we had first thought. It appeared to be just about correctable and with no other options available to us we proceeded with the tricky reconstruction of the roof of his mouth. When I finally finished operating, the defect had disappeared and I felt optimistic about how it had gone. There was still a few nervous weeks waiting to see whether the repair would hold but after 3 weeks the palate had healed perfectly and we could relax with our puppy likely to go on to live a normal and hopefully healthy life. Such cases are very rewarding even if they do only come around once every 25 years.