A cleft palate is an abnormal opening in the roof of the mouth that allows a communication between the mouth and the nasal passages. It’s quite a common occurrence in puppies.

Externally, these puppies look quite normal, but the defect is obvious when the mouth is opened. 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 I’ve never seen a puppy survive to be able to have surgery. That is, until recently. A young Labrador puppy came into our clinic with a large cleft palate. He had amazingly defied all the odds and was actually thriving at four months of age. He was suffering from recurring nasal infections but had managed to escape developing fatal pneumonia when he had been suckling.

“I had never had cause to perform the surgery.”

He was big enough for us to consider corrective surgery, so we started planning what we could do for him. I was aware of the 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. Feeling confident, we booked in the Labrador puppy.

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 were still a few nervous weeks waiting to see whether the repair would hold, but after three weeks the palate had healed perfectly and we could relax with the 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.