12/06/2024
Long post ahead‼️
We have had quite the last 24 hours here at CRL. I planned to post and inform everyone that we are officially moving to Oklahoma this weekend (surprise!), but we had an even bigger surprise last night/this morning.
Our girl Allie’s full sibling, named Flower, is here with us to whelp her puppies and likely join our family. She was bred to Bruce, who is the same stud that Ellie was bred to earlier this year. Well, Flower had her puppies almost a week early last night. Which may not seem like much, but considering dogs are only pregnant for 9 weeks, really every day matters. We’re unsure why exactly she went in to labor early, but she blessed us with 10 babies. However it doesn’t stop there…
Upon inspecting each puppy, I noticed one of the puppies seemed to not have a closed palate. And then I checked the next one, and the next one as they were each born…you get the idea. We ended up with 8/10 puppies having midline issues with their palates. It’s unsure at this age if they are considered actual cleft palates, because there is no hole in the hard or soft palate and the puppies do not seem to aspirate as they would if milk was going up in their nasal cavity. However, a pup’s anatomy is designed to produce that strong suckle needed to nurse momma, and these babies are not able to create suction to suckle strong enough. So what does this mean? It means that we are expressing momma and tube feeding them every two hours. Momma is helping clean them and being a champ letting me express her so the babies can still get the colostrum they need, but believe me when I say this is TONS of work. They can not stay with her full time due to fear of one of them ending up aspirating. It’s just not a risk I’m willing to take, so tube feeding is the only truly safe option at this point. I have had rescues offer to take them, but we are committed to every single Cactus Rose puppy from day one, no matter the situation. I know they aren’t humans, but I wouldn’t have someone else take one of my babies if they needed some extra work, so I’m not doing it with these guys either. If they need me every two hours for the next few weeks, then that’s what they will get, every day. We’re going to see it through instead of putting them in someone else’s hands to raise and place.
Thankfully everyone I’ve consulted so far says they look to be very mild and they will likely resolve on their own as they grow the next few weeks. I don’t feel comfortable taking any reservations yet (besides on the two pups with normal palates) for obvious reasons, so if you’re on the wait list for one of these loves, we’re going to put it on a bit of a pause to wait and see what the future for these little ones will end up looking like.
As far as a cause, there are many things it could be. It could be genetics, but I was advised that it’s unlikely due to so many of them having it and also due to the fact that neither dog has ever produced clefts nor their close relatives. Environmental factors are a huge likelihood such as some kind of infection Flower could’ve had, a folic acid deficiency, too much vitamin A, and so on. Honestly we will likely never know what exactly it was, especially because Flower’s previous litter was 11 healthy, normal puppies. We will of course take this in to account when making breeding decisions in the future.
I hesitated to post them because I didn’t want anyone’s judgement, but honestly, this is the reality of breeding. You just get dealt a wild card sometimes. But as a breeder, it’s my job to provide what they need, no matter what. If y’all would like to follow their journey more personally, let me know, and I can try and post regular updates so yall can watch them grow and see their progress. I will tell you that these puppies are going to be about as hands on raised as it can get!
Side note…if you are waiting on a contract from me, flight booking, message back, etc please know that I will get it done ASAP. I have yet to be able to sleep since the night before last, and we are still preparing our entire crew to move to an entirely different state this weekend. So bare with us a bit! I’m planning to get to everything this evening once our kiddos are in bed. But the kids and dogs always come first before social media does.
🫶
