Daniel's Story

This story is about a little sheltie with a BIG personality. His name is Daniel Radcleft, ironically named by my then Fiancé who has a great sense of humor. Daniel was born on March 27th, 2021 out of my heart dog "Sansa". As soon as he came out I knew something wasn't quite right. Daniel was born with a unilateral cleft lip. He was so tiny at birth, around 3.5 oz and was unable to nurse from his mother due to not being able to create suction on the nipple.  Newborn puppies are extremely fragile and the physical exhaustion is always extreme during the first 10 days after any litter is born, sleeping next to the whelping box, making sure momma is taken care of as well as watching over all the little newborns to make sure everyone is nursing well, but when you are bottle feeding puppies, it takes it to a whole other level.

 

The next several weeks were a physically and emotionally exhausting time of round the clock tube-feedings every 2-3 hours. Yes, I had to wake up EVERY 2-3 hours to warm up puppy formula and feed Daniel for weeks. Tube-feeding is exactly how it sounds, and is used in human preemie babies as well. A tube is inserted into the mouth and down the esophagus into the stomach where milk is syringed into. Very young puppies do not have a "gag" reflex so this does not harm or bother the puppy at all. Tube-feeding is a life saving skill to have during the first few fragile weeks of a puppies life. Because of Daniel's cleft lip, he could not nurse, and all the information I could find about saving cleft puppies and kittens was that they required tube feeding until they could be weaned onto dry kibble. I spent many hours researching and wondering what I did wrong and why Daniel was born this way. Was his mother exposed to something during pregnancy? Was is something she was fed? How could I have prevented this? There was no clear reason why this happened, and my current thoughts are that there is likely a genetic component to clefts in shelties, and I am currently working with Dr. Clarke, a Professor at the University of Georgia, on researching the genetics of cleft palates in Shetland Sheepdogs.

 

Many times puppies born with cleft palates are euthanized shortly after birth or if the cleft goes unnoticed at first, the puppies fade away from not being able to get enough milk from their mother. Occasionally breeders who are unable to provide the round the clock support needed to keep a cleft puppy alive will find a rescue group that specializes in taking care of cleft puppies.  While all of these options ran through my head because this was the first time I had ever faced this type of situation, and I had people say I should just euthanize him for his quality of life. Daniel was born from my third ever litter of shelties and his zest for life was abundantly clear from birth. He was the most active puppy I have ever had. He was "running" around right after he was born. I will always give every puppy every possible chance as I believe each of these amazing shelties has a greater purpose in life.

 

Eventually, I had the idea to try something new. Daniel did not have a full cleft palate, it was only his lip and part of his nostril. After every tube feeding I would let Daniel suckle my finger, as he had the same "urge and instinct" to nurse like all his littermates. I found a large enough puppy nipple, about the size of my pinky finger, where gravity would allow a small amount of milk flow without Daniel needing to form suction. I had to make a slit in the nipple, as opposed to a small hole, to allow enough milk flow only when Daniel would clamp down on the nipple, so essentially instead of suckling, Daniel would "gum" the nipple to release formula. Daniel was SO excited to be able to finally drink to his little bellies content! Daniel was able to drink from his specially designed bottle until he was fully weaned onto Fresh Pet dog food around  5-6 weeks of age.

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Daniel is my constant shadow. He now sleeps on my bed with me every night. He has the cutest habit of "gumming" soft throw blankets on my couch, which he has done since he was a puppy. He is the "Fun Police" here at Winterfell and always on guard to watch over us, letting us know when anyone comes in-- much to my husbands dismay every single night he comes to bed after me! LOL