The runt of our very first litter arrived after we thought everyone was accounted for. My daughter and niece were sitting next to the "nest" watching Phoebe beam over her nuggets. When I heard "ew gross!!!", the girls came running to get me. "Phoebe had a black puppy!!" they yelled. I got the puppy and cleaned her up. She looked fine, a little small but normal for a runt. As the day went on, we all watched but our little nugget kept getting shoved off a nipple. 10 puppies, 10 nipples, this shouldn't be a problem. We tried to isolate her on a nipple. We thought we had it! But soon she was a much smaller nugget than her plump siblings.
We decided to supplement our little nugget with puppy formula. A shot glass filled with warmed formula, this puppy was going to be as fat as the rest! Formula came running out of her nose, she was coughing and sounded terrible while trying to eat but she was starving and so full of life, she was trying and maybe drowning?!? I figured out she had a cleft palate.
We made adjustments to her feedings, started reading what I could find, and began calling vets. Only one vet offered to help us. She met with us that day and told us that the puppy has a cleft hard and soft palate. Our game plan was we didn't want this little nugget to suffer, only to give her a chance to live if she could. Her major risk was getting fluid in her lungs and developing an infection. We got our list of things to monitor and went on our way. With new hope filling our hearts, our nugget needed a name. My mom and sister said they wanted to keep the puppy if she survived. A dog with special needs needs a special home. They named her Koa. 
We bottle-fed her every 2 hours. I was so exhausted but thankfully we have many helping hands. My sister would come for a late feeding. My son would come down after that for the extra late feeding and I could squeeze in 4 or 5 hours of sleep every couple days. We celebrate every ounce she gained.
We made a one-pound puppy club and celebrated when Koa made it. Then a two-pound club. Pretty soon the litter was ready to graduate to puppy mush and drinking water. We ended up getting a rabbit water feeder for Koa. She mastered it before long. She even taught her littermates how to use it. She mastered eating puppy mush no problem. Our girl was growing and living! Koa comes to visit often. She is Frank's favorite child.
They love to play together. She hasn't had complications because of her cleft but she is at risk for sinus infections. She needs to eat food larger than the opening at the roof of her mouth to make sure nothing gets stuck causing an infection. She clears her palate which is an amazing sight if you want to see people get grossed out by dog boogers and wet dog food chunks. Especially fun if my mom just mopped, then she isn't very excited for this. Koa is learning to go outside for this much-needed self-care but she doesn't always make it.
#cleftpalatepuppy #puppiesmakemehappy #specialneedspuppy #extralove #goldenretriever