When three veterinarians saw a days-old pit bull mix’s face, they were convinced she needed to be put dow. But when Jenn Clayton first laid eyes on the puppy’s face, she knew she had to save her.
Ruby the puppy had been born with a cleft lip, which was just a cosmetic deformity, but also a cleft palate, which almost cost her her life since she couldn’t nurse or eat food like other dogs. “She has gaps on both sides of her nose where her lip never grew together,” Clayton said. “The cleft palate prior to surgery was just a hole that ran straight down the middle of her palate, all the way from the front to the very back.”
“I volunteer for the Utah Animal Advocacy Foundation, an organization that specializes in the rescue and rehabilitation of ‘special needs’ animals,” Clayton says. “Ruby’s breeder sent us an email within hours of Ruby’s birth. Since I work full-time and knew that Ruby would require round-the-clock care, I encouraged the breeder to take her into her vet and learn how to tube-feed and care for Ruby on her own. But a couple of days later, I got another email saying that Ruby was dying.”
Clayton met the breeder at the vet and was stunned to see the starving puppy. “Ruby was in bad shape,” Clayton said. “She was very thin and dehydrated, and her breathing was labored.” The vet immediately recommended euthanizing Ruby, and two other vets also agreed since she didn’t stand a chance with the cleft palate.
“As I sat there with Ruby, trying to make that impossibly difficult decision, she lifted her head and started to try to suck on my finger,” Clayton said. “I knew then that she was a fighter and that she wanted to live. I just couldn’t bring myself to put her to sleep when I knew that all she needed was food.” Clayton decided to take Ruby home and started tube feeding her on a strict two-hour feeding schedule. “It didn’t take long for me to fall head over heels in love. We’ve been joined at the hip ever since.”
Thankfully, Ruby started gaining weight and strength, and when she was four months old, Clayton brought her to a vet who specialized in cleft palate surgery in Pennsylvania. “Her surgery was a total success and she was able to eat canned puppy food for the very first time just hours after surgery. She’s been eating normally and growing like a weed ever since.”
Now, Clayton and Ruby are proving that animals with cleft palates don’t need to be euthanized. “We like to say that Ruby and the other animals we rescue are ‘perfectly imperfect.’ Thankfully, more and more rescuers, breeders and veterinarians are realizing that these animals do not need to automatically be euthanized as most can thrive with the right care. In the meantime, we’ll continue to spread the word and do our part to help save as many of these special animals as possible.”
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[Featured image: Facebook/For the Love of Ruby]
Puppy With A Cleft Palate Is Saved Right Before Being Euthanized is an article from: LifeDaily