# images of puppies/dogs with cleft lip



## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

I have a very strange request and would be most appreciative of any help. I'm doing research on how people react to animal faces and want to look particularly at animals with cleft lip. I would like to use pictures of puppies, kittens, dogs and cats, preferbaly front on. I was wondering if anyone had any such images that they might be willing to allow me to use? I would be extremely grateful for any assistance.


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## Chris1 (Oct 3, 2008)

I cant help, but I didn't realise that it affected dogs. But thinking about it, of course it does. Can surgery be performed on them the same as humans ? Do you know ?
Chris


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

it can indeed and a lot of the work on surgery on humans has been pioneered with other species with the condition. people have particularly strong reactions to images of infants with cleft lip and we would like to see if something similar happens with animal pictures.


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## Tigerkatz (Sep 29, 2008)

Unlike humans if you have a cleft in a puppy or kitten it is very rare that they will survive unless tube fed. If tube fed there are small chances of survival.. maybe about 3-4 weeks. Hairline clefts are the only ones that may possibly have a chance of survival but only if the breeder decides to prolong that puppies suffering for an extended time until it can have an operation at a later date? 
How many breeders would keep a cleft puppy or kitten suffering? Hence why you will possibly not find alot of picture evidence of clefts in adult cats and dogs.. they do exist but not many...


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

That is very true. Numerous centres operate on infants born with cleft lip within the first few days of life (closing the lip) and I have heard that the same is possible with young animals.


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2008)

chrispy said:


> That is very true. Numerous centres operate on infants born with cleft lip within the first few days of life (closing the lip) and I have heard that the same is possible with young animals.


Sorry I can't help with any images,but would like to pick up on the point you made about babies having surgery to correct it.
Babies have surgery around 4 months to close a cleft lip and surgery around 12 -18 months to close a cleft palate.
Surgery is ongoing until these babies / children are well into their teens.

My son was born with a Cleft Palate,thankfully his lip was fine,he has undergone 3 major ops to correct the palate.


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

Infants CAN have corrective surgery within days of birth to close the lip. I was referring to the lip aspect only.

See: The effect of cleft lip and palate, and the timing of lip repair on mother-infant interactions and infant development
Source: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry and allied disciplines [0021-9630] Murray yr:2008 vol:49 iss:2 pg:115 -123


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## marlynaveve (Aug 13, 2008)

I have no experience of it in dogs but have had kittens with cleft palate.
As Tigerkatz has already said, born like this they have little chance of surviving, mine I had PTS, so I doubt if you will find very many photos.
Also hare lip is a continuation of a really bad cleft palate, I have personally never had one that bad in a kitten.
Mary
x


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2008)

chrispy said:


> Infants CAN have corrective surgery within days of birth to close the lip. I was referring to the lip aspect only.
> 
> See: The effect of cleft lip and palate, and the timing of lip repair on mother-infant interactions and infant development
> Source: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry and allied disciplines [0021-9630] Murray yr:2008 vol:49 iss:2 pg:115 -123


I was referring to both and I have dealt with experts within this field.
CLAPA : Cleft Lip & Palate : FAQs: What treatment is available?

A cleft lip is usually surgically repaired by the time a baby is 2-3 months old. It requires a general anaesthetic and takes roughly one and a half hours. The surgeon re-arranges the skin and muscles of the lip so no skin grafting from other parts of the body is needed.

Most babies recover very quickly and will not experience much pain after this operation. Medication is given for any discomfort. The hospital stay for this operation is between 3 - 5 days. A parent is usually welcome to stay in hospital with the child.

We were under a Surgeon at Wordsley hospital in the Midlands,well known for plastics work,this hospital has now closed and my son is currently under Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Again Birmingham are saying 3 months,for the cleft lip to be closed.

West Midlands Regional Centre For Cleft Lip & Palate | Surgery

An operation is performed only when the baby is healthy and not suffering from a cold. It is also important that your baby does not have any vaccinations in the 2 weeks before and after the operation. By 3 months of age, most babies with a cleft lip will be big and strong enough to have it repaired.

Feeding after the lip operation is not usually a problem. The nurse or the speech and language therapist on the cleft team will be able to answer any questions about feeding.

And again this site has a timetable of when things happen,which is not immediatly as you can clearly see,
Cleft lip and palate Treatment - Health encyclopaedia - NHS Direct
In England, all children born with a cleft will be referred to a specialist cleft clinic.

Specialist cleft clinics are dedicated medical centres that are designed to provide life-long support to children and parents.

Working at the cleft clinic will be a cleft treatment team. The team is made up of the healthcare professionals listed below.

A specialist cleft nurse - who can provide initial advice about feeding, and will act as your first point of contact between yourself and the rest of the team.
A surgeon,
A speech and language therapist.
An orthodontist - a dentist who specialises in the reconstruction of the teeth.
An audiologist - a health professional who specialises in assessing and treating hearing conditions.
A psychologist.
A paediatrician - a health professional who specialises in treating children.
Care plan timetableMost children with clefts will receive the same type of care plan, but it will be tailored to meet their individual needs. A typical care plan timetable is described below.

Birth to six weeks - hearing test and feeding assessment.
*Three months - surgery to repair the lip.*Six months - surgery to repair the palate.
Nine months - post-operation hearing test.
Eighteen months - speech and language assessment,
Three years - a further assessment of speech and language

So I would hazard a guess and say unless you are in a position to pay private,corrective surgery is not done immediatly but around 3 months old.
Do you have a link you can post rather than me having to go looking for it ?


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

So I would hazard a guess and say unless you are in a position to pay private,corrective surgery is not done immediatly but around 3 months old.
Do you have a link you can post rather than me having to go looking for it?

It is not an issue about whether you can go privately or not. As I have said, some centres adopt the early lip closure practice.

link:

Wiley InterScience :: Session Cookies.

This is not an isolated article, just a very recent one. There are many other recent articles on this issue:
e.g.,
more recent:
Neonatal repair of cleft lip: a decision-making protocol
Philippe Galiniera et al. (2008).

older:
Neonatal cleft lip repair in Ayrshire; a contribution to
the debate
E. FREEDLANDER, (1990)


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2008)

chrispy said:


> It is not an issue about whether you can go privately or not. As I have said, some centres adopt the early lip closure practice.


Can you post direct links,I can't find anything to suggest cleft lip surgery is undertaken only hours/days after birth.



chrispy said:


> link:
> 
> Wiley InterScience :: Session Cookies.


This link wants you to pay to get the info,do you have any others ?



chrispy said:


> This is not an isolated article, just a very recent one. There are many other recent articles on this issue:
> e.g.,
> more recent:
> Neonatal repair of cleft lip: a decision-making protocol
> Philippe Galiniera et al. (2008).


Again this article doesn't state Cleft lip repair is undertaken hours/days after birth,Can you post the relavent bits please,thanks



chrispy said:


> older:
> Neonatal cleft lip repair in Ayrshire; a contribution to
> the debate
> E. FREEDLANDER, (1990)


This is done before birth ,not hours or days after birth,and the article is very outdated 1989,can you post any links to surgery which has been done after birth but before 2-3 months as you originally suggested ?
Up to date info would be great


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

We must be reading different articles. 

neonatal means less than four weeks after birth. NOT before birth. 

Galiniera et al. (2008):
the article DOES state that surgey takes place days after birth. 
FROM THE VERY FIRST LINES OF THE ABSTRACT: 

Results: Sixty-one newborns, 20 girls and 41 boys, aged 7.5 ± 6.7 days were operated on. 

That's between six and seven days. I'm not sure how that can be interpreted any other way. 

E. FREEDLANDER, (1990)

Operation was usually carried out within cases the first 48 hours of life. 

From the Murray article: 

Although repair is generally performed around
34 months postpartum in the UK, in the past two
decades some centres have conducted neonatal
repair. Surgical outcome appears unaffected by this
difference in timing (Goodacre, Hentges, Moss,
Short, & Murray, 2004);


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2008)

Yes we must be,
The article I read suggested surgery was done before birth,
In the uk there are only 9 Regional centres for cleft lip and palate,none of these when checking their websites routinely offer Cleft Lip Repair within days after birth.

Those figures you have quoted are a relatively small number,compared with the amount of children born with cleft palates and lips each year.Are the figures from the uk ?

It took quite a while for our son to be referred and to my knowlege B'ham have a routine whereby cleft lips are repaired at around 3 months the same as the centers in the rest of the uk.

Anyway this has gone way off topic,sorry I can't help with images...
I know of a few Breeders whose pups have had clefts,they sadly didn't survive.


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## tashi (Dec 5, 2007)

I have to admit that if we have ever had any pups with cleft palates which has been perhaps only 3 they were pts as they couldnt suckle.


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## Chloe's mom (Nov 14, 2008)

I have a Boston Terrier with a cleft lip. I have LOTS of pictures of her. I do not, however, have any pictures of her prior to her surgery at 10 weeks of age. The cleft is still visable and her nose and teeth are croked but she looks nothing like prior to her surgery. Let me know if you want any pictures and I can figure out how to post/send them.


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## boxerlover (Mar 28, 2009)

Hello! We recently had a litter of puppies that were born on February 15, 2009. We have both parents. They are boxers. We had 8 beautiful puppies. The 
4th puppy that was born had a cleft lip. We named him Tiny. He is now 6 weeks old and is very active and happy. We didn't plan on keeping any puppies but we decided rightaway to keep him. After bottle feeding him every 2 hours for 3 weeks, he seemed like he was my own. The other 7 puppies weigh between 8-9 pounds and he weighs 5.9 pounds. He is smaller than the rest, but very healthy. I have pictures if you'd like. Just let me know. The vet said we could do surgery at about 12 weeks. We do plan on getting it fixed.


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## Chloe's mom (Nov 14, 2008)

We found our Chloe from a breeder when she was about two weeks old. After I saw her I could not stop thinking about her. The breeder was not sure what she was going to do with her but did not feel right selling her so we made an agreement to pay for her surgery as payment. I called the Boston Terrier Club of America for a vet referral they were very upset the breeder did not put her down when she was born. Her surgery was performed at 10 weeks by the veterinarian the breeder worked with. It went well but pulled apart slightly as she grew. Chloe was also born with a hole in her heart and a long crooked tail (which was cropped when her lip was fixed). She will soon be 5 and seems to be in perfect health. She is my little princess. It is a unique situation that creates a special bond. Tiny will bring you and everyone he meets great joy. I am sure he is adorable.


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

any images would be greatly appreciated.i hope your pup is doing well


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## boxerlover (Mar 28, 2009)

I posted 3 pictures of Tiny. I hope they turned out good enough to see his lip. If you would like more, let me know!


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## StolenkissGerbils (Aug 8, 2008)

Google is a marvellous thing 

Here are lots of cleft lip dog photos. Seems more common in brachycephalic breeds, though this isn't a strict rule.

Boxer - adult and pup, looks like same dog:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Cleft_lip_adult_dog.JPG
File:Cleft lip in boxer.JPG - Wikimedia Commons
File:Cleft lip in boxer 2.JPG - Wikimedia Commons

Bulldog, pup:
http://images.onesite.com/pawsconnect.com/user/[email protected]/pet_pics/gussi.jpg

Looks like pit bull type/similar, pup:
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/dog_2_noses-431x300.jpg

Bullmastiff, slightly older pup:
http://www.spencermanbullies.com/si...ilderpictures/.pond/dsc00314.jpg.w300h225.jpg

American Cocker Spaniel, pup, before and after surgery:
http://www.zimfamilycockers.com/Angel-BeforeSurgery.jpg
http://www.zimfamilycockers.com/Angel-AfterSurgery.jpg

Pit bull/Rottie mix, baby whelp:
dog.jpg (image)

Staffie, adult:
Duo, the Two-Nosed Dog. - Neatorama

Chihuahua/rat terrier mix - actually just a cleft nose, lip cleft barely visible, adult:
http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2006-07/jeeeep-two-nose-dog.jpg

Mongrel, very severe cleft lip, jaw, nose, adult:
http://data5.blog.de/media/155/2939155_18054fa357_m.jpg

Interesting stuff. Most of these were on the first 2 pages of the google search for "dog cleft lip".


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

stolen kiss gerbills, thanks, I have done every imaginable search for images on google/ yahoo etc. 

Boxerlover, thank you so much for those images. I'd ideally need a picture front on, with the Tiny looking at the camera, so that it is as similar as possible to other images I have. I know that is asking a lot. I appreciate you posting the other pictures. Again, I wish you and all your pups the best.


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## candysmum (Jan 18, 2009)

chrispy said:


> I have a very strange request and would be most appreciative of any help. I'm doing research on how people react to animal faces and want to look particularly at animals with cleft lip. I would like to use pictures of puppies, kittens, dogs and cats, preferbaly front on. I was wondering if anyone had any such images that they might be willing to allow me to use? I would be extremely grateful for any assistance.


you could get a book called "the book of the bitch" it has pictures (only pencil images not photos of puppies with cleft lips.


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

hi guys, many thanks for your help to date. I was wondering if anyone has any more images they would be happy for me to use?


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## WoodyGSP (Oct 11, 2009)

Maybe you could try vet universitys? They might have some for training purposes?


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## chrispy (Oct 30, 2008)

have gotten some images from vets, but have exhausted the more conventional avenues, hence hoping to obtain some more images here.


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## Dirky47 (Oct 20, 2009)

How I wish I can help you mate. I don't have any pictures here.


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## Molly herron (Nov 6, 2016)

chrispy said:


> stolen kiss gerbills, thanks, I have done every imaginable search for images on google/ yahoo etc.
> 
> Boxerlover, thank you so much for those images. I'd ideally need a picture front on, with the Tiny looking at the camera, so that it is as similar as possible to other images I have. I know that is asking a lot. I appreciate you posting the other pictures. Again, I wish you and all your pups the best.


Hello I have puppy with cloth lip 


chrispy said:


> stolen kiss gerbills, thanks, I have done every imaginable search for images on google/ yahoo etc.
> 
> Boxerlover, thank you so much for those images. I'd ideally need a picture front on, with the Tiny looking at the camera, so that it is as similar as possible to other images I have. I know that is asking a lot. I appreciate you posting the other pictures. Again, I wish you and all your pups the best.


hell


chrispy said:


> have gotten some images from vets, but have exhausted the more conventional avenues, hence hoping to obtain some more images here.


h I've a bulldog with cloth lip she's just surgery on her lip but the stitches have 


candysmum said:


> you could get a book called "the book of the bitch" it has pictures (only pencil images not photos of puppies with cleft lips.





chrispy said:


> hi guys, many thanks for your help to date. I was wondering if anyone has any more images they would be happy for me to use?


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## Amelia66 (Feb 15, 2011)

This post is from 2009 i dont think they are here anymore


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