Inspiration for

Techs for Clefts

Being in the field of Veterinary Medicine for over 15 years, I have seen a lot of challenging diseases, injuries, and of course birth defects. Like everyone in a medical field, we challenge ourselves to look outside of our own opinions and continue to learn about options and choices for our patients. Here is my story of why I chose to start learning outside of my knowledge for special needs neonates….

From the beginning I was taught that cleft palate puppies, spina bifida puppies, and other birth defects we see among pets, are better off being euthanized, their quality of life was too poor. One day I came across a Facebook page of a dog named Ruby, that picture I saw changed the way I saw special needs puppies. She was a Pitbull with a cleft lip and cleft palate. She was saved by a rescue who had used their knowledge to save her and help her grow into a happy, healthy dog! My heart hurt for the puppies that I knew I had seen in practice that we had told the owners there was little hope. We needed to change our words from little to that there is hope. We just need education and to try!

Now that I have started educating clients on caring for these pups, I have found it difficult to find a place to get all the information in an easy format. There are so many recommendations for how to tube feed, where to get help and basic information. Techs for Clefts is created to make that easier. A place to go for education for everyone. To help the veterinarians make recommendations to give a pet a chance, to give a breeder an opportunity to learn, for veterinary staff to help out a client that can’t take on this kind of care for the many reasons its so difficult.

I want this site to help save puppies and any pet that needs extra TLC. To give owners, clients, breeders, vet techs, anyone….hope.