Hi everyone I just wanted to you a little story when a little baby bullie was born on the 07/11/04.

 

Well Spalfords Karaoke Queen is my Fawn/White bitch and she had a stunning litter on the 07/11/04 , 5 boys , 4 girls.

I Waited at the vets (Standby vet as my vet was not on duty) very scared as I took my Bulldog into the operating room to have her little babies , knowing that its a risk to any Bullie under the operating table, but those babies had to come out, it was a Sunday morning and I heard the Machine monitoring her heart, as the Church bells started to ring I thought great that hides that sound, well I sat very still thinking god hope Queenie will be fine.

After about half an hour the vets helper came into the waiting room to tell me the good news I was so excited , after I bred Queenie its a big reward to know she had just had 9 babies, I sat there very pleased my first words was , how's Queenie? she replied she's fine , I could breath again normal.

After a little time longer the vet came round and said you have 8 healthy babies and one that as a cleft palate he as a marking on his back like a Plane ( that's where is pet name comes from, but he said may be fixed at a later date, so I said yes I will take him home.

He was the second biggest born weighing 13oz, so me and Kim who helps me tried very hard with this little boy giving him very special care, as he could not suckle of his mum as he couldn't get the suction with his mouth, the second day the vet phoned me and suggested I had him put to sleep as he would die or suffer, I didn't go ahead with this I really felt for him I thought where there is life there is hope so I carried on.

People spoke to me some said he wont survive others said keeping going , well every two hours night and day Plane was fed with 5 ml of Whelpi milk, he used to take me an extra half hour to feed after the others this was very dedicated hard was , not knowing if he would live or not, I took a picture of his cleft palate at three days old and thought if I get him living for another week I would take a pic and compare this. All the time I fed him with the bottle he never got any coming down his nose , which if it did he may have died due to milk on his lungs, a week later past and he had to go on antibiotics as we think he started to get a little milk on his lungs causing him to get phenomena. I spoke to the vet the next day and again he said put him to sleep , I said he never refuses his bottle he's a real fighter, I think the vet was annoyed as I didn't take the advice , had he had been in any pain I would of been the first to that vets to had him put to sleep, but I just kept trying.

I didn't want him to get any more milk on those lungs so the next step was to tube feed him into his stomach, I had never done this and it was a last resort ,knowing again if I got the tube in to the wrong place in his lungs I would drown him, I was scared no one shown me only on a diagram , Vicky Collins shown me on the diagram she's brilliant with Bulldogs and a big thanks to her, so it came the day I had to insert this tube through Planes mouth into his throat and down into the stomach, I first measured the tube against Planes last rib and mark the tube where is mouth was so when the tube disappeared I know that is how far I was to push the tube in. So I did this thinking god I would never forgive my self if I killed him, but I had no choice he needed feeding to keep him alive so I tried, as the milk started to come down the tube I panicked I ripped the tube out of his mouth , thinking I cant do this.

Well I got the tube again and tried again knowing I had to do this, I did it so for another week just over every two hours again night and day I tube him ( you learn every day). I was so proud of him, he still kept living , he deserved to live he really did. Then the third week came he needed to be on solids, so I tried him with a little scraped beef from Wait rose the best, I fed him this and stopped tubing him, I started him back on his bottle , he wanted to suck this but this time didn't seem to be getting it so I tried a slightly softy teat that worked, after about the 16 day I did take another pick of his cleft and it was closing I took him to my own vets to let him look at Plane and he said I can mend this I can mend it, he checked his heart and the health of the puppy and said has fine other than that and very strong, I replied he always as been. Then it came when he had been on his scraped beef to go on his Royal Caning maxi baby, a complete brilliant food for puppies, well I got a spoon and fed him and he took this very well, but every time he did he struggled sometime and this was quite scary I thought god this is really stressing me watching this little boy what happens if he chokes and dies on me , again I was thinking should I put him down, that's the only time I thought this , after watching this I just didn't want to lose home when he was older I would be distort , so I booked him in at the vets to be put to sleep, I could not live with this all day, so I rang the top veterinary hospital up to speak to them about cleft palates, Animal Health Trust Newmarket, they said they could be repaired I rang lots of people that day including the vets to cancel that appointment, I lay with him in my arms saying I really don't know what to do for the best ,well I didn't go ahead with putting Plane to sleep.

Plane sat on the left side with is friend Mina ( Planes Page)

Plane now is 7 weeks old eating on his own, drinking and playing and doing everything else the others do, and his spoilt rotten and he his having his op when he his 12 weeks old, he's staying with me for life a love him dearly no one will ever own Plane only me, compared to the others in the litter he is so tiny but still very healthy other than his cleft but its improved no end, I really thought I should have a page for him as he deserves his own page and fan club , Planes O.K. name is Spalford's Touch & Go, he will only be a pet and will be spayed when hes old enough.My dedication to Bulldogs must show, if i was in this like some breeders Plane would not be hear.