It all started when LynWood Picture Perfect - Marilyn Monroe, who is owned by Connie and Steve and co-owned with Linda and Woody. We decided to breed Marilyn to a wonderful healthy champoin stud dog that was also MRI scanned. Marilyn was fully health tested including her MRI scan and then passed her pre-pregnancy exam. She was in perfect health and had no issues throughout her pregnancy. We did a pregnancy ultrasound that showed 4 healthy fetuses.
She moved from Connie's house to mine for the delivery. With perfect timing she went into labor right on her due date.
Quickly, we realized that the first puppy was just too big for her to deliver. We rushed her to Woodstock Veterinary clinic where Dr. JoAnn did an ultrasound and deemed it necessary to have her puppies by emergency Cesarian Section.
We are so blessed to have the Animal Hospital of Woodstock and their expert team to provide Marilyn with the best care. Dr. Jay Randall is a Master surgeon and the facility and equipment is one of the best.
As each puppy was rushed out from the surgery room to our awaiting warm towels at the puppy reviving table. We were greeted with large, plump and lively babies. All weighing between 7-9 ounces which was normal to a tad large for a Cavalier. We had all four babies and were extremely pleased.
Then…. someone exclaimed…… THERE'S ANOTHER ONE! There was only 4 on the ultrasound… WOW!
The real surprised came when we broke open the placental sack to see a wee teeny tiny baby about the size of a walnut. He was only 2.7 ounces. In all my years had never seen a puppy that small… a baby bird, but never a puppy!
As Marilyn Recovered from the surgery, the puppies were kept in an incubator. We didn't even know if we were going to get to take them all home from the hospital. You can see Tiny where the blue 2 oz suction bulb is bigger than he is. The color on his fur is from the meconium. Most meconium babies do not survive, much less one his size! All the odds were stacked against him it seemed.
Being it was Connie and Steve's first litter, I was at a real loss as what to say to them. It was so hard to rejoice about the healthy little ones with such a little curiosity that was hanging on by a thread. I promised that I would do my best, but I could not guarantee that he would even live to go home or through the night.
He was so small that even Marilyn's tit was too big for him to nurse on. I had to express colostrum and then tube feed it to him. Before we left the hospital, Dr. JoAnn drew blood from Marilyn, spun it down and we gave the serum SubQ for additional immunology support. This procedure has been researched and documented by Dr. Jean Dodds's and extremely effective.
The problem was right from the start upon arriving home, the larger most beautifully marked Tri Color girl who was the first to latch on and nurse was crying constantly. We kept putting her on the tit and as she filled more her tummy expanded but never seemed to go down.
As the evening went on she worsened and was inconsolable. Calls to the clinic and we tried everything. Staying up all night feeding Tiny and trying to console his sister. That next afternoon she passed. I was devastated and could hardly believe that the largest, healthiest of the group had passed and here was Tiny still holding on by a thread. He had lost weight too.
I was tube feeding him every hour with the smallest tube we had and it still looked huge. Between being so devastated at the loss of the most beautifully marked and largest puppy it never occurred to me to take pictures. Honestly, after that I really didn't know how Tiny would survive.
I was way too busy keeping him at a contestant temperature and with as much food as he could tolerate all fearing the worst.
Days melted together and the daily phone calls. The text messages of rejoicing in even .1 and .2 oz weight gains.
Then one day, Tiny celebrate his third week birthday. He had tripled in weight!
You can see his eye opening and the black on his nose starting to come in. We kept him with a little stuffed Lambchop and at 3 weeks I was thrilled he was almost as big as the stuffed toy! He had tripled his birthweight but not yet gotten to his litter brother's birth weight.
Tiny began to grow…. he was healthy and pink but still very fragile. While Marilyn took care of the litter of three, I oversaw Tiny. His temperature and feeding stayed contestant 24 hours a day. Woody would relieve me as his work schedule permitted, and my phone alarm went off religiously every hour for two weeks then to every two hours.
My co-breeder Sue Shidler had a cavalier mother that had 8 weeks earlier given birth to a singleton puppy... a big Black & Tan named Randall. Randal was old enough that we were starting to wean down his nursing schedule. Since Marilyn was pressed to full capacity with her three big babies, I decided to nurse Tiny on Molly with Randall. It made for a very funny comparison.
Randall at 8 weeks old and Tiny at 4 weeks. I had to hold Randall the entire time because his foot was about the same size as Tiny's head.
Tiny at 4 weeks was still smaller than Randall's initial birthweight.
What I found interesting was at first Randall was none to happy to have Tiny share his milk bar, but then he started to move over and watch his foot and Tiny. He would even try to lick him. So for a couple of weeks they were best buds.
And then Tiny began to Grow… and grow he did! He was still a 1/3 the size of his siblings if not more.
He was always on top of the pile too!
Lambchop was even starting to look smaller.
He was now able to stay with his siblings and his favorite snuggle buddy was his sister Norma Jean. He was now ready to go home with Connie and Steve and be a puppy with the rest of his litter.
At 7 weeks an amazing thing happened… Tiny looked like a real puppy and began to do everything with his siblings. He was catching up quickly!
They learned to go outside and drink out of bowls.
even to stick their tongues out at mummy Connie with the camera!
Tiny became a photogenic little ham!
On their 12 week Birthday, Tiny and his siblings went for their puppy wellness apointment with Dr. JoAnn Randall. She was so excited to see him and shocked that he had survived!
She said he looked like a real puppy as he was having fun running all over the exam room. After several kisses he finally allowed Dr. Jo to check out how handsome he was and sported awesome little eyebrows! He passed his exam, a clear little heart, clear and healthy in every way …… except for this large hole on top of his head.
Yep, Tiny has an open fontanel.
A fontelle is a gap between the cranial bones. Human baby heads have the same gaps and are called soft spots. They normally close around the first year. Cavaliers should be closed by 12 weeks or be mildly felt.
Tiny's is about the size of your fingertip.
Often the head will appear dome-shaped.
In dogs open fontanelle is often found in conjunction with Hydrocephalus, which is a condition which too much fluid is found within and around the brain.
Our concern with Tiny was as the fluid filled spaces, hydrocephalus and enlarge. The increased pressure damages or prevents the development of the brain tissue.
Not all open fontanelles are connected with hydrocephalus. Some dogs the cranial bones do knit close and the dog will be healthy for the rest of their life. The only way we would know is if we did an ultrasound through the hole and see what was there.
It was decided that Tiny would need an ultrasound with Dr. Jay Randall. This would give us more information as to the extent of issues that he may have. The appointment was sent for his 16th week birthday.
Determining if Tiny had hydrocephalus was a matter of making an appointment with Dr. Jay Randall with his high resolution ultrasound machine. He was able to place the wand head atop Tiny's and was able to see thought his fontanel to detect any accumulation of fluid in his brain.
Unfortunately, it was very evident to all of us that there was a significant amount of fluid in Tiny's head. Dr. Jay made a copy of the scan so we could use it as a baseline and suggested we make an appointment with Dr. Michael Podel who is a Board Certified Canine Neurologist in Chicago.
As Dr Podel explained Hydrocephalus is a congenital anomaly where Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) builds in the cerebral verticals and brain cavity. The CSF pressure tends to increase due to pressure of a blockage. This is normally seen in young puppies. Congenital Hydrocephalus is sporadic and can occur in any breed but is most common in small toy breeds.
Typical characteristics of the puppy is a larger than normal head that is domed shaped. The fontanel (morula or soft spot) on top of the skull is abnormally large and can be easily felt with your finger.
Hydrocephalus can cause a variety of neurological signs including seizures, incoordination, abnormal behavior, a tendency to talk in circles and blindness. These can come and go or worsen over time.
Dr. Podel explained that some dogs live fairly normal lives. Sometimes they have issues with say obedience classes or learning commands. Just meant that we didn't have to save for an expensive college tuition! Funny thing was that Tiny was the first in the litter to be potty trained, first to learn where the door to go outside was and ……………...
Dr. Podel suggest some early medication and gave us a Rx to be compounded for Tiny's age and size. At this time he did not reccomend a Magnetic Resonance Imagine (MRI) scan unless his symptoms worsened. He did make the suggestion that we make special care to keep him from falling, hitting his head and controlled play.
Tiny also has to wear a harness and not a collar so as not to place any pressure or jerks to his neck region that could cause any blockage or trauma to his neck. It was also instructed that he can not have jugular blood draws. This was highly stressed because a hematoma from this could directly impact his life.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos.