Yesterday Hope and I headed out early for our appointment with the surgical specialist in Spokane. Thankfully, the roads were good on the way down, cause on the way home it snowed the whole time. Then there was that horrible wreck we had to wait at for almost an hour.

The vet appointment was quick. I think it took longer for me to find a parking space! The doctor quickly looked at her mouth and reaffirmed that she had a cleft in the soft palate. He wasn’t sure if she had or didn’t have a crack in the back portion of the hard palate. He said he wouldn’t be able to know for sure unless she was under anesthesia and he could look at it more closely. He did say that it didn’t look that big and that the soft palate clefts are a bit easier to fix. And would be on the lower end (most likely) of the estimate scale; $1800!!

The doctors like puppies to be at least three months old, four months is even better before attempting surgery. There is always a risk because of anesthesia and of course having them bigger makes it easier to get in their mouth to do the repair work.

I told him about the people I talked with that had not done surgery on their dogs because they had learned to eat and drink. And of course, like he mentioned, it just depends on the dog. If a dog constantly has fluids coming through the nose, they worry about infection.

So after about a fifteen minute visit (that included the front office check-in), my wallet was $150 lighter and I didn’t have a whole lot more information….Only that the soft palate closure was easier.

So Hope, you have a good month or two to figure out this eating and drinking normal thing. Okay, girl?