Franklin’s story
Franklin is a Pug with personality PLUS!
Franklin is owned by our diploma veterinary nurse Maddie and has been a patient at Marshall and Pringle all of his life. During that time he has dealt with a number of health conditions, but they never dampened his spirit and Maddie has nursed him and supported him throughout his entire journey, along with a little help from her friends …….
Franklin was born with a cleft palate. A cleft palate is a congenital defect not uncommon in Brachycephalic breeds, such as the Pug. It is seen when the two sides of the roof of the mouth fail to fuse, leaving a gap. It can also be seen as abnormal openings in the soft palate or nasal cavities.
Franklin’s cleft palate allowed food to travel from his mouth and up into his nasal passages. Due to its position it had been difficult to diagnose until he was a bit older.
He required a surgical repair at 16 weeks old which was performed by Dr Murray Pringle. He got to enjoy the warmth of the fire at home with Murray that night after his surgery so he could keep a close eye on him. He was fed via a tube in his throat to allow time for the surgical repair to heal, but Franklin had other ideas and removed this early himself so he could eat his chicken again!
He bounced back from this surgery and grew up into a big strapping young Pug!
Franklin went through his surgical castration at 8 months of age and at that time it was discovered he had symptoms of Brachycephalic Obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) – narrow nostrils and an elongated soft palate that caused him to snore and have difficulty getting a good breath of air in. During his surgery his nostrils were surgically widened, and his palate was shortened. Once again Franklin bounced back and continued to get into further mischief throughout his life…. including eating fishhooks when on camping trips!
His latest adventure came when he developed a very smelly discharge from his nostrils and kept sneezing snot on all his family!
He underwent a CT scan of his head so we could get an idea of what was causing the issue, as this is not a very easy area to visualise without advanced imaging techniques. It was discovered that Franklin still had a very small defect in the front of his hard palate which had allowed food and infection to damage his nasal passages.
Dr Helen Milner a specialist surgeon once again came to our rescue and repaired the defect and now Franklin is snot and smell free and living his happy 11-year-old life with all his home comforts and a bit of arthritis.
HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY FRANKLIN!