Kaido

Kaido is a backyard bred Akita pup that was advertised on a trading post, along with his other 3 litter mates. Kaido was the smallest of his litter - 1.9 kg at 9 weeks old.Yes, you read his weight right, at 9 weeks this Akita pup was only 1.9 kg where he should've been around 8-10 kgs.

A South Australia family that purchased Kaido drove to Melbourne to pick him up and took him back to SA. The family immediately noticed that something was not right with Kaido. He was sneezing, he was vomiting his food, and some of it was coming from his nose. He was taken to the local vet and only at that time diagnosed with a missing palate. In another words, Kaido has a hole in his mouth and there is no barrier between his mouth and his nasal canal and respiratory system. Unfortunately, the puppy vet checks he received didn’t identify his unique medical issue. He was subsequently returned by this family to the breeder.

With Kaido now in Melbourne and with health issues the breeder got in touch with us for help. The recommendation made was that he be euthanised due to his congenital defect. At that stage we didn’t know what we were getting into, but we agreed to take him in for a consult at our vets. The diagnosis was confirmed that he had no soft palate caused by a congenital malformation.

The prospects for Kaido were not great, and surgery there was not an option as there was no tissue to be operated on to close the hole in his palate. Kaido was likely going to have ongoing complications from his eating issues and he would be susceptible to constant infections.

We didn’t know what to do at that stage and we knew that the and emotional cost for anyone looking after this little boy would be really high. But that didn't discourage us, and we took in Kaido after the consult into our foster care program. Kaido landed at the home of amazing foster mum Donna, one of the most dedicated human beings that we've ever come across in our rescue journey.

Fast forward 6 weeks, and Kaido had flourished in our care after having a carefully monitored feeding regime, and his foster mum managed to get his weight to 8 kgs. In those 6 weeks, our rescue didn't accept his prognosis, and two wonderful members of our team started to do research on his condition and we started to make inquiries with vets in Australia and also overseas for a long term solution to Kaido's lack of soft palate. All inquiries into his condition found it to be extremely rare, with only 14 cases documented world wild since 1972.

We were recommended to take him to see Dr Charles Kuntz at Southpaws Specialty Surgery for Animals in Melbourne. During the consult, Dr. Kuntz discussed with us the option of creating a soft palate for Kaido by using tissue from his hard palate, by reversing the hard palate back on itself and then attached to additional flaps from the sides of his mouth to seal the hole. This groundbreaking procedure has only been recorded once before, and Dr Kuntz was confident that it could give Kaido the best opportunity to have a normal life. Immediately after the consult, our little boy went into surgery.

Kaido's surgery was successful and after just 2 days he was discharged back to his foster mum.

For the first two weeks, little Kaido was fed via a feeding tube that is connected to his stomach. The other only recorded case in world of this type returned to oral feeding in 24 hours, but Dr Kuntz recommended a careful approach to give the surgical site the best chance to heal properly before he can eat again. Kaido received regular slow slurry feeds during the day which was a very slow process, taking 30 minutes to fed him a meal. He was such a little trooper, so very patient and tolerant and mum Donna couldn't have asked for a better patient!