Tinkerbell, a days-old Vietnamese pot belly pig, was the size of a kitten when she arrived at the MSU Veterinary Medical Center with a severe cleft palate. The palate, which is the roof of the mouth, would take months to develop enough tissue to attempt a repair

Kim Laparl, Tinkerbell’s owner, said that she had fallen in love with pot bellied pigs after she had bought a female from Kentucky a couple of years prior. She bought Teddy Boar and Mae Belle intending to breed. March 21, 2014, brought overwhelming joy to Laparl—and to Teddy Boar and Mae Belle— as their litter of six little piglets was born.

One of the pigs, Tinkerbell, was smaller than the others and, when Laparl put little Tinkerbell up to suckle on her mother, she refused.

“We immediately knew that something was wrong,” said Laparl, “We called our veterinarian who told us to bring her in the next day.”

The first thing on March 22, Laparl was at Krause Veterinarian Clinic in Armada, Michigan. Tinkerbell was diagnosed with a severe cleft of both her hard and soft palate. The veterinarian said a specialist was required to repair the cleft palate, and ultimately referred her to MSU, where she was put in touch with Dr. Bryden Stanley, section chief of surgery.

“When I brought her in she was so tiny,” said Laparl, “She was smaller than a kitten. She was like a small rat.”

Tinkerbell’s prognosis was not good. The doctors would have to wait to see if enough tissue grew that they could use it to repair the cleft palate. It would have to be months.

Laparl was sent home with detailed instructions on feeding Tinkerbell with a tube. The team trained her to insert the feeding tube into the stomach while avoiding the lungs. For five months Laparl fed Tinkerbell every few hours—including throughout the night.

Five months later, Dr. Stanley was pleasantly surprised at the amount of tissue that had developed. Still, the cleft palate was so severe that there was a significant risk that corrective surgery could fail.

The surgical team repaired the cleft palate by using tissue flaps to fill in the hard and soft palates in Tinkerbell’s mouth. Pigs who don’t get the cleft palate fixed are extremely likely to develop pneumonia, chronic nasal discharge, and be malnourished.

Dr. Stanley’s surgery was a success. For two weeks, Laparl needed to teach Tinkerbell to eat for the first time, but now, Tinkerbell is able to eat on her own with the little ingenuity from Laparl. Since Tinkerbell isn’t fully able to eat hard food yet, Laparl dissolves the food pellets in jello so the pig can swallow more easily.

Laparl can now reflect on Tinkerbell’s evolution from tiny piglet to six-month-old pig—and the difficult voyage they took together to ensure she stayed alive.

“I took her from mom the moment we knew she had a cleft palate. I knew I would be responsible for feeding. I’ve raised her. She’s my child,” she said.

“The doctors were 100% responsible for saving her life. And for doing that, it saves my life.”