[MENTION=1922]cadillactaste[/MENTION] -- thanks for the snow cone idea! He probably would love that as he loves ice cubes! Yes, the snorting, coughing, etc is because of his cleft palate. His palate was opened from the front of his mouth to the back of his throat. After the surgery, part of it has stayed closed, but a 1.5 inch hole remains. It isn't that they didn't do the surgery properly. The problem is that it is a very difficult thing to fix and often takes 3 or 4 surgeries to fully correct. But each surgery has a smaller chance of being a success! We were told before we even agreed to the first one that there was no guarantee that it would be successful. Basically, they have to accurately "guess" how much skin to pull over the hole; how much tension to put on it; etc. and then Busters has to do his part by not damaging it while it is healing. That's the hard part. He wasn't able to chew ANYTHING -- even soft toys. We had to take his blanket, pillow, toys, etc away and leave him in a cage with absolutely nothing for 3 months. He's a real chewer. There was no way to stop him from touching it with his tongue though! If we chose to do it again, the recovery would be just as long and difficult; and again, no guarantee of it working. Actually -- the only guarantee is that it will be a more difficult situation because there will already be scar tissue in the way from last time!
