Cyclops: The Dog With One Eye And Two Languages ​​

In Greek mythology, the Cyclops were the members of a race of giants with only one eye in the middle of the forehead. Polyphemus has always been the most famous cyclops in history: son of Poseidon and the nymph Toosa, this giant faced Ulysses, one of the legendary heroes of ancient Greece, in the work of Homer’s Odyssey.

Until now, the figure of the cyclops was only part of mythology or, for its part, a serious and congenital malformation in humans, known as cyclopia. In February 2021, a news item stunned all the media: a Cyclops dog with 2 languages ​​was born in the Philippines. Here we tell you the bases of this fascinating and tragic event.

Cyclops: the dog that defies the rules of nature

On February 6, 2021, a cyclople dog was born in the Philippines (Aklan), as indicated by the TimesNoNews digital newspaper . The mother of the animal gave birth to 2 cubs, one of them completely normal and the other with the head mutation already described. As you can imagine, the end of the little cyclops is not very encouraging.

The appearance of the puppy could not be more atypical: with white fur and small size, this dog had a huge eye on its forehead and 2 large protruding tongues on each side of its mouth. As the ocular apparatus took up so much space, the head structure of the canine had neither a muzzle nor a snout.

Unfortunately, this dog had a very hard time breathing from the moment he was born. Because he was unable to fend for himself, the dog’s guardian took him to the vet, hoping that he would recover with the appropriate treatment. As expected, the puppy ended up dying around 10 p.m. the same day, due to breathing difficulties.

Cyclopia in mammals

As surprising as it may seem, the history of this dog is not unique in the animal kingdom. Cyclopia is a major congenital malformation that occurs in many animals, characterized by the presence of a central eye resulting from the fusion of the 2 eyes and allobar holoprosencephaly – failure to develop the cerebral hemispheres.

In different animal taxa, this serious condition is estimated to occur in 1 in 16,000 births. The case of this Cyclops dog has been one of the most talked about, but not the only one. If we look only at humans, cyclopia occurs in 1.05 out of every 100,000 births and causes 1 in 200 miscarriages.

The causes of cyclopia in dogs

Since we are dealing with an exceptionally rare clinical entity, it is very difficult to have enough information to elucidate a clear and uniform cause. In general, it is believed that cyclopia is promoted by genetic failures and the ingestion of toxic agents by the mother during pregnancy.

The veterinarian who treated Cyclops stipulates that the pregnant bitch probably ingested toxic elements before giving birth to the dog in question. Furthermore, she was an elderly-adult female, so her fertile capacity had naturally decreased over time. All of these factors, taken together, could have led to this fascinating event.

A final thought

As surprising as the news is, we must not forget that we are talking about living beings with emotions, feelings and the capacity to suffer. We cannot put ourselves in the mind of the Cyclops dog, but it is easy to imagine the agony that the few hours of life for the animal represented. Of course, more than an anecdote, this fact is bad news.

Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize that you have to be very careful when crossing any animal. If the bitch in question is not at a point of reproductive viability, even though she can become pregnant, it is best not to try. On the other hand, you also have to be very careful with everything that a pregnant dog eats, because only then will these problems be avoided.