French Bulldogs: Important Things to Know

French Bulldogs are a popular breed known for their alert appearance and hilarious personalities. However, they also have some unique health issues that potential owners should be aware of. Frenchies have brachycephalic features, such as short nostrils and a long soft palate, which can cause breathing difficulties. They may also have inflamed laryngeal saccules, extra skin folds, and misshapen vertebrae, leading to potential skin infections and back problems. Additionally, French Bulldogs are prone to allergies, and having pet insurance is recommended. Overall, Frenchies make great pets but require special care and attention.

Takeaways

French Bulldogs are the most popular breed in the USA.
They have brachycephalic features that can cause breathing difficulties.
Frenchies may have extra skin folds and misshapen vertebrae, leading to potential skin infections and back problems.
They are prone to allergies, and having pet insurance is recommended.

Chapters

00:00 The Popularity of French Bulldogs
01:27 Brachycephalic Features and Breathing Difficulties
03:22 Skin Infections and Back Problems
05:46 Allergies and the Importance of Pet Insurance

Transcript

Dr. Ted Burghardt (00:02.114)
Hi, thanks for listening to Ted the Vet podcast. I'm Dr. Ted Burkhart. I'm a veterinarian at Companion Pet Care in Encinitas, California. Today I wanted to talk about French bulldogs. I picked this breed because there's so many interesting things about Frenchies. According to the American Kennel Club, French bulldogs have been the top most popular breed in the USA for the past two years.

They overtook the Lab Retriever and the Golden Retriever. They're obviously from France. They love to be the center of attention. They typically have an alert appearance with their ears up and they tend to be good guard dogs because they're always just ready to go and very alert. I love these little guys. They tend to have hilarious personalities. I love watching their little legs run a million RPMs when they sprint.

chasing balls at the park, chasing other dogs, trying to attack soccer balls. They just have a lot of character. From a veterinarian's perspective, there are also some things that I think are important to know about Frenchies, especially if you are considering getting one. When we look at a Frenchie, one of the first things we might notice is how they breathe really loud and sometimes have a...

you know, kind of raspy, kind of snorky type breathing. And this is for a few different reasons. They are a short face breed, which in veterinary medicine we call, quote, brachycephalic. And what that means for Frenchies specifically is they tend to have very short nostrils, which we call stenotic nares, which is a small opening for air to come in through the nose.

That's one of the reasons they breathe loud. Another reason is they tend to have a very long soft palate. And what happens is that soft palate tissue hangs in the back of the throat and gets in the way and obstructs air from coming in and getting to the lungs. There's a third condition called averted laryngeal saccules, which is kind of like tonsils in dogs. And in Frenchies, when the saccules become

Dr. Ted Burghardt (02:26.466)
inflamed, they can also cause obstruction for the airways. The good news is when we're, these things are able to be repaired and we can surgically repair them. Usually it's done when they're spayed or neutered when they're young and we can open up the nose and correct the stenotic nairs. We can remove part of the soft palate and do what we call a soft palate

elongated soft palate resection and we can also remove the inflamed laryngeal saccules. They also, another thing you might notice about Frenchies is they have a lot of extra skin around their face which makes these deep kind of facial folds you know more severe in some individuals than others but wiping out and cleaning those facial folds can be really helpful.

to prevent dermatitis and bacterial and fungal infections. Another thing that's interesting that you may not know about Frenchies is in their spine, their vertebrae tend to be misshapen. And sometimes instead of the rectangular shaped vertebrae, we'll see triangular shapes or even bow tie shapes. I've seen some Frenchies that are missing a rib on one side.

So that's not uncommon to see those changes. And what that results in is instability in the spine. With how active they are, you know, jumping around on furniture, this instability can actually become a problem and they can develop back issues. And one of the back issues is called introvertebral disc disease or IVDD.

Depending on how severe the back injury is, sometimes the disc can get compressed and the material inside the disc can shoot up into the spinal cord and cause a weakness or even a paralysis in the hind legs. This can be managed with steroids in some instances. Acupuncture can actually be helpful. We do have an acupuncturist at our hospital.

Dr. Ted Burghardt (04:49.458)
And we've seen some cases really improve and sometimes even resolve with just acupuncture. But for more severe IVDD injuries where they're paralyzed in the back legs, sometimes surgery is the best way to correct that and regain nerve function to the back legs. Frenchies also, you might notice, have a very short tail. And it's called a corkscrew tail because

it curls around almost like a slinky and similar to the face this creates dermal folds, skin folds around the tail and wiping out those skin folds to keep them clean can also prevent dermatitis around their tail. So those are some common things that we see with Frenchies. They're great pets. They also tend to be prone to developing allergies.

We have a lot of great options for treating allergies these days, but Frenchies are a common breed that we do see for treating allergies. I did want to make a note if you have a Frenchie or considering getting one, that having pet insurance is a good idea. Pet insurance in veterinary medicine is very different from human medicine. In veterinary medicine,

you actually pay the bill upfront at the hospital and then the pet insurance company will reimburse you later. Not all insurance companies are the same. We work with pretty much any insurance company at my hospital. We're not tied to one company and we are more than willing to help you pick an insurance company based on the feedback we get from our clients.

So those are some of the observations I had about Frenchies. Like I said, we're always happy to be helpful. So please contact us if you have any questions. And thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time.