I will state up front…I am a Georgia Bulldog and they wiped the floor with Florida State this weekend and I hope Bama looses big time to Michigan.
But this is not a college football blog.
This is a blog about veterinary medicine.
And when you are a Georgia veterinary grad, you know a thing or two about bulldogs. Truly, all vets do, but only a couple of us can claim these overbred monstrosities as a mascot. Truly, if there was ever a genetic dead end, it is the English Bulldog. They can’t breed or have puppies without human assistance. They can overheat on a 70F day. Most of them are mean, probably because every inch of them hurts and they can barely breathe. The first time I met a bulldog when I was a vet assistant I thought someone had brought a pig into the building, the snorting was THAT loud.
That day, ol’ Doc turned to me and said…“you know what we call a bulldog?” I looked at him blankly, he leaned in and whispered “the Georgia veterinarians’ full employment act”. And he laughed and laughed because he knew the laundry list of diseases a bulldog or any other brachycephalic breed gets:
Stenotic nares (ie their nose is too tight)
Oversized tongue for their mouth
Elongated soft palate (that’s usually where the snorting comes from)
Everted air saccules
Nasal turbinates that that protrude into the back of their throat
An under developed larynx and trachea
Pull all these together and you get a disease with a name Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Disease (BOAS). It’s literally bred into these breeds.
But wait…there’s more…
Massive levels of dental disease. They have teeth that never erupt, teeth that are turned sideways, and teeth that grow into other teeth. Malocclusions that make you wonder how they can even chew
Skin disease that could make you weep with how awful it looks
Back disease like slipped discs
Hiatal hernias
Dry eye, cherry eye and glaucoma and the corneal ulcers that are associated with those diseases.
The above list is a non exhaustive list of the things that can go wrong with you breed dogs to have all the same amount of tissue associated with a dog head, and make that head half as long. The term for this is brachycephalic. The brachycephalic breeds are ones like French bulldog, bulldog, Pug, Pekingese, Shih tzu, Japanese chin, Boxer and Boston terrier. The most distinctive feature of these breeds is their short muzzle, their big eyes and relatively short legs for how long their back is.
A smush faced pup walking into my clinic is a joy, I promise. But when they hurt because of how they are bred, it hurts my heart. When they can’t breathe because their tongue is too big for the back of their throat it upsets me. When I see a small pup and she’s already starting down the road of eye disease because her eyes are popping out of her head, I want to cry. None of these dogs deserve the genetic hand they’ve been delt.
I get it, they are cute. Most of them are pretty hilarious as dogs. I even have one, though in my defense, he’s a rescue, he’s 12 and I’ve had him for 18 months and I am either monitoring or treating him for all the above issues.
I both love and hate bulldogs and smush faced breeds. They can be so personable. As I write this Bruno is curled up at my feet, just happy to be with me. If there is anything funnier than my dog running on his wee legs with his ears a- floppin’, I don’t know what it is. Frenchies are the same way. They are adorable, even in their pig headedness and Opinions About Things.
But try and look in their mouths and all bets are off. Eyes are the same way. And if their back hurts the sounds they can make are something to behold. Thus, if I want to do most diagnostic procedures on a dog, I must sedate.
Because of those above listed airway malformations, sedation is more risky. Thus it is more expensive. EVERYTHING is more expensive in a brachycephalic breed, not just the price you paid for the puppy. Every disease a dog gets, they get worse and it is more expensive to treat.
A dental cleaning that runs a regular dog about $1300 to $1400, will be 30% to 50% more expensive in a brachycephalic because they all have teeth that need to be removed for a healthy mouth and bite structure.
Radiographs for limping will need more views because their bones are usually shorter and twistier and harder to read.
Skin disease will need more skin scrapes and plucks, more impression smears and probably more meds to go home because just so many things can go wrong with their skin.
What do I recommend?
Please get insurance OR save about $2K a year and self insure. Consider Care Credit or something that will help you pay large vet bills over time.
Please teach your pup to allow a mouth exam. Brush their teeth.
Watch their eyes like a hawk and ask your vet to test them every year for their tear production (called a Schirmer Tear Test) and glaucoma (we do it just like they do at your eye doctor). If you think something is wrong, trust yourself and call your vet. At my practice, eyes are always seen (haa haa) day of in our same day sick appointments.
Please get bloodwork every year…4DX test to test for heartworms and 3 kinds of tick borne disease, CBC and Chemistry.
Please feed them a non boutique diet. I feed my dude Purina Pro Plan with…the Frenchie on the cover. Please don’t over feed them!! Everything is harder with a dog the size of an ottoman.
Please say yes when your vet recommends a dental cleaning. You can save so much mouth pain on your fur baby by letting your vet address issues early.
Buy from responsible breeders who know what they are doing. If you need a recommendation, leave a comment, I can probably find you a breeder my veterinarian friends recommend.
Happy New Year. And if you got a pup or kitten over the holidays…PLEASE VACCINATE THEM. I’ve lost 2 animals in December to vaccine preventable illness.
Got questions? Post a comment.
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Thanks Michele, my daughter has a Boston terrier who only has 3 teeth left. A number of problems along the line, but really pretty damned healthy. Small and trim, so not a lot of breathing issues. But as a breed, psycho. I forwarded this to her. xoxo, Dulanie