This ‘retired’ French bulldog – a ‘Frenchie’ to afficionados – stretches and takes a much-deserved 😎 rest on what appears to be a special couch. What an exhausting day it was 😉. Too much excitement.
Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which stops it working here. I have no control over this.
It is a sweet video. There is serious side to this most popular dog breed in the UK and elsewhere. Firstly, during Covid lockdown in the UK this became the most popular dog breed because it’s cute and small and people think that it is a manageable dog breed for newcomers to owning a dog. But often they did not do their research beforehand.
Some Frenchie adopters have abandoned or perhaps the better phrase is “relinquished” their Frenchie to other people online or even relinquished their dog to a shelter because they discovered it was not as easy as they sought to look after a dog and combine that with their work post-social distancing.
But more importantly there is this: health. If you do a Google search for “French Bulldog health” the top search item is a website dedicated to the breed: French Bulldog Owner. Their article lists 31 common health problems plus medical concerns for this dog breed. Yes, 31 is the number.
He or she starts off with the admission that when they first bought their Frenchie, Claude, they didn’t do as much research into this breed’s health issues as they should have done. They became more aware of the health issues after they had bought Claude, which is quite normal. But it is not the best way to do things.
On the upside, they do say that Claude is very healthy (at present) but they admit that Frenchies are notorious for having particular health issues. This not only places an added burden on the caregiver but there is an issue about ethics. Breeders should not be creating animals which are inherently unhealthy which is the case with Frenchies.
The health problem which constantly comes up is breathing problems because they have a foreshortened muzzle due to selective breeding. This alters the anatomy in the muzzle. In addition, they can suffer from diseases such as otitis externa which is an inflammation of the middle ear. This website said that 14% of Frenchies suffer from this disease.
Diarrhoea is very common in this breed particular in puppies and younger dogs under 12 months. Apparently 7.5% suffer from diarrhoea which can be due to a list of problems from parvovirus to hookworms. The short nose also can lead to conjunctivitis in 3.2% of French bulldogs.
And it would not surprise people to learn that they can suffer from skinfold dermatitis. Upper respiratory tract infections are present in 2.7%. I won’t go on because there are 31 diseases to list 😎. Some of them will be more present in this breed than normal while others will be perhaps quite typical diseases affecting other breeds too, including random bred dogs. I think I’ve made the point.
Below are some articles on dog health which may interest you.
