09/02/2026
And we're back! The Wednesdays got away from us for a minute, but here is this week's work-up Wednesday. We see a lot of Frenchies (French Bulldogs) for behavior consults, with a lot of them having aggression as the primary concern. What is "normal" for Frenchies as a breed is a very abnormal spinal column. The picture on top is a behavior patient, and the picture below is a normal dog. I don't know about you, but looking at the top photo I subconsciously say ouch!
As many of you may know from personal experience, this also makes French Bulldogs much more prone to conditions such as intervertebral disc disease which can lead to serious and permanent neurologic damage. It can also lead to chronic pain as you may be able to imagine. Chronic pain can in turn lead to long term behavioral changes. Studies have shown changes in parts of the brain due to chronic pain, that reverse with addressing the pain.
All that aside, imagine your back looks like this and you're being held still for a nail trim, that probably is uncomfortable right? But we do it, and take "funny" videos of Frenchies screaming while being held still. It breaks my heart a little knowing that they are likely communicating that they are in pain, but we push on. I've seen many of these patients trained by "professionals" who then put prong collars and shock these dogs who are already in pain, causing this aggression to worsen and worsen.
So what did we do with this guy? He got an MRI which showed compression of multiple areas of his spinal cord. He went for a rehab consult and receives frequent pain management treatments. Due to the chronicity of his issues, we did also start him on Reconcile (fluoxetine) to reduce his anxiety around handling which included even being approached by people and other dogs. Behavior modification (force free!) and cooperative care training were also integral. It is important to look at the whole animal for every behavior case, and when we have certain breeds that are predisposed to health conditions, investigate those early.
