Bulldog question

[Denaluvscorgis]

As most of you know, my daughter Jaime has an 8 month old English Bulldog. He has cherry eye at the moment, and the vet has advised that he needs surgery to correct the problem. The vet also wants to do a procedure to open up his nasel passages at the same time. Does this sound right to you, or is the vet trying to make money???

 

[showpug]

Cherry eye of course needs surgery. The airway is up for question. Does the bulldog have a hard time breathing? Is he a heavy breather while at rest? Does he pant a lot?

I have pugs and an English Bulldog and everytime I take a pug to the vet I get the speech on surgery to open up the airway. My pugs don't suffer from breathing problems at all. In fact, I rarely see them pant. If they had trouble breathing then I would consider the procedure, but most of the time I think vets want to make money and don't understand much about the brachcephalic breeds...

 

[ashlyne]

I found this article helpful in researching breathing problems with short-nosed animals:
http://www.pugcentral.com/brachsyndrome.html
It lists some signs to look for if your dog has stenotic nostrils or other breathing problems.

But when in doubt, it is always best to get a 2nd opinion from another vet, particularly one that is experienced in handling bulldogs. If your vet hasn't handled many bulldogs, their tendency to get short-winded easily may look more serious than what it really is.

 

[Denaluvscorgis]

Thanks Ashlyne...that article was very helpful!!