Frenchie Health Week: IVDD, Allergies, Rescue Feeding—and Relief
Saturday, May 9, 2026 · 14 min
This week’s Frenchie community is dealing with the hard stuff: fast-moving IVDD, rescue refeeding that won’t stick, chronic allergy flares, and one much-needed happy update after a scary splenectomy.
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This week’s Frenchie community is dealing with the hard stuff: fast-moving IVDD, rescue refeeding that won’t stick, chronic allergy flares, and one much-needed happy update after a scary splenectomy.
In this episode
- 2 y/o Frenchie with IVDD declining fast (day 5)… front legs now weak too, I’m scared — r/Frenchbulldogs (607 pts, 116 comments)
Hi everyone, I really need advice or to hear from anyone who’s been through something similar. I have a 2-year-old French Bulldog (Knox), and this has all happened so fast I can barely process it. About 5 days ago This past monday/tuesday he started showing signs of pain and was diagnosed with IVDD after multiple ER visits. At first, it affected his back legs, but now it feels like things are…
“I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. The first time it happened to our Frenchie, Ace, it happened fast, but we had a nearby emergency hospital that has a neurologist. A scan showed it was hemorrhaging and they did surgery the very same day. Can you express to the staff that you…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (15 upvotes)
Our take: We agree with the urgency here: a Frenchie losing rear function and then front-leg strength is exactly when the polite wait-list voice has to become the please-triage-us-now voice. Ace’s story is a reminder that IVDD can be a surgical clock, not just a comfort-care problem.
“Mine had what we could only think was a Ivdd issue a few months ago. We had to keep him in his crate for about 6 weeks. He was shaking and unable to walk or lift his head when he was in pain. A cocktail of gabapentin and all sorts of pain pills were used. He eventually got…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (92 upvotes)
Our take: This is the hope every Frenchie owner wants to hear, and crate rest plus pain control really can be part of recovery in some cases. But Knox’s deep-pain-negative status and spreading weakness make this a more alarming lane than a standard six-week rest story.
“We lost our baby to IVDD . I miss him.everyday . . He was just in so much pain no matter what we did . . . I couldn't stand to watch it . . . I miss him everyday ... if you can save your bundle of joy do it . . .” — r/Frenchbulldogs (11 upvotes)
Our take: This is devastating, but it belongs in the conversation. IVDD is not just a mobility issue; when pain can’t be controlled and surgery is out of reach or too late, love sometimes means facing the hardest options honestly.
- I need help with Tommy, how do I get him to keep his food down and gain weight? — r/Frenchbulldogs (291 pts, 98 comments)
This is long so TLDR Tommy is a 2 yo malnourished and neglected French bulldog. I'm trying to get him healthy again but he scarfs down his food (even with a slow feeder bowl), regurgitates a lot of what he eats, can't tolerate more than 3tbsp of food (chicken and rice mixed with melted kibble paste) at a time. Doing what the vet advised has helped but it's been 3 weeks and he's not gaining…
“Tommy's regurgitation pattern at 2 years old, combined with the fact that even 4 tablespoons triggers a full episode, sounds less like simple greed and more like his esophagus has some dysfunction from prolonged malnutrition. Worth asking the vet specifically about…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (57 upvotes)
Our take: This is a very sharp catch because regurgitation is not the same as vomiting, and the distinction matters. Asking about megaesophagus and upright feeding is exactly the kind of specific, vet-directed question that could change Tommy’s day-to-day care.
“Okay so our frenchie was vomiting all the time when we got him. Turns out allergic to most common protein and not good with grains. If the poor thing has just been eating chicken and grains he would be throwing up all the time and still hungry and gobbling food. Food that ours…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (11 upvotes)
Our take: The allergy angle is plausible for Frenchies, especially with chicken and grains in the mix, but Tommy is also malnourished enough that diet experiments need a vet’s hand on the wheel. We like the protein-pivot idea; we’d just treat refeeding as a medical project, not a pantry remix.
“Chicken seems an odd choice given how many frenchies are allergic to it.” — r/Frenchbulldogs (26 upvotes)
Our take: Blunt, but not wrong: chicken is a frequent suspect in Frenchie allergy stories. It is not automatically the villain, though, so the better move is asking the vet whether a structured elimination or hydrolyzed diet makes sense.
- No clue what to do anymore ! — Reddit
Hi! I have an almost 9 year old french babe named Mr. Franky and up until recently we’ve never had any problems with him, or his skin just some yeasty paws due to allergies (he has a chicken allergy confirmed and the vet thinks seasonal allergies to weather now) and recently he had some scab like sores that showed up and he kept itching \*pic attatched TW gross af\* but whatever the vet said it…
“I had to come back to this post, because I went against my vets advice … sort of. My guy is allergic to almost everything, her go to was the same lip service, it’s seasonal, cytopoint, Apoquel some prednisone to get through. It wasn’t enough for me, I’m in Ohio, 6 month wait for…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (13 upvotes)
Our take: We appreciate the honesty in this: the test did not magically fix the dog, but reducing exposure gave the owner a usable map. Still, at-home allergy tests can be messy, so we’d treat that as clue-gathering while pushing for a dermatologist when one is available.
“Def go to a dermatologist to get him tested. Yes it’s allergies, but you need to narrow it down to what allergy. You can also start allergy shots with the dermatologist as well. We are also going through this with our English bulldog, she is on zenrelia until we can see the…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (97 upvotes)
Our take: This is the cleanest advice in the thread. When a Frenchie is cycling through Apoquel, antibiotics, shampoos, and still losing hair, a veterinary dermatologist is not a luxury appointment; it is how you stop guessing.
“I’m so sorry!! My frenchie boy got Calcinosis Cutis (overproduction of calcium coming through his pores) he had hard oozing scabs that fell off and caused almost complete baldness. High doses of oral prednisone helped but caused other issues. Talk to vet, but doing high dose…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (7 upvotes)
Our take: The differential-diagnosis instinct is useful here: calcinosis cutis, mange, endocrine issues, and secondary infection are all things worth explicitly asking about. We would not crowdsource a prednisone strategy, though, because steroids can be both the fire extinguisher and the gasoline.
- Update on Cashew! Good News! — r/Frenchbulldogs (161 pts, 4 comments)
Hi everyone, first want to thank all the dms, comments and well wishes for me, the Mrs. And most importantly cashew but I come bearing good news. So after long back and forth, rbc blood counts checks at one point every 3 days, ultra sounds and few biopsies and a trip to an internal medicine specialist, for one, our little guy does NOT have cancer. All biopsies and appearances internally came…
“Hi everyone, first want to thank all the dms, comments and well wishes for me, the Mrs. And most importantly cashew but I come bearing good news. So after long back and forth, rbc blood counts checks at one point every 3 days, ultra sounds and few biopsies and a trip to an…” — r/Frenchbulldogs (160 upvotes)
Our take: Cashew the buff potato gets a standing ovation from this desk. The big takeaway, beyond the joy, is that specialist imaging and persistent follow-up turned a terrifying cancer worry into a treatable torsion story.
- Pickles appreciation post(and pug comparison) — r/Frenchbulldogs (471 pts, 28 comments)
This is pickles, my first ever French bulldog. I had pugs my entire life and while there are some similarities, there are MANY differences. Anyone else here that have had both? What do you find are the biggest differences and similarities between the breeds? I absolutely adored my two female pugs (one fawn, and one black) … they were my girls. We got this babe (pickles) at 16 weeks and this it my…
“She looks like my Xena girl! She is our first frenchie. Personality like I have never seen! But adore her ♥️” — r/Frenchbulldogs (7 upvotes)
Our take: That first-Frenchie shock is real: they arrive shaped like a doorstop and then somehow have the emotional range of a theater kid and the sprint settings of a terrier. Adore the personality, but channel that prey drive before the cats file a workplace complaint.