A two-year-old losing the use of his legs by day five — yeah, that’s where we’re starting, because Frenchie health is not a side note. Welcome to French Bulldog Weekly — and today it’s IVDD, a pup who can’t keep food down, a rescue case with no roadmap, and somehow we still end on good news. Real-life stuff Frenchie owners are dealing with right now, plus a Cashew update that actually lands. Stay with us. Here's r/Frenchbulldogs (607 pts, 116 comments):
The ER told me he is deep pain negative, and that recovery without surgery is unlikely. Surgery isn’t something I can afford right now, but if i gotta do care credit or whatever i will but it seems like he’s just getting worse smh.. so I’ve been doing everything I can at home.
This one hurts. Knox is a two-year-old Frenchie, five days into an IVDD slide, and by day five he can’t support his own weight — now the front legs are twitching and weak too, not just the back. That’s a neurological emergency, and a week and a half wait for neurology is not okay at that point. The timeline this owner posted is exactly what you need when you walk into an ER and say, ‘this is not a wait-and-see situation.’ Day one to day five, full-body collapse, urinary retention, a UTI already starting — Knox needed an MRI yesterday, not next Tuesday. What changes things here is the front-leg involvement. Once you’re talking cervical or ascending cord issues, that’s a different lane than lumbar IVDD. Somebody needs to tell this owner to call every emergency neurology center within a hundred miles and say ‘deteriorating’ every single time. Over on r/Frenchbulldogs (11 upvotes):
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 . . .
And then there’s the reply that just says they lost their dog to IVDD and miss him every day. That’s the whole weight of this breed in one comment. We do the cute clips, sure, but this is the other side of it — and Frenchie owners deserve to hear it plainly. Here's 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.
Tommy is a two-year-old Frenchie who came out of a genuinely awful neglect situation — spine showing, nails curled into his paw pads, fed pasta scraps in a basement. His new family is doing everything the vet said, and three weeks in he still can’t keep more than a few tablespoons down. The Reddit thread blew up because the community actually showed up with real ideas, not just ‘prayers for Tommy.’ Which, same — but also, let’s talk about what might actually be going on here. Here's one from r/Frenchbulldogs (57 upvotes):
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 megaesophagus, because the fix for that is feeding him upright and keeping him vertical for 20-30 minutes after. The refeeding guide for malnourished rescue dogs covers the calorie math side of this really well too.
The top comment is pointing to megaesophagus, and that’s worth taking seriously. Prolonged malnutrition can absolutely affect esophageal function, and the pattern here — getting triggered at tiny volumes — fits. The fix isn’t just more food; it’s upright feeding and keeping him vertical for twenty to thirty minutes after every meal. That’s a vet conversation, not a Reddit-and-hope situation. If Tommy has megaesophagus and nobody’s caught it yet, that slow feeder bowl is basically cosmetic. r/Frenchbulldogs (11 upvotes), weighing in:
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 does well on - Stella and chewy freeze dried lamb patties. Boiled veggies mashed up with some veggie water and rehydrated patties. Got him fixed up immediately. There was still some regurgitation when he ate too much at a…
Somebody in the thread switched their Frenchie to freeze-dried lamb and boiled veggies and said it turned things around fast. I’m not saying Tommy needs influencer-tier raw feeding, but if he’s allergic on top of everything else, he could be starving and reactive at the same time. That’s a brutal combo. r/Frenchbulldogs (26 upvotes), weighing in:
Chicken seems an odd choice given how many frenchies are allergic to it.
Twenty-six upvotes on ‘chicken seems an odd choice given how many Frenchies are allergic to it’ — and honestly, fair. Chicken is one of the most common Frenchie allergens, and it was the first protein his vet reached for. This one's from Reddit:
His whole life he’s been a very easy frenchie thankfully but now ever since the one flare up of the sores its been months of on and off vet visits for different tests, labs, blood tests, steroid shots, LOTS of apoquel + 4% chlorahexadine (shampoo and foam), and antibiotics.
Mr. Franky is nine, which is already a solid run for a Frenchie, and his owner is doing the right things — vet visits, labs, chlorhexidine, the works. But months of antibiotics, repeated flare-ups, and now full patchy baldness where the sores were? That’s not a ‘wait and see’ allergy picture anymore. The cost spiral here is real, and nobody’s saying it out loud — steroid shots, Apoquel ongoing, repeated labs, multiple vet visits, and still no answer. That’s hundreds of dollars and climbing, and the dog is still losing fur. I feel this post in my bones. The missing piece in almost every reply — and the owner needs to hear this — is a veterinary dermatologist. A general practice vet doing repeat antibiotic cycles without a definitive allergen workup is just treading water. Over on r/Frenchbulldogs (13 upvotes):
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 derm (no derms now). So I ordered an online test. I will DM you if you want the name don’t know the subs rules. IT DID NOT FIX HIM. But the difference was mind blowing. It was about reducing the allergens. Knowing what…
Six-month derm wait in Ohio and going rogue with an online allergy test — I get the desperation, I really do. And the ‘it didn’t fix him BUT’ framing is actually honest in a way most posts aren’t: knowing the allergen load matters even if it isn’t a cure. Online tests are not validated diagnostics — I’ll say that clearly — but the point about reducing total allergen burden is real veterinary thinking. It just isn’t a substitute for intradermal skin testing with an actual dermatologist. Over on r/Frenchbulldogs (97 upvotes):
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 dermatologist next month but I totally understand the stress
Ninety-seven upvotes and it’s just ‘go to a derm’ — the community has spoken, and they’re right. Allergy shots are underused and under-discussed in Frenchie circles because people think they’re only for humans. Here's one from r/Frenchbulldogs (7 upvotes):
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 prednisone for a shorter period of time might knock it out. I’ve been seeing this. Our area is having a major problem with coyotes in the area with severe mange, can your vet test for that since it’s in the environment and…
The Calcinosis Cutis mention is worth flagging — that’s a real condition, often tied to prolonged steroid use, and it can look almost exactly like this: hard scabbing followed by hair loss. If Mr. Franky’s been on repeated prednisone cycles, that conversation needs to happen with a vet, explicitly. Also — mange from coyotes in the environment? That’s wild to read, but apparently not nothing. The point is, a general vet running the same allergy playbook on loop is not the same as a specialist ruling things out systematically. Here's r/Frenchbulldogs (161 pts, 4 comments):
During the visit at the internal medicine specialist and when they did their own imaging they had discovered his spleen had actually started to twist and cashew was now in a state of early splenic torsion. So we did, and in turn got it sent off to the lab for research and outside of dead cells appearance due to the torsion, looked promising and cashew was sent out with a laundry list of medicines.
Cashew is okay — no cancer, splenectomy went clean, three weeks post-op, and already back to chaos mode. That is a genuinely good outcome after what sounds like a brutal diagnostic stretch. Every three days for blood counts. I’ve been there — that’s not a vet schedule, that’s a part-time job with a side of existential dread. The fact that the internal medicine specialist caught the splenic torsion in real time, did a three-way call with the regular vet, and got him into surgery the next day? That’s a care team firing on all cylinders. The vet with twenty-plus years saying very few dogs are as strong — I want that sentence finished, but the implication is clear enough. Cashew earned it. From r/Frenchbulldogs (160 upvotes):
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 back completely healthy outside of his problematic spleen. During the visit at the internal medicine…
The community showing up with DMs and check-ins through a months-long diagnostic nightmare — that’s the part that doesn’t get enough credit. This is what Frenchie Reddit looks like at its best. Good boy, Cashew. Go be a Tasmanian devil. You’ve earned it. From r/Frenchbulldogs (471 pts, 28 comments):
Similarities - they are both Velcro dogs who think they are “big” dogs. Big personalities (albeit, the frenchie is more demanding … almost neurotic about balls/ wrestling / play). Obviously they are similar in size with the frenchie being more robust (we call Pickles our muscle girl).
Pickles is making the rounds on r/Frenchbulldogs this week — first-time Frenchie owner coming from a lifetime of pugs, and honestly, the comparison thread is genuinely useful breed literacy, not just a cute photo drop. The ‘she would play for five hours straight’ thing — that’s not a quirk, that’s a Frenchie. My dog would dislocate his own spine chasing a tennis ball if I let him, and he’d die happy about it. Worth noting the OP flags overheating under the similarities — both breeds, same structural risk. That’s the one place where Pickles’ stamina actually worries me a little. Muscle girl who won’t quit plus a brachycephalic airway is a combo that needs a responsible human on the other end of that leash. From r/Frenchbulldogs (7 upvotes):
She looks like my Xena girl! She is our first frenchie. Personality like I have never seen! But adore her ♥️
Xena! First Frenchie energy is so recognizable — it’s always, ‘I have never seen a personality like this,’ because nothing prepares you for it. Love the community moment, but I do hope Xena’s owner is also reading the BOAS threads, not just the appreciation posts. We’d love to hear from you. Send feedback, story ideas, or corrections to frenchbulldogweekly at lantern podcasts dot com. Your notes help us make the show more useful for every Frenchie fan listening.
We’ve put links to everything we covered today in the show notes, so if a story piqued your interest, you can head there and read a little deeper.
That’s French Bulldog Weekly for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.