Vertebral Malformations in French Bulldogs

The aim of this study was to detect vertebral malformations among French Bulldogs admitted between the years 2011 – 2016 due to the high popularity of the breed and the intentions to increase the breed welfare by reducing the occurrence of congenital anomalies. Besides, we aimed to look for gender predisposition, possible vertebral predisposition, occurrence of clinical symptoms and radiographic findings. A total of 73 French Bulldogs met the inclusion criteria (radiographs of the whole spine). In 67.12% (49) dogs we confirmed a vertebral anomaly and 32.88% (24) dogs were free of any vertebral anomaly. We identified a total of 67 abnormal vertebrae in 49 dogs, 13 cervical vertebrae (19.4%), 43 thoracic vertebrae (64.2%), and 11 abnormal lumbar vertebrae (16.4%). In this study, we found 44 hemivertebrae (65.7%) out of 67 abnormal vertebrae. We identified 64.4% (47/73) dogs with clinical signs (30 males, 17 females) and 36.6% (26/73) dogs without clinical signs (19 males, 7 females). Although the incidence of male dogs was higher in this study, the statistical evaluation did not confirm any predisposed gender, and we found no statistically significant predisposition for any particular abnormal vertebra.