Our six year old Bulldog has been on and off with his stomach for nearly a year. Better for a few weeks on a prescription food, then back to square one. The vet has now mentioned inflammatory bowel disease and possibly a biopsy under anesthetic. I am reluctant, partly because of the anesthetic in a Bulldog and partly because I am not sure what a diagnosis actually changes. Would you push for it?
Your second reason is the better question and I am glad you asked it that way round, because the answer to it decides the answer to the first.
What a biopsy changes is quite a lot, in a case that has already been round the loop for a year. Up to that point everyone is treating a description rather than a disease. A chronic bad stomach in this breed can be several different things, some of which look identical from the outside and respond to completely different treatment. Working through them by trial is exactly what you have been doing for a year, and the reason it has not settled may simply be that the trial has not reached the right thing yet.
The honest counter, since you deserve both sides: a biopsy is not a guarantee. It can come back with a picture that still leaves some judgment to be made. What it reliably does is rule things out, including things nobody wants to miss in a dog of his age, and it tends to move treatment from guessing to targeting.
On the anesthetic, your caution is correct and I would never dismiss it in this breed. But the response to that risk is not avoidance, it is making sure the people giving it know what they are dealing with. Ask them directly how they handle brachycephalic patients, who monitors him, and how he is watched while he wakes up. There is a page on this site about exactly what to ask. A practice that answers those well is one I would let anesthetize my own dog.
What I would not do is spend another year cycling through diets while he is intermittently unwell. That has its own cost, to him and to you, and it is easy to underestimate because it is spread out.
IBD or inflammatory bowel disease, in bulldogs and French bulldogs, can affect both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tracts.
Bulldogs gastrointestinal tract is critical for their survival, its lining oversees transporting and absorption of vital nutrients.
IBD Inflammatory Bowel in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs PRESENTATION:
The most common manifestations of IBD in bulldogs are:
- Diarrhea
- Weight loss
- Vomiting
- Bloody stool
- Straining to defecate
- Fluctuant
- Abdominal pain
IBD can cause a range of clinical signs from mild to critical, from intermittent to constant, and from nonprogressive to progressive.
IBD Inflammatory Bowel in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs CAUSE:
Bulldog IBD is due to an abnormal immune response that leads to an exaggerated inflammatory reaction that specifically targets your bulldog’s intestinal tract cellular lining.
Inflammatory bowel disease in bulldogs is a group of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
The severe inflammation that infiltrates the gut cell lining impairs both the absorption and the delivery of critical nutrients. Consequently, your bulldog or French bulldog could suffer from a wide range of symptoms, many of which will likely impact his or her life expectancy and quality of life.
The cause might vary but can include underlying conditions such as:
- PARASITES:
- FOOD ALLERGY: food allergy
- BACTERIA & MICROORGANISMS
- VIRAL
An immune response that ensues is manifested as severe inflammation of your bulldog’s intestinal tract.
Ruled in by ruling out
The first thing to prepare yourself for is that IBD is mostly diagnosed by elimination. Your dog will have tests that come back normal, and it is very natural to feel that money has been wasted on each one. It has not. A normal result is how the diagnosis gets built, and the conditions being excluded along the way are precisely the ones you would not want missed: an obstruction, pancreatic disease, chronic liver disease, and intestinal cancer, which can look almost identical from the outside. The owners who stop halfway through this process are the ones who find out the hard way.
The second thing is the trade-off in the treatment, and I want to be straight about it because it is easy to drift into. The medicines that control IBD work by damping down the immune system, and they do work. Used over years they also carry a bill: effects on the liver, a push toward diabetes, more urinary infections, and ulceration in the gut itself. None of that is a reason to refuse treatment for a dog who needs it. It is a reason to aim for the lowest dose that holds the condition, to have the plan reviewed properly rather than repeated on autopilot, and to ask what the monitoring looks like.
Which brings me to the one place a supplement has a genuine and specific job in this condition. Long courses of antibiotics and immune suppressants damage the useful bacteria living in the gut, and a dog on IBD treatment is often on both for a long time. Supporting that population is not treating the IBD, and I would not want it sold to you as if it were. It is dealing with a predictable side effect of the treatment, which is a smaller claim and a true one.
IBD Inflammatory Bowel in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs DIAGNOSIS:
Diagnosis is often made by exclusion of all the other common gastrointestinal bulldog diseases and can be helped by various tests such as
- BLOOD TESTS: tests that check for markers consistent with bulldog IBD, B12 deficiency, folate abnormalities, protein levels, and pancreatic enzymes
- FECAL TESTS: including a fecal extended PCR fecal test for a parasite like Giardia
- IMAGING: radiographs, ultrasound, and endoscopy
- BIOPSIES: sample of the GI tract taken for histopathology
- FOOD TRIAL: testing for food sensitivities and food allergies
Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD PREVENTION
CRYOBANKING & BULLDOG STEM CELL THERAPY
Stem cells can be collected during routine procedures like spay & neuter and administered in-house or cryo stored for future needs
DR. KRAEMER’S V4B BULLDOG THERAPEUTIC SUPPLEMENTS
- IMMUNE SUPPORT: V4B Bully Immune Support Plus Formula
- PRE/PROBIOTICS & DIGESTIVE EZ: V4B Bully Pre & Prebiotics Advanced Formula.
- NATURAL FIBER: V4B Bully Gentle Move
We offer low cost V4B Bully Customized Therapeutic Bundles
IBD Inflammatory Bowel in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs THERAPY:
FOOD RESPONSIVE: hypoallergenic Rx diets, hydrolyzed or novel protein therapeutic diets.
ANTIBIOTIC RESPONSIVE: such as enrofloxacin and tylosin
STEROID RESPONSIVE: such as pred
OTHER IMMUNE SUPPRESSANTS RESPONSIVE: like budesonide
VITAMINS: B12 injections
STEM CELL THERAPY: In the past decade I have been advocating a new state-of-the-art therapy called Stem Cell Therapy.
Dr. Kraemer has his own in-house patented stem cell lab that allows us to harvest, process, and treat our patients onsite shortly after extraction. To enhance their potency they are mixed with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and then light-activated.
In addition, we cryobank your bulldog’s stem cells for additional treatments
To find more about regenerative medicine and its therapeutic potential as applied to inflammatory bowel disease click “Piper, the miracle of Stem Cell Therapy”
Let me set the expectation properly. Inflammatory bowel disease is managed with a prescription diet and prescription medicine, decided and monitored by your veterinarian. Nothing on our shelves treats it, and I would be suspicious of anyone telling you otherwise about a condition this serious. If your dog is losing weight or passing blood, that is an appointment rather than an order.
What these are for is the ground around the treatment. Long courses of antibiotics and steroids knock back the useful bacteria in the gut, so pre and probiotic support may help maintain that population through a treatment that is working against it. Added fiber may help the stool itself hold together while the diet is being adjusted. These are supplements rather than medicine, they work over a good few weeks rather than days, and because your dog is on prescription treatment they should be reviewed with your veterinarian first so they fit the plan rather than complicate it. The KEEP-UP chews are the simplest ongoing option and the Ultimate bundle is the fuller routine for a dog in long term management.
See the gastrointestinal range
To be clear: supplements or topicals are not substitutes for prescribed treatment. If your dog is unwell, is being treated for a condition, or is already on medication, review any supplement or topical with your veterinarian so it fits the plan you are already following. This page is educational and is not a diagnosis or a treatment plan for your own dog.
IBD in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs TIPS & WARNINGS
DR. KRAEMER’S BULLDOG IBD TIPS
Tip #1 Bulldog IBD / IMMUNE MEDIATED
In some cases of IBD, the cause may be obvious however, the majority of cases of inflammatory bowel disease remain unknown (idiopathic) and are considered “immune-mediated”.
Tip #2 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / BIOPSY:
Histopathology is accepted as a gold standard for diagnosing IBD, however, histopathology is not without limitations. There is a large degree of variability in the number of inflammatory cells seen in biopsy specimens of normal dogs, and objective criteria for a diagnosis of IBD have not been agreed upon.
Tip #3 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / FOOD TRIALS:
Several trials with hypoallergenic diets and/or antibiotics may be needed before improvement is shown.
DR. KRAEMER’S BULLDOG IBD WARNINGS:
Warning #1 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / PROTEIN LOSS (PLE):
Severe forms of bulldog IBD may cause persistent vomiting, protein-losing enteropathy (PLE), marked weight loss, and chronic diarrhea.
Warning #2 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / RULE OUT:
Other gastrointestinal diseases in bulldogs and other pets can be clinically similar to IBD.
- GI foreign body/obstruction
- Intestinal cancer
- Pancreatic disease (chronic pancreatitis, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency)
- Chronic liver disease
- Bulldog intestinal lymphoma
Warning#3 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / BIOPSY:
There is a wide variation in the histopathology and cellular pathology interpretation of intestinal biopsies, thus, diagnosis is ultimately based on the integration of clinical and histopathologic findings, the exclusion of other causes for observed clinical signs, and the response to therapy.
Warning #4 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / STEROIDS WARNING:
Any bulldog or pet receiving long-term immunosuppressant drugs like pred should be aware of the potentially harmful long-term adverse effects.
Among the common health risks related to many autoimmune suppressant drugs are:
- GI ulceration
- GI perforation
- Liver damage (steroid hepatopathy)
- Diabetes
- Urinary tract infection (cystitis)
Warning # 5 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / PRE & PROBIOTICS
long-term use of immunosuppressant drugs like pred and antibiotics for bulldog IBD can damage, and kill the good bacteria in your bulldog’s bowels, and bring on bulldog dysbiosis.
I recommend that you add probiotics like Dr. Kraemer’s V4B Pre & Probiotics Advanced Formula with live bacteria for all IBD pets on long-term drug treatments.
Warning #6 Bulldog & French Bulldog IBD / LIVER
Long-term use of immunosuppressant drugs like pred for IBD can damage your French bulldog’s liver (steroid hepatopathy). I recommend you supplement with a liver detoxifier like Dr. Kraemer’s V4B Bully Liver Cleanser to minimize the steroid damage to your bulldog’s liver.
Why so many tests, and why do they keep coming back normal?
Does he really need a biopsy?
How long before a food trial tells us anything?
Could I try a raw or grain free diet instead?
Will he be on steroids for the rest of his life?
Will a probiotic treat the IBD?
He eats everything put in front of him and is still losing weight.
More Help from Dr. Kraemer
A chronic bad stomach is a family of problems rather than one, so these are the pages that cover the rest of it.
- Colitis in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Vomiting and diarrhea, gastroenteritis in Bulldogs
- Giardia infection in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Intestinal worms and parasites in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Anesthesia and sedation in Bulldogs, risks and safety
- Prevention and wellness guide for the adult Bulldog
If you have a question about your own dog, the Exam Room Q and A is where owners send them.
References
- Chronic Enteropathies in Small Animals, Merck Veterinary Manual
- Disorders of the Stomach and Intestines in Dogs, Merck Veterinary Manual
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