A Bulldog who brings his breakfast back up now and then, clears a room on a regular basis, or produces a stool you would rather not discuss gets filed by most owners under a delicate constitution, and then gets managed with a succession of food changes. Sometimes that really is the whole story. More often the dog has something specific, it has a name, and it answers to something other than another bag of food.
The reason a page like this exists is that the conditions underneath all look alike from the outside. Loose stool, wind, bad breath and the occasional vomit are the shared vocabulary of a food allergy, a parasite, an inflamed bowel, a mouthful of diseased gums, and an esophagus that is not moving food along as it should. They are not told apart by watching. They are told apart with a stool sample, a proper look in the mouth, and sometimes imaging.
What follows is the short version of each one with a route through to the full article. If you read only far enough to work out which page you actually need, this has done its job.
Digestion and indigestion in bulldogs and French Bulldog puppies aren’t uncommon, and many owners can attest to this.
You are not chasing your tail. You are chasing the wrong end of the dog.
Four food changes in a year tells me something real, which is that the food was probably never the whole story. Every time you switch, you get a week or two of apparent improvement while his gut adjusts, then you are back where you started and you conclude that food was wrong too. That pattern is so common I can almost set my watch by it.
The detail I would not let go of is the one you mentioned almost in passing. He needed a dental. A mouth that is sore changes how a dog eats, and a dog who bolts his food because chewing is uncomfortable swallows air with it and sends down lumps rather than something his stomach can work with. Wind, loose stool and the occasional bring-back are exactly what that looks like from the other end.
So before food number five, I would get the dental done properly and then leave his diet alone for a good few weeks and watch what happens. If it settles, you have your answer and you have saved yourself a cupboard full of half used bags. If it does not, you have removed a variable and your veterinarian is now looking at a much cleaner picture.
A probiotic and enzyme support may help while his gut settles, and our dental products are used alongside what your veterinarian advises rather than instead of it. The decision about his mouth belongs to the vet who can see inside it.
Digestion and Dental Problems in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs Names
- “Bully stink bomb” (flatulence)
- Bad breath, loose stool
- “Nervous stomach”
- Sporadic vomiting of either water, food, or both, which can sometimes be confused with regurgitation (food material that never reaches the stomach).
Many bulldog owners will try to relieve digestion and dental problems in bulldogs and French bulldogs with a “grain-free,” raw, or homemade diet, some of you might find them helpful. If your new dietary try did not pan out and your bully GI problems persist, please talk to your veterinarian.
Vomiting and regurgitation are not the same thing
There is one distinction I would rather an owner brought me than any other on this subject, because it changes where I look first, and hardly anybody arrives with it. Vomiting and regurgitation are different events. Vomiting has effort behind it: there is heaving, the abdomen works, and what comes up has been sitting in the stomach, so it is partly digested and often carries bile. Regurgitation has no effort at all. Food simply reappears, undigested, sometimes still in a tube shape, often soon after eating and often while he is lying down. If what you are seeing is the second kind, the stomach is probably not your problem and the esophagus is, and megaesophagus moves to the top of the list. Watch him next time and note which one it was. It is the most useful thing you can hand your veterinarian.
The second thing I would check is the one owners almost never connect. Bad breath gets treated as a digestion symptom, and in this breed it very often is not one. It is a dental problem, and a Bulldog’s crowded, rotated, undershot jaw makes periodontal disease close to inevitable without help. A mouth carrying that much infection also means a dog swallowing infected material all day long, which does the gut no favors at all. So when the complaint is breath, I look in the mouth before I look at the bag of food.
Third, and this one disappoints people: food allergy is the most popular explanation and it is not the most likely one. Infection, parasites and plain dietary indiscretion accounted for far more of what came through my door. Food allergy climbs the list sharply when the skin is involved as well, and an itchy Bulldog with a loose stool is a different conversation from a comfortable skinned Bulldog with a loose stool. Either way it is settled with a proper elimination trial run by your veterinarian, not with a change of brand.
Fourth: get the stool sample done before you redesign his diet. It is cheap, it is quick, and it rules a whole group of causes in or out, none of which any diet will fix. Giardia in particular is common in this breed’s age group, presents as exactly this picture, and keeps returning if it is not dealt with properly.
On the diet changes themselves I am not against them, but the order matters. Changing food every few weeks while the real cause goes uninvestigated does two separate kinds of damage: it delays the answer, and it muddles the evidence, because by the time somebody takes it seriously nobody can remember what he actually reacted to. If you are going to change the food, change it once, deliberately, with your veterinarian, and then leave it alone long enough for the result to mean something, which is a good few weeks rather than days.
And the grain free question comes up in every one of these conversations, so it earns a line here. Grain is not the villain it has been made into, grain feeds the bacteria you want him to have, and some grain free diets have been linked to a serious heart condition. There is a full page on it below and it is worth your time before you commit to one.
Food Allergy in Bulldogs:
Food allergies in bulldogs are not as common as you might think. In most cases, gastrointestinal problems are more likely due to other causes, i.e. bacteria, viruses, and parasites. If your bulldog also has a skin allergy along with their digestive problems, then a food allergy is a higher possibility….Read More
Gingivitis & Gum Disease in Bulldogs:
One of the most common and potentially medically harmful conditions seen in veterinarians’ offices is periodontal disease, because the initial infection, known as gingivitis, can spread very quickly….Read More
Dental and Periodontal Disease in Bulldogs:
Periodontal and dental disease in bulldogs is usually caused by bacteria. Initially, pellicle forms on the clean tooth, also often clumps of hair from excessive licking. Endotoxins released by the anaerobic bacteria can cause tissue destruction and bone loss which leads to your bulldog teeth loos…..Read More
Grain-Free Diets for Bulldogs & French Bulldogs:
In contrast to what many of you believe, there are many nutritional benefits to grain. Grains stimulate the growth of beneficial, “good” gastrointestinal bacteria (i.e., probiotics). It’s important to know that many of those grains also provide your body with essential vitamins & minerals….Read More
Giardiasis, Giardia Infection in Bulldogs:
Giardia is an infection caused by a microscopic protozoan organism that usually infects the intestines of both pets and humans. Giardia in bulldog puppies can inflict varying degrees of digestive problems, especially diarrhea…..Read More
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in Bulldogs
Inflammatory bowel disease in bulldogs is better known as bulldog IBD. IBD in bulldogs can affect both the upper (stomach and small intestine) and lower (colon, large intestine) tracts. The most common manifestations of IBD in bulldogs and other dogs and cats are diarrhea and weight loss….Read More
The mouth and the gut are one tube
Owners treat the mouth and the gut as two different departments. The dentist deals with one and the stomach specialist deals with the other, and never the two shall meet.
They are not two departments. They are one tube, and it starts at the lips.
The Merck Veterinary Manual files dentistry under the digestive system, and that is not a filing accident. A mouth with inflamed, infected gums is swallowing bacteria and inflammatory debris with every swallow, all day, every day. A dog who is sore when he chews stops chewing, bolts his food, and swallows air along with pieces that his stomach then has to deal with whole. Neither of those is a stomach problem, but both of them arrive at the stomach.
It is like having the fuel pump serviced over and over while the fuel going in is full of grit. The pump is not the fault. It is just where the trouble shows up.
This is why these two subjects share a page rather than sitting in separate corners of the site. If your Bulldog has a long running digestive grumble and nobody has looked properly inside his mouth, that is the cheapest and most overlooked place to start. Plenty of sensitive stomachs in this breed turn out to be sore mouths that nobody connected.
Megaesophagus in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs:
Megaesophagus in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs is a medical disorder characterized by an abnormally large esophageal pocket (distention). This abnormally distended esophageal pocket collects the recent meal and, in doing so, prevents it from reaching its normal destination, your bulldog stomach….Read More
The order I would want here is: find the cause, treat the cause, then support the gut. Not the other way around. A probiotic handed over instead of a stool sample only delays the answer, and on a page listing this many possible causes I would rather say so plainly than sell you something early.
Once a cause has been identified and dealt with, or where your veterinarian has looked properly and found nothing specific, supporting the flora is a reasonable thing to do and this is the range built for it. It may help settle things over a good few weeks. If the issue is mainly stool consistency rather than the flora, the Perfect Poop formula is the narrower tool for that job. And if his breath is the real complaint, the honest answer is that no supplement addresses a diseased mouth: that is the dental page, not this one.
See the probiotic and digestion 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.
Why does my Bulldog have such appalling wind?
He throws up undigested food. What does that actually mean?
Is a sensitive stomach simply normal for the breed?
Should I try a grain free or a raw diet?
His breath is awful. Is that coming from his stomach?
How long should I give a new food before deciding it did not work?
If I only do one thing first, what should it be?
More Help from Dr. Kraemer
Each of these has a page of its own, and the dental ones are worth reading even if you came here about the other end.
- Dental and Periodontal Disease in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Gingivitis and Gum Disease in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Megaesophagus in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Giardia Infection in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
- Food Allergy in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs
References
- Periodontal Disease in Small Animals, Merck Veterinary Manual
- Dental Disorders of Dogs, Merck Veterinary Manual
- Disorders of the Stomach and Intestines in Dogs, Merck Veterinary Manual
- Malabsorption Syndromes in Small Animals, Merck Veterinary Manual
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